For the Conquerors and Kings, I'm pleased to share two new character classes (the corsair and the priestess of Naurivus), three new spells, and six new options for shaman totem animals. Enjoy!
P.S. Do you think "Pirates of the Flowering Isles" or "Pirates of the Syrnasos" is a better name?
2024-02-25 23:44:29 +0000 UTC View PostI have lately begun development of a "saltbox" campaign for ACKS II based on the Syrnasos Islands. In working on that campaign, I came to realize that a number of monsters -- primarily sea creatures -- were "missing" from the ACKS II Monstrous Manual.
Accordingly I set out to create them. The new monsters are:
My question for you, patrons, is as follows. Which of the following courses of action would you most prefer to see:
1. These monsters are simply added to the ACKS II Monstrous Manual.
2. These monsters are provided as a bonus download PDF with ACKS II MM, teasing an upcoming maritime-focused sourcebook.
3. The monsters are simply restricted to Patreon until the maritime sourcebook.
Each of these has slightly different marketing implications and of course y'all are my market!
Your Royal Majesties, the time for our monthly chat is at hand. Join me tomorrow at 2PM ET.
2024-02-25 01:17:05 +0000 UTC View PostYour Royal Majesties, the time for our monthly chat is at hand. It's the first chat of the New Year! I am continuously shocked at how fast 1:1 time passes.
My friends! It is I, Sürcaneus of Cyfaraun. I know that it has been many weeks since you have last heard from me, for which my apologies are profuse; I was invited to participate in a mushroom beer festival and, well, I don't much remember the last few weeks.
In any case, I assure you that my out reach today is worth your attention. You see, when I came to my senses in my quarters at Azen Radokh, I found clutched in my hand a few pages from a new tome, entitled BEFORE ALL OTHERS, which claims to be a "Cyclopedia of Elven Civilization."
Hmmmph! Imitation is the highest form of flattery so I am course unruffled. Indeed, whether this work is intended in homage or parody of my own ground-breaking and award-winning cyclopedia of dwarven civilization, it is too soon to say. The writing style of the author is certainly familiar to me but I am not prepared to yet say who I believe the author to be.
In any case, I have transmitted the document to you according to the usual sorcerous channels, which I confess I still do not yet understand.
2024-01-16 03:41:18 +0000 UTC View PostFriends, Aurans, Countrymen,
As I mentioned in my last update, my plan for the Adventurer tier of the Patreon is going to be to slowly update everything to ACKS II.
Today I am delighted to share with you the first draft of what will be an ongoing process of updating Domains at War: Battles.
The updated rules attached here include the revised rules for calculating battle rating and wages; the revised Unit Characteristics based on the troop types in ACKS II RR; and a number of rules designed to better reflect the disadvantages of non-sapient creatures and light troops that cannot hold ground.
Over the next month or two I will be updating the spells to reflect the new ACKS II spells as well as the Exotic Troops to reflect the Monstrous Manual. In addition, I hope to add additional commentary with regard to the rules questions that have arisen due to Mike Gai's digital playtesting of the D@W:B virtual tabletop.
Friends, Aurans, Countrymen,
It's 2024. That means we don't live in the past or the present anymore. We live in the future. And therefore it's time to talk about the future of this Patreon.
Over the last year I shifted this Patreon from monthly articles to a new workflow built around the release of ACKS II. Adventurers received monthly updates on ACKS II, Conquerors received semi-monthly and exclusive updates, and Kings received real-time and exclusive updates. The response to this from the community was very positive, as evidenced by the growth of the Patreon, and it was also very helpful to me as a game designer.
Now that ACKS II is crowdfunded, I have to decide how to proceed with this Patreon. While I could (and eventually will) return to the Axioms approach, I am hesitant to immediately do. The last thing I want is for the release of ACKS II to be accompanied by a stack of Axioms articles, returning us to the widespread chaos of ACKS I!
Accordingly here's what I've decided to do:
1. I will be gradually updating ACKS I material for ACKS II. Adventurers, Conquerors, and Kings will enjoy monthly updates each month with those updates. This will enable you to more easily use any and all ACKS I material with ACKS II, and pave the way for updated versions of those products.
2. I have begun work on the elf book, tentatively titled Before All Others: The Cyclopedia of Elven Civilization. Pointy-eared Conquerors and Kings will enjoy monthly updates from the Cyclopedia. Gruff bearded Conquerors and Kings will endure monthly updates from the Cyclopedia.
3. I am working on a number of additional projects, including fleshing out the Auran Empire lore and developing some other genres for ACKS. Kings will get updates on those as they occur and real-time updates on everything above.
I hope that the continuation of the approach I've taken for the last year meets with your approval. I am eternally grateful for the support I've received from all of you over the last 12 months that has made ACKS II successful, and I hope you'll continue on as we build out the world and resources for the new system.
Your Royal Majesties, the time for our monthly chat is at hand. It's the last chat of the year and it'll be a doozy. We will discuss decisions made about the future of this Patreon (yay!) and do a deep dive into the new spreadsheets for Domains at War!
2023-12-30 20:26:57 +0000 UTC View PostMerry Christmas, patrons! It's time for our December update. Since the ACKS II Kickstarter has ended, offering you the ACKS II Kickstarter playtest rules isn't enough! You demand more, and I provide more. Today I provide you with an update to the rules for calculating Battle Rating.
Why an update? Well, it's complex....
Lanchester's laws are mathematical formulae for calculating the relative strengths of military forces. When the weapons used by military forces can only attack one specific target per weapon, Lanchester calculated that the power of such a force as proportional to its number of troops. This is known as Lanchester’s linear law. However, when the weapons used by military forces can attack multiple targets and can be attacked from multiple directions, Lanchester calculated that the power of such a force is proportional not to the number of troops it has, but to the square of the number of troops. This is known as Lanchester's square law.
The battle rating (BR) formula in Domains at War: Battles Chapter 8 implemented Lanchester’s square law. (Specifically, battle rating was derived from unit hit points and unit attacks, both of which were derived from unit size, such that the square of unit size drove battle rating.) Unfortunately, Lanchester’s square law does not accurately reflect the relative strength of military forces in the ACKS battlefield. Nor, however, is the ACKS battlefield the strictly linear exchange of the linear law. The correct scaling actually lies in between Lanchester’s square and linear laws.
Another error in the original BR formula was that it treated armor class (AC) as a linear modifier to battle rating. However, given that most troops have attack throws of 9 to 11 in most circumstances, AC is not at all linear in its effects. When measured by a unit’s expected damage over time, the difference between AC 0 and AC 1 is very minor while the difference between AC 8 and 9 is huge!
Since the ACKS II Monstrous Manual presents battle ratings for every creature in ACKS II, I decided to develop a new equation for battle rating that would better match the underlying reality of the game world. As with the original rules found in Domains at War: Battles, this material is quite mathematically complex. Calculating BRs using this formula is not a process intended to be undertaken during play, and is best done using an appropriately-programmed Excel spreadsheet. We offer it primarily for Judges who like to see “how the sausage got made”.
2023-12-26 00:43:00 +0000 UTC View PostYour Royal Majesties, the time for our monthly chat is at hand. The topic will be future of this Patreon (in a good way, don't worry). I'll speak to you all then!
2023-11-20 20:04:08 +0000 UTC View PostConquerors, here's the latest update to the Judges Journal. As with the Revised Rulebook, I have formatted it as a Bookmarked PDF.
2023-11-03 19:39:11 +0000 UTC View PostAdventurers, here's the latest version of the ACKS II Revised Rulebook. The new classes are not entirely finished (I'm still working on Witches) but I didn't want to delay too long because I know you are all eager to see the latest updates.
I've released this version in bookmarked PDF. Hopefully I have not failed my Knowledge (MS WORD) proficiency throw.
2023-11-03 19:34:53 +0000 UTC View PostYour Royal Majesties, the time for our monthly chat is at hand. The topic will, of course, be the abundant love and goodwill with which the success of ACKS II has met in the broader OSR community. I'll speak to you all then!
2023-10-28 19:10:07 +0000 UTC View PostConquerors, today I have a new ACKS II Judges Journal for your review.
This is a MAJOR update:
Enjoy!
Hello, Adventurers! Today I have an update of the ACKS II Revised Rulebook. I also have a complete set of mortal wounds and tampering with mortality tables for your use. Those are available at the Dropbox links below.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fo4vqa3wta7d1qc/AABpka-_ic-rKJf12NddB7_Ga?dl=0
Patch Notes for v116
Your Royal Majesties, the time for our monthly chat is at hand. The topic will, of course, be the forthcoming ACKS Imperial Imprint. We will unite tomorrow, September 31st (cough ok October 1st) at 2:00PM.
2023-09-30 18:06:28 +0000 UTC View PostHey Conquerors! Here's an update to the Judges Journal. Progress continues!
2023-09-20 21:30:18 +0000 UTC View PostMinor updates in this version of the Judge's Journal. In particular you will see a revised approach to dealing with random encounters that now affords more likelihood of "civilized" encounters and less likelihood of "monster' encounters depending on territory classification, that is properly tuned to the population density of hexes.
There have also been minor updates to the blast, death, and wall spell rules that explain which spells can deal which damage types.
2023-09-02 20:43:51 +0000 UTC View PostHello Adventurers, Conquerors, Kings, Emperors, and other associated Patrons -
Here is v109 of the ACKS II Revised Rulebook. Recent changes are highlighted in yellow.
Your Royal Majesties, the time for our monthly chat is at hand. The topic will, of course, be the forthcoming ACKS Imperial Imprint. While normally we would unite on August 27th, due to events occurring this weekend [Mrs Archon birthday] I have decided to hold it on August 30th at 6:30PM. See you then.
2023-08-25 22:52:19 +0000 UTC View PostFriends, Aurans, countrymen - I give you v105 of the ACKS II Revised Rulebook. This update is relatively small as we are very close to finalizing the text. A few changes to note:
- "ordinary damage" has been renamed "mundane damage". This re-labeling avoids confusion with natural language references to the ordinary damage that an attack does in the absence of e.g. a backstab.
- "magic damage" has been renamed "extraordinary damage". This re-labeling emphasizes that, while the underlying metaphysics and physics of the fantasy setting are ubiquitously magical (e.g. giants that violate the square-cube law walk the earth, creatures that couldn't fly can fly), without necessarily being "magic" in the sense of spells-and-items.
- The mechanics by which creatures deal mundane vs extraordinary damage have been clarified. The overall mechanic is similar to that in ACKS I, except that animals need to be of at least Huge size as well as 5HD+ in order to deal extraordinary damage.
- A number of classes have had their proficiency lists revised to grant them access to more interesting proficiencies.
- A missing spell, Life Transfer, has been added to the spell descriptions.
- The explorer's range of familiar territory is now keyed off "settled terrain" rather than "civilized terrain." This avoids the absurd outcome of an explorer only being able to go 24 miles from Cyfaraun without losing his class powers. (Oops)
- A large and thorough editing and proofreading effort by Arbrethil has eliminated the numerous typos and errors in the text. (Thanks Arbrethil!)
- A comprehensive review of template encumbrance by Piisami which discovered a number of weighty errors (sorry) in the encumbrance math. (Thanks Piisami!)
2023-08-08 02:31:11 +0000 UTC View PostYour Royal Majesties, the time for our monthly chat is at hand. The topic will, of course, be the forthcoming ACKS Imperial Imprint.
2023-07-28 04:46:53 +0000 UTC View PostConquerors - I didn't make as much progress on the Judges Journal this month as I'd hoped. It turned out that in order to finish the JJ I had to finish the Monstrous Manual and the Monstrous Manual has been, well, a monster.
Friends, Aurans, countrymen - I give you v100 of the ACKS II Revised Rulebook. Changes are marked in Yellow Highlight. The new rules include foraging for firewood, three new weather conditions, more poisons, etc.
While there a few missing spells (reserved for backers) this book is essentially complete.
Your Majesties,
Here is the latest and greatest draft of the Monstrous Manual. This is very much an "in progress" draft so do not necessarily take anything as final. There has been massive progress since the last draft.
As of v29, the book got so long and complex in its formatting that I had to spread it out between multiple different files. I apologize for the inconvenience. My poor computer was running out of battering rams trying to handle the old file.
Your Royal Majesties, the time for our monthly chat is at hand. The topic will, of course, be the forthcoming ACKS Imperial Imprint.
2023-06-22 17:58:40 +0000 UTC View PostYour Majesties,
Here is the latest and greatest draft of the Monstrous Manual. This is very much an "in progress" draft so do not necessarily take anything as final. Nevertheless it should give you a good illustration of how we'll be proceeding!
2023-06-05 18:56:56 +0000 UTC View PostConquerors, Kings, Emperors!
Attached please find the latest draft of the ACKS II Judges Journal v26. This book is considerably less complete than Revised Rulebook but nevertheless chok full of good things.
Friends! Aurans! Countrymen. I am now releasing version 98 of the ACKS II Revised Rulebook to all Adventurer, Conqueror, and King tier backers.
ACKS II RR is a fully-playable game ready for you to introduce into your campaigns. While some minor edits remain, the number of "bugs" is probably less than the number of bugs in the extant ACKS I product line.
This month, Conqueror tier backers will also get access to the current draft of the Judges Journal - look for a separate post.
This month, King tier backers will also get access to the current draft of the Monstrous Manual and of course will continue to enjoy the ability to shape and guide the ongoing development of the game in the Chat of Kings channel and monthly chat.
Your Royal Majesties, the time for our monthly chat is at hand. The topic will, of course, be the forthcoming ACKS Imperial Imprint.
2023-05-25 22:02:25 +0000 UTC View Post