Single-session play is the easiest way to experience the Jackrealms Game System. The framework presented for the Jackrooms is simple and direct, giving the players a clear goal and extra opportnities for their characters to prepare.
For a single-session game, the dealer will usually have one stack of eight chips called the Escape Stack. This stack represents the teams progress towards escaping the Jackrooms as well as the activities of its denizens along the way. If the players present have played multiple times or if you have a team of five or more players, you should consider adding a second stack of four or six chips to represent a secondary objective. The most common secondary objective will be to evade one of the Jackrooms' denizens as it pursues them from space to space, and some of these denizens are detailed in the descriptions of the spaces they occupy. When setting a secondary objective you may select a particular denizen for it to represent. Alternatively, you could use the denizen detailed in the first space the team explores, having it continue its pursuit as they advance.
The Jackrooms is a space of infinite emptiness, and it is not difficult to find a corner of it to curl up in for an hour or so. After each scene, allow the team to take a round of downtime before they begin gathering information for the next scene. As the team performs their activities, keep track of how many successful and failed actions are played out (the Rest downtime does not cause an action to be performed and is not considered as a success or failure). If the number of successes is greater than the number of failures, remove one chip from the dealer's stack to represent the team's preparations making their way forward easier. If the number of failures is greater than the number of successes, add one chip to the dealer's stack to represent failed preparations consuming their resources and making the way forward harder. If the successes and failures are equal, do not change the stack.
Gathering Information works exactly as stated in the Mechanical Foundations. Each scene will be briefly described in an at-a-glance manner by the dealer, then the players will be allowed to gather info before stakes are set.
Characters in single-session play do not gain experience or advance their abilities, and they can only add equipment to their playbook by scrounging for it during downtime.