The author's guide
Where the words are
Look in this order, and stop when you have the answer:
ledger forms FORM: a form's spelling, its slots, and a line on what it means (ledger forms deal,ledger forms auto).ledger formswith no form lists every form and word. A spelling it doesn't list is not the language's, however natural it reads: check before you write it. forms.md is the same list as a page, each form with an example from the kernel's content and the file and line it stands at.- The nearest example: the game's own content first, then the kernel's
content\cookbook\(each mechanic a.ledgerand its.play). The kernel'scontent\v2\is a port of another engine's content: its spellings load, but don't learn a form's meaning from it. design\by topic, in the kernel's checkout, when the meaning or the moment is the question: the index below.design\README.mdis the way into the folder: its files in reading order, and how to read the history they cite.
A spelling that loads is not a meaning that holds. When a form's line leaves the meaning open (do two percents add? when does an auto first fire?), write a play that pins it and read its result, then write what you found in your notes.
The index: a question, and the section that answers it
| The question | design\ |
|---|---|
| What an archetype, an ability, an effect, a stat and a pool are | 02-concepts.md |
| When something happens: ticks, the queue, before and after, the order inside a moment | 03-time.md |
| Who gets the credit for a hit, and what a chain is | 04-chains.md |
| How numbers round, and percents | 05-numbers.md |
| How a value is worked out, and when a formula is read | 06-values.md |
| How an effect lasts, stacks, ends, modifies, blocks; auras | 07-effects.md |
| Piles, hands, decks: items out of play | 08-out-of-play.md |
| An ability's targets, costs, cooldowns, refusals; an open choice | 09-abilities.md, 10-order-inputs.md, 11-places.md |
| Windups, channels, charges, flights, projectiles | 13-activations-record.md to 18-activations-limits.md |
| An actor made, destroyed, become another; what a death's rule reads | 19-lifecycles.md |
| What the space answers (distance, within, facts), and what stays the game's | 20-space.md |
Content files, templates and many definitions written from one (from), a play's sources | 21-content.md |
| The journal and its receipts | 22-receipts.md |
| Saves, restore, a reload | 23-save.md |
| Previews, forecasts, and who may see what | 24-previews.md |
| The slot, and the model in a page | DESIGN.md, 01-model.md |
From ledger-v3's guide/ledger-author/words.md, last changed 2026-11-02.