3. Resources

3.1 Currency#

The primary economic resource. Held in the player's Treasury and replenished each turn through Homeworld, Planetary Location and Surface Location income (and occasionally abilities of some cards). Used to pay the deploy cost of most cards (Locations, Spacecraft, Devices, Ground Units, Maneuvers, Storylines) and to pay other in-game costs. Treasury can never go below 0. If a player is required to pay a cost and that cost is greater than the currency in a player's Treasury, that player's Treasury goes to zero. A player cannot deploy cards or spend currency greater than what is in their Treasury.

Treasury maximum. A Treasury has a hard cap of 20 Currency. Any Currency a player would gain above 20 is lost. The cap applies to every source of Currency without exception, including Income, card effects and the end-of-Act catch-up (§9.4). This is a state-based condition and is checked continuously.

3.2 Votes#

The political resource. Printed on Locations, Characters, Ground Units and other cards. Vote is used in two ways (§6):

• Standing Vote is the total counted from the cards you control (§6.3). It is never spent. It decides political control, the declaring of Statutes and the outcome of a Motion of Repeal. Characters and Ground Units count toward it only while readied.
• Committed Votes are spent: to push Galactic Factors (§6.2) and to pay costs printed on cards. Activating a card to commit its Votes uses that card's action for the turn — and, because the card is now activated, removes its Vote from your standing Vote until it readies. Committed Votes cannot be banked across phases; the Resource Pool empties at the end of each phase (§6.4). Votes can be added as a Fast Maneuver.

The same printed number serves both. Spending it on the Factors costs political weight for the rest of the turn cycle.

3.3 Story Points (SP)#

The game's score. Story Points are counted at the end of each Act from the position on the board (§15); they are not accumulated event by event during play, with two exceptions, both self-inflicted: an empty Treasury (§16) and causing your own Character to Fall or be destroyed (§8.12).

The player with the most Story Points wins the Act. Story Points then reset to zero and the next Act begins. A player who wins two Acts wins the game, so a game runs two or three Acts.

Story Points are public.

Irreversibility of Act transitions. Act transitions are one-way. Once an Act has ended, the game advances to the next Act and remains there.

3.4 Character Points (CP)#

Tracked per Character (and per any other permanent with a printed starting CP value. Each Character has a starting CP value directly indicated on the card itself. CP rises when the Character performs aligned actions (printed on the card as triggered abilities) and falls when they perform misaligned actions (governed by the Penalties block printed on the card). A Character reduced to 0 CP is destroyed (§7.3), unless Morality Penalties took it there, in which case a Prime Character Falls (§7.4). CP can also be spent on activated abilities printed on the Character card. There is no maximum CP — a Character may accumulate CP without limit. CP cannot go below 0.

Some cards may require CP costs to be paid. Those costs may be paid from any number of permanents you control, divided as you choose. When a card or effect requires payment of N CP, the total may be drawn from one or more permanents you control in any combination (e.g., 2 CP could be paid as 2 from one Character, or 1 from two Characters). Note any ability that a Character has printed on the card in the form of "-X CP: <ability text>" indicates the CP must be paid by that Character's available CP. Those abilities can only be played once per turn as a slow maneuver.

3.5 Activation State#

Some cards in play can be "activated" (rotated sideways) to indicate they have acted this turn. Activated cards are readied (rotated back to the normal upright position) during the Ready Phase. Activation is the principal limit on action density — a card that has activated cannot activate again until readied.

3.6 Hand Size#

Players draw one card during their Draw Phase each turn and discard down to seven cards at the End Phase if they hold more.

3.7 Exploration Vector (EV)#

EV is a non-persistent Resource generated by activating a permanent that prints an "Add N EV" ability and is added to the controller's Resource Pool, where it empties at the end of each Phase like Votes.

3.8 Resource Pool#

See §6.4. The Resource Pool is the unified, turn-bounded home of all non-persistent Resources (Votes and EV).