ÆonShift was intentionally designed to offer a high degree of complexity with an easy learning curve. It incorporates relatively straightforward game mechanics, an innovative approach to turn order, and a diverse array of skills and traits for character customization. Its key features include:

• The use of two ten-sided dice for most skill checks, ensuring a consistent feel to the game’s random number generation.
• Character turns progressing asynchronously using a ’cool-down’ style system to determine the time intervals between actions.
• There are no classes or levels. Instead, players gain advancement points (AP) through gameplay, which can be spent to enhance a character's statistics or acquire new abilities and traits.
• ÆonShift offers multiple entry points into the game. You can choose to purchase a setting book, which provides a complete set of rules tailored to that specific setting. Alternatively, you can opt for rulebooks that cover a variety of mechanics, allowing you to create your own setting that aligns with those rules.

The core mechanics of the ÆonShift system are designed to be setting-agnostic. This means that you can use it for anything from classic sword-and-sorcery adventures to grand space opera epics or gritty cyberpunk scenarios. However, it was designed from the viewpoint of urban-fantasy cyberpunk - a world in which magic and technology uneasily co-exist, where mythical creatures have returned and roam the streets next to chromed-up cyborgs, where life is cheap, but cybernetics are not.