Running Sessions

Session structure

A session is built around encounters, as described under Aethyr Points:

• About three encounters per session. An encounter is a challenge the party faces and overcomes, taking roughly an hour of real play time.
• Three kinds of encounter: exploration, social and combat.
• Time that isn’t the encounter doesn’t count toward its length. Reviewing rules, discussing plans and downtime logistics are valuable, but they don’t make an encounter longer when you decide its Aethyr Point award.
• Boon Points close the session. At the end of each session, players and the GM give out Player-Given Boon Points.

Table conventions

Combat can take a long time. These conventions help keep everyone involved and turns moving quickly. They are suggestions for the table, not rules: agree as a group which ones you use.

Roll together

On your turn, roll as many of your dice at once as you can manage: the attack and its damage, or every attack of a multiattack. Digital dice and macros that total results speed this up further.

Plan ahead

Think about what you’ll do before your turn comes round. The GM names who is up next at the start of each turn, so that player has warning. If your turn comes and you aren’t ready, you can delay your turn.

Speak briefly in combat

A round lasts about six seconds, so on each turn a character can say about that much: roughly 15 to 25 words. Speaking on someone else’s turn uses that round’s words. Advice to other characters about what to do is given in character and counts toward the same limit. The combat rules themselves only limit speech to brief utterances, so this is a stricter option.

Time turns

A timer can run on each turn, with its length set by the group from how long everyone would like turns to take. It’s a reminder, not a penalty: some turns will run longer. When a rule needs looking up or discussing, pause the encounter, and that time doesn’t count toward anyone’s turn.

Let decisions stand

Combat is chaotic for the characters in it, and neither they nor the GM’s creatures will always make the best move. A choice that turns out badly isn’t rewound: once a creature has acted, the action is final.

Coordinate tactics

The GM prepares their creatures’ tactics: their abilities, the situations they suit and how they work together. The party can do the same. Know your own character’s strengths and weaknesses and those of your companions, and plan how you’ll work together: in character, as a decision tree for your abilities, or by discussing roles out of character. As the party gains levels, the GM can run trial combats or tactics sessions so players can try out what their characters can do together.