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Character creation The character generation process is fairly simple. You’ve got nine attributes. The first eight are mandatory: Academics, Aim, Appearance, Muscle, Reflexes, Toughness, Will, and Wits. The ninth attribute, Luck, is optional and only comes into play if the game master wants to use it. All attributes start at 3 and the player has 6 points to improve them. In addition, the player may decrease one attribute to improve another. You've got complete control over how your character turns out.
Each attribute produces a Base Attribute Modifier (BAM for short). This number represents the chance a character has to succeed when performing an action. Each attribute has several skills under it. The number of points you have to distribute among these skills depends on the attribute’s BAM, so if you’ve created a character that is smart but weak you’ll have more points to improve your Academic skills than your Muscle skill. The number of skill points you’ve given a skill are added to your BAM when making a skill check.
Game Mechanics Æther is a percentage based system. When a character makes a skill check the game master first assigns a difficulty to it. The player rolls the percentage dice, adds his BAM and skill bonus (if any). The GM can rule that some skills are impossible without proper training. This allows the GM a good deal of flexibility For example, History is an Academic skill. Even if a character has no skill points assigned to History he can still try to recall information. If your Academics BAM is 30, then you add 30 to the roll. If a character has points assigned to that skill then he adds those points as a bonus, plus the GM can lower the difficulty of the skill check should he deem it appropriate. Characters with high BAM ratings can even specialize in certain aspects of a skill.
The combat system attempts to be realistic, and thus is one that most players will either really like or totally hate. Each round is divided into ten 1 second increments. Your character gets a certain number of actions per round based on his Reflex score. Some actions require the whole round, others can be done during the character’s turns. There is a table you’ll need to consult to determine when you’ll be able to act. A character with a Reflex of three, for example, will be able to go on increments 2, 6, and 9. A character with a Reflex of 20, a score far above the normal human maximum and one that can only be achieved through extraordinary means, can act every increment (10 actions per round!). This system sounds intimidating, but since combat rarely lasts long it isn’t as bad as it sounds. Still, if this sounds like something you’d rather not deal with it is not too hard to make up a set of house rules to get around it. Why does combat go quickly? I’ll get to that in a moment.
In order to determine what a character’s chances of hitting something are you need to factor in a variety of things such as the target’s size, cover, defensive ability and other modifiers to determine what that attack’s target number will be. Then roll the d100, add your BAM and skill rating for the weapon you are using and hope to beat the target number. Like determining when you’ll act in a round it sounds worse than it is.
So far you may think the combat system for Æther sounds unnecessarily complex. It does require some number crunching, but this is offset by how Æther handles damage. There are two types of damage in this game: soft and hard. Soft damage is generally not fatal and comes from blunt weapons and unarmed attacks. Hard damage is the kind that will get you killed. As stated before Æther tries to aim for realism. The game uses life points to measure health. Characters have a number of life points equal to their Toughness score. When a character reaches 0 life he needs to make a Physical Resistance roll to stay conscious. He can still act, but with a penalty. The penalty gets worse when the character’s life is below 0 to an amount equal to negative the character’s toughness. Once the character’s life is equal to double his negative toughness score he dies. And the more banged up you are the longer it takes to recover. Unless your character has a high Toughness score and is wearing body armor it is possible for a character to pass out after taking a couple of hits. Some players will no doubt be turned off by the potential lethality of the system. The way I see it the system discourages the shoot first, ask questions later approach to gaming.
Setting One of the places Æther really shines is its chapters on campaigning and its setting. It includes a couple of well written chapters on creating and running campaigns and a good selection of generic non-player characters. My favorite part of the book aside from the character creation system is the chapter dedicated to Wellstone City, an island described as being just off the coast between Louisiana and Texas. The chapter describes the history of the city from colonial times through the present day. The island has a population of six million people and is divided into 17 boroughs. Each section gives a detailed history and overview of the borough and one or two notable locations. The book ends with a brief chapter on some of the organizations active in Wellstone City and a sample scenario. The setting alone is good enough to be sold separately.
Final verdict I do have a couple of things to complain about with Æther, but they are fairly minor. First, the artwork is good but I would have liked it if there was more of it. The second complaint is the number of melee weapons listed in the book. The firearms section is pretty extensive. Not quite as much as D20 Modern, but still a good variety. The melee weapons section only covers the basics: a few types of swords, knives, a couple types of axes and some improvised weapons. It would have been nice to see some martial arts weapons and other staple weapons like polearms or quarterstaves. Overall though, Æther is a solid system with an interesting setting and a lot of potential for a modern era campaign.
