Elements

An element is one specific thing your game cares about. If the framework is the type, the element is the value. The half-elf bard Lirien is an element. The goblin patrol on the road is an element. The town tavern is an element. Each one sits on a framework and inherits its rules.

An element stores its raw inputs (race, class choices, ability scores, owned items) and pulls everything else (saves, attack bonuses, spell DCs, AC) from the framework on demand. Because state is rule-driven instead of snapshot-driven, framework changes propagate automatically. Bump a class feature in the framework and Lirien's saves recompute the next time someone opens her sheet.

What an element holds

An element record is small. It has only what cannot be derived:

• Identity. Name, portrait, the framework it sits on, who owns it.
• Inputs. The raw values the framework's rules act on.
• Overrides. Hand-set values that bypass the framework calculation. Useful for a magic item that breaks the usual rule, or a GM ruling that should stick.
• Ledger entries. The list of modifiers currently in effect on this element. Add-and-subtract entries from equipped items, multiplicative entries from buffs, temporary entries that fall off when a spell ends. The framework re-reads the ledger whenever it derives a value, so equipping a +2 cloak of resistance bumps every save without anyone editing the saving-throw fields by hand.

Authors never write this record directly. The element wizard collects the inputs when the element is first created; later edits to the sheet write back into the same record. The reason it stays small is the framework: every value that can be computed from the inputs is computed on demand, not stored.

Characters are a special kind of element

Characters get all the framework-and-ledger machinery plus three extra contracts:

• Player ownership. A character belongs to a player who can edit it without GM intervention. The GM can still edit any character in the campaign.
• Sidebar pinning. A player's primary character is pinned in the live session sidebar so they can roll, edit notes, and check state without opening anything.
• Initiative and chat attribution. Characters drop into the turn tracker by default, and rolls fired from a character's sheet show the character's name and portrait in the chat log.

Other elements

Every other thing in your game world is an element without those character extras. The decision when you build something custom is whether a player drives it day-to-day or not. Common non-character elements:

• NPCs and monsters. Have stats, react to play, but are not pinned to one player.
• Items. Magic swords, potions, custom artefacts. Sit in a character's inventory or on a map until someone picks them up.
• Factions, locations, calendars, weather. State that affects a region or the whole world rather than a single character.

An element is bound to its framework

An element is created on one framework and stays on it for life. There is no convert or promote action — you cannot move an element to a different framework, because every value it derives depends on the rules of the framework it was built on. If you need the same subject on a different framework, create a new element on that framework.

Where to go from here

• If you have not read Frameworks yet, read that one first. Elements are easier to hold once the rule layer is clear.
• If you are about to build your first character, the Create a character how-to walks through the wizard end-to-end.
• For the layout layer that turns an element into something a player can read on screen, see Frames.