"The difference between a working starship and a drifting coffin? One good mechanic and a clean run of a bit of luck."

— Inscription on a Guild Mechanic's custom rig, Outer Sphere salvage yards

In the Rift-scarred void of the Starfall Galaxy, technology is survival—but it's never perfect. Cobbled-together systems, jury-rigged salvage, and Rift-corrupted circuitry mean that even the best gear can glitch at the worst moment. Your targeting system flickers and dies. Your cybernetic arm locks up mid-swing. Your drone companion stutters and jerks, servos grinding against corrupted code.

Glitching is the scavenger's curse, the mechanic's nightmare, and the android's existential dread. When your tech starts glitching, every action becomes a gamble—will your weapon fire, or will it seize? Will your armor's environmental systems hold, or will you choke on recycled air?

Guild engineers carry emergency bypass kits. Veterans learn to recognize the warning signs—the screen flicker, the servo whine, the split-second lag before catastrophic failure. In the endless dark between stars, when your gear glitches, you fix it fast—or you die slow.

The Glitching condition represents technological malfunction, system seizure, or cascade failure affecting creatures, objects, or equipment with the tech trait. Unlike simpler debuffs, Glitching creates escalating risk—a sticky condition that disrupts actions turn after turn, forcing characters to decide whether to push failing tech or take time to repair. It's mechanically similar to persistent damage but targets your action economy instead of your hit points.