Rules
Æther Jacks is a dice-based system using all die from 4 to 20-sided-dice. Most of the time you will spend as your Jack inside a dream so the rule set is mostly built around what your Jack can do in this dream.
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The Core of the Æther Jacks system are the 3 characteristics called "Æthers". they are hugely important to the game and influence all aspects of the game, these Æthers are Lucidity, Mentality and Empathy.
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This page takes you through the Æthers and the other 6 pillars to the rules which are:
Decision Making, Dream Hostility, Order and Chaos, Rounds, Conditions, and Waking Up.
Æthers
Æthers exist on a scale of -3 to +3 with your average Jack having 0 in all Æthers.
A positive number represents your Jack being better at tasks related to that Æther as well as being less vulnerable to conditions related to that Æther.
A Negative number represents your Jack struggling with tasks related to that Æther but more importantly, it shows a big vulnerability to conditions related to that Æther.
These same Æthers also apply to the Mark who's dream you are in and determine the strengths and weaknesses of the dream.
Lucidity
Lucidity represents a Jacks ability to control their own motion, bodily functions and appearance. Jacks that intend to dish out a lot of attacks in close combat or take a lot of hits value this Æther. It is also the main Æther involved in keeping a Jack in the dream.
Lucidity is important for shapeshifting as well, as it allows the Jack to easily change their own form but also be able to get their original form back again.
Decisive rolls relying on Lucidity are anything that involved the Jacks body. EG. Climbing things, Jumping things, Eating something gross, Breaking a door down with a weapon...
Marks with a strong Lucidity have fewer but more fleshed out occupants and find them easier to control, they may even have an Aura that carries the marks consciousness throughout the dream.
Mentality
Mentality represents the Jacks ability to manipulate their surroundings. Jacks who want to change the environment of the dream have high mentality. This could be changing how time passes in the dream, modifying objects, changing the weather, changing the setting or manipulating vehicles for your own purposes. Mentality can be really important for getting through puzzles to gain access to secret areas in a dream.
Decisive rolls relying on Mentality are anything that interacts with the environment or an object. EG. determining if a branch could hold your weight, lockpicking a door, solving a puzzle box, figuring out the controls to a draw bridge.
Mark’s with a high Mentality create large sweeping landscapes, intricate puzzles and elaborate buildings within their dreams. They may also have parts of their dreams that cannot be manipulated easily by the Jacks.
Empathy
Empathy represents a Jacks ability to read more deeply into the dream and gain more information from its Occupants. Jacks also have a better chance to have positive interactions with these Occupants and are more likely to win them over in non-combat interactions.
Empathy can also give the Jack the ability to control their own Occupants such and summoning familiars to your aid or taking control of the dreams Occupants. It is also essential for avoiding the dream's influence on the Jack.
Decisive rolls relying on Empathy are anything to do with interacting with Occupant, whether that is intimidating, persuading, bargaining or tricking them.
Marks with high Empathy have more resistance to their occupants being manipulated and have a larger chance of predicting the Jacks actions. They may have densely populated dreams filled with many Occupants that quickly recognise the intruding Jacks and begin working against them much faster.
Decision Making
In Æther Jacks, every Jack has the potential to do almost anything due to the nature of them being within a dream. This is where decision making comes in as dreams are tied to reality by expectations of how the dream should work. Interacting with the dream in ways that are tied to reality such as physical tasks or talking to occupants where chance is involved requires a decisive roll, where a 20-sided-die is rolled to determine if the interaction is a success or not.
When a Jack tries to manipulate and change the dream in a more surreal way, it is called Dream Weaving and also requires a decisive roll but with a few changes we'll come to later. Dream Weaving could be anything from using a wave of a hand to change the music on a juke box to creating a storm over the horizon.
These decisive rolls are also used whenever a Jack finds themself in a situation with a high level of risk.
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There are 5 potential outcomes for decisive rolls. A success, a success with a complication, a failure, an orderly success or a chaotic failure.
It is the difficulty of the decisive roll that will influence the likelihood of a success. This difficulty is chosen at the GMs discretion based on; the task the Jack is trying to complete, what the Jack is trying to Dream Weave, or the risky situation the Jack has found themselves in.
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Simple decisive rolls require a 3 or above to have a success, with each increase in difficulty, increasing this number by 3.
If a decisive roll is a success but the required number was only just reached, either by meeting the roll or being only 1 or 2 above, it leads to a success with a complication, where there is a small downside to the success.
There is always a small chance that something goes way too well (you roll a 20) leading to an orderly success or way too poorly (you roll a 1) leading to a chaotic failure.
Jack’s Æthers affect the difficulty of all decisive rolls. If a Jack has an empathy of +1, this makes all empathy related decisive rolls one difficulty easier. The reverse applies if they have negative Æthers.
In addition to being affected by a Jack's Æthers, Dream Weaving is also affected by the level of Chaos in the Dream and the Jack's Specialisation.
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Simple
Easy
Normal
Hard
Grim
Dire
Insane
3+
6+
9+
12+
15+
18+
20
20
17
14
11
10
6
3
0
Hostility Cap
Violent
Obstructive
Wary
Dream Start Point
Friendly
Allied
Peaceful Cap
Dream Hostility
Dream hostility is a measure of how the Mark is reacting to the Jacks intruding on their dream. The higher the hostility, the more aggressive the occupants will be towards the Jacks. In addition, the environment may also become more hazardous with traps and other environmental obstacles. The lower the hostility, the friendlier the occupants will be towards the Jack. Similarly, the environment may be more advantageous towards the Jacks.
Hostility is measured on the "Hostility Scale". The Hostility Scale goes from 0 to 20 with 0 representing a dream where all the occupants team up with the Jacks and 20 representing all the occupants attacking the Jacks on sight. Most dreams start at 10, but this depends on the Mark and their Natures.
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Most interactions are neutral interactions that don't change the scale. But:
If the Jacks have a positive interaction with the Mark's occupants, the Hostility Scale reduces by 1. This can also decrease when the Jacks do something generally kind toward the environment of the dream.
If the Jacks have a negative interaction with the occupants, the Hostility Scale increases by 1. If the Jacks attack the Mark's occupants the scale increases by 1. Getting into a fight increases the hostility further. The longer the fight draws out, and the number of occupants involved changes how much this increases.
Note that occupants don't immediately become violent if you attack them once.
The Hostility Scale also might increase from scene to scene as you get closer to more vulnerable parts of the Mark's dream.
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The most important points on the scale are at 17 when Occupants become violent and attack the Jacks on sight and at 3 when the Occupants will ally with the Jacks towards the Jack's goal.
Chaos and Order
A dream has a careful balance between Order and Chaos. The more orderly the dream is the more normal it looks to the point where it is hard to determine if it is a dream at all. The more chaotic the dream gets, the wilder and more unpredictable it becomes.
The balance of Order and Chaos is measured on the "Chaos Scale". The Chaos Scale goes from 0 to 20 where 0 is Pure Order, a dream indistinguishable from the real world and 20 is Pure Chaos, a dream containing pure energy where no forms can exist longer than a minute or so.
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The Mark has a base level of Chaos that their dream starts at (usually somewhere around 7). Every decisive roll that the Jack makes has a small chance to randomly move this scale up (chaotic failure) or down (orderly success). The GM may also decide to move this scale at their own discretion when Orderly or Chaotic actions are made by the Jacks.
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Dream Weaving gets affected a lot by the Chaos Scale. Every 2 increments above 10 decreases the difficulty of Dream Weaving by 1 as the dream becomes more pliable. Inversely, Every 2 increments below 10 increases the difficulty of Dream Weaving by 1 as the dream becomes more rigid.
Jacks also have abilities that interact with the Chaos Scale. To begin with, every ability has a chaotic effect and an orderly effect. These trigger when a 1,2 or 3 (chaotic effect) is rolled when using an ability or an 18,19, 20 (orderly effect) is rolled when using an ability. When these effects happen the Chaos Scale moves accordingly. (more on abilities later).
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When the Chaos Scale reaches 5, abilities always have their order effect happen, but abilities no longer change the Chaos Scale. When the chaos scale reaches 15, abilities always have their chaos effect happen, also no longer changing the Chaos Scale.
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Getting too high on the Chaos Scale matters a lot as both the Mark and the Jacks risk waking up as the dream gets too chaotic. Getting too low of the Chaos Scale may lead to your Jack no longer remaining lucid due to a too normal environment.
20
17
15
7
5
3
0
Pure Chaos
Wake checks
Chaos Effects
Dream Start Point
Order Effects
Wake checks
Pure Order
Rounds
Most of the time you will be working with your other players in a free-flowing dialogue, making the occasional decision roll to determine an outcome or using the occasional ability.
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Every now and then the game shifts into higher stakes periods of action where you start playing out 10 second periods of action called Rounds.
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Unlike turn based systems, each round all players discuss what their Jacks will do, then these will simultaneously be played out and described by their Jacks. but what can Jacks do?
During a round, a Jack can move. While moving they can do one other thing, they may Dream Weave, attack, use an ability, help a Jack by removing a basic condition, move more, or interact with something. As Jacks level they may learn to fit extra attacks into a round, increase how far they can move, or use multiple abilities in a round.
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Rolls for attacks, abilities and decisions are made before the round is played out. The round is then described by the GM collaboratively with the Players helping to describe what their Jacks do.
The occupants do not have their own round, instead they respond to whatever happened in the Jack's round. This response is determined by the Mark's Natures.
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Auras and Non-Player Jacks have their choices made at the start of the round but in secret and are then revealed and also played out simultaneously with the Player Jacks.
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Combat also has some specific rules explained more in the Rounds page.
Conditions
Conditions are the way damage and other effects are kept track of in Æther Jacks. Jacks are durable towards these conditions based on their Æther values. Basic and Permanent conditions are the most important and each is associated with an Æther.
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There are 3 Basic conditions, Pained, Hazed and Shaken. These conditions last until your Jack gets a break and stops acting in Rounds. There are also 3 Permanent conditions, Wounded, Glazed and Panicked. These do not go away when rounds end. These conditions effect your Æthers by reducing them by 1 each time they are received, oh yes, you can get multiples of the same condition and this keeps reducing your Æthers. These conditions match an Æther.
Pained and Wounded reduce Lucidity.
Hazed and Glazed reduce Mentality.
Shaken and Panicked reduce Empathy.
Jacks want to ensure their Æthers don't reach -4 as this always triggers something to happen. This makes Jacks with higher base Æthers more resistant to these conditions as it takes more conditions to reach -4.
If an Æther reaches -4, your Jack removes all the basic conditions from that Æther then receives a Permanent Condition for that Æther. This resembles your Jack having a second wind in that Æther but suffers a more permanent detriment for the rest of the dream. If an Æther reached -4 but there are no basic conditions to remove and instead there are only permanent conditions, you make a wake check. This resembles your Jack having no more strength in that Æther to stay in the dream and they have to fight to stay in the dream.
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Occupants are much easier to take out. If they have an Æther hit -4 due to permanent or basic conditions they do not remove conditions and are taken out of the fight by being Shattered (explode into little pieces), Forgotten (disappear entirely) or Disconnected (separate from the mark and stop moving) depending on the Æther.
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Conditions come in many more varieties as well and can affect your Jack or Occupants in any number of ways.
Waking Up
Waking up is how you lose your mission. Whether it is the Jacks waking up or the or the Mark waking up, it is never good.
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A Jack waking up removes them from the dream leaving the other Jacks to continue the dream without them.
A Mark waking up is very bad but is generally harder to do. If it does occur, the dream crumbles leaving the Jacks to try to achieve their goal before the dream descends into chaos.
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Waking Up happens when a Wake Check is failed.
Wake checks can occur due to 3 main causes.
1. The dream hits a point on the Chaos Scale that the Jack or Mark cannot cope. This is usually 17 or above, but this varies.
2. The Jack or Mark's Aura get enough permanent conditions to put them at -4 in any Æther.
3. The Jack or Mark's Aura are hit with an ability or fail a decision roll that results in an immediate Wake Check.
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A Wake Check is a D20 roll that is affected by the dream's Chaos Scale, the number of permanent conditions on the Jack and the Jacks starting Lucidity.
To not wake up you must roll the Wake Number or above:
Wake Number = Chaos Scale - 7 plus All Permanent Conditions minus Starting Lucidity x 3 minus Memento effect.
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EG. A Wake Check for a Jack with +1 starting Lucidity, a Chaos Scale of 14, with 5 Permanent conditions and a Memento that reduces all wake numbers by 2.
Wake number = (14 - 7) + 5 - (1 x 3) - 2 = 7
The Jack needs to roll 7 or above to not wake up.
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Rules in Depth
If you need some clarification for any rules, there are full pages for each pillar with more details and examples.
