Introduction
Æther Jacks is a cooperative roleplaying system for 2 to 6+ people with 1 person taking on the role of a Game Master (GM) and the others taking on the roles of players. Games are continuous and are intended to be run over weeks or even years but are split into sessions that last for a few hours.
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This system came about as a way to explore whether a dream setting lends itself to tabletop role playing games. It grew into a gaming experience with the aim of exploring the truly surreal and creative landscapes of dreams while giving some human consequences in a realistic, cyberpunk inspired future.
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It does this by putting the players in the roles of dream hijackers. These dream hijackers are referred to as Pilots and they pilot a dream persona called an Æther Jack or Jack for short. These Jacks infiltrate the dreams of a GM controlled person of interest called the Mark. Playing as a Jack, complete puzzles, battle dream creatures and talk to dream entities to unravel the riddles of the Mark's mind. Being the GM has you embody the Mark, create the puzzles, build the creatures and depict the personalities of the Mark's dream entities.
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Let's set the scene...
Earth 2121
Earth 2121 is a future of mega corporations overlooking billions of people struggling to get by, but with a drastic technological advancement that occurred 20 years prior. The Æther Link was created, a device that lets people enter the dreams of others. Soon after, the world made the dangerous realisation that people held their deepest, darkest and most valuable secrets out in the open while they dreamt.
This began the age of the Æther Jack. Soon ever company and criminal organisation had their own department dedicated to dream hijacking, these became known as Syndicates. With these syndicates came money and fame, leading to Pilots striving to learn more about dreaming. They tried to find new ways for their Jacks to manipulate dreams and to manipulate the people or creatures created by the Mark's mind, known as Occupants. They learned that not all Mark's dreams were equal, and some could embody Auras that were as powerful or stronger than the Jacks themselves.
Pilots spent the time in their own dreams training, here they developed unique Specialisations that could do anything from changing the weather in a dream, to growing to the size of a mountain, to summoning a dragon to fight with you.
It became an arms race, where everyone was trying to grow their strength in the Dream World, to get ahead in what pilots started to call the Overworld.
Pilots now use their power to make or break the greatest of corporations, solve crimes or simply strive for a better life somewhere in the Dream World.
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What does a Play session look like?
Most sessions revolve around a Mark being assigned to the Pilots by their Syndicate. The Pilots are given a goal for their Jacks to pursue within the dream, this could be trying to unveil a lost memory or as simple as finding a password known by the Mark. The Jacks then enter the dream of the Mark.
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The Jacks progress through the dream, exploring landscapes, solving puzzles, talking with Occupants, engaging in combat with Occupants, all the time learning more about the Mark and in turn leading you closer to finding your goal.
Exploring the dream is not without its risks as Marks often like to put up resistance and the dream has to maintain a careful balance between Chaos and Order. If things go wrong your Pilots can wake up early, kicking their Jack out of the dream and in the worst cases the Jack can get stuck in the dream forever.
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Assuming all goes well and the goal is achieved, the pilots wake up with some newfound information that they can pass onto their syndicate for a reward.
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That's the basics but it quickly gets wilder.
