THE AETHER ABOVE
And The Strange World Of Yesteryear
The Aether Above functions on what we are calling the Shards System. The basic parts are ability scores, skill bonuses, and skill checks, with the skill checks being broken down into two sections, opposed skill checks and static skill checks. The Shards System uses Shard Dice to determine the outcome of all skill checks.
SHARD DICE
The Shard Dice are standard, six sided dice that are used to determine success and failure of any skill check you attempt. There are four sides with a success logo, and two sides with a fail logo. Alternatively, a standard six sided die can be used, treating ones and twos as failures and three through six and successes.
SKILL BONUS
There are 30 skills in The Aether Above, each representing a task or undertaking that requires a bit more training or knowledge to complete. Each skill is broken down into six ranks, with each rank in a skill granting an increasingly larger skill bonus. This translates into guaranteed successes on the skill check.
ABILITY SCORES
The foundation for the Shards System starts with the four ability scores; power, agility, wit, and talent. These ability scores determine how many Shard Dice you will be rolling for your skill checks.
SKILL CHECK
The skill check is the fundamental aspect of how things are done in The Aether Above. The action starts the same as all other roleplaying games; the GM sets the scene, the players announce their intentions, and then the GM calls for the appropriate skill check. The difference in the shards system is that many times the players will be rolling against an opponent, this is called an opposed skill check. You will roll Shard Dice for your skill check, adding your rolled successes with your guaranteed success, the other player or NPC will roll their opposed skill check, adding successes the same way, and then the winner will be the one with the higher success total.
But what about interacting with inanimate objects? This is called a static skill check, and is determined by you rolling for successes, adding in your guaranteed successes, and then checking your success total against a static number, called the Difficulty Index Number or DIN for short, that the GM has set for the difficulty of the skill check.
