The elven sourcebook for ACKS II got a cover reveal today, and check it out over here:
https://arbiterofworlds.substack.com/p/before-all-others-covers-revealed
There is also a wealth of great information in that post, including details about the livestream, the collector's cover, and much more - this is worth reading for fans and new fans alike!
I love these conversion guides that come with games, and ACKS II includes a great one.
"If you are arriving here by way of D&D Fifth Edition or Pathfinder, then this book may seem a strange and surreal tome, alien and perhaps even old-fashioned. As an OSR product, it emulates the design ethos of the golden age of role-playing games from 1974 – 1983." - ACKS II System Compatibility Guide, page 1.
ACKS II is an OSR game, and like any of the games, such as Labyrinth Lord, Old School Essentials, Swords & Wizardry, AD&D, ADAD, Castles & Crusades, or the ...Without Number games - they all play so well together.
One aspect of ACKS II that I love is that it flips the whole descending versus ascending AC argument on its head. The game uses descending AC, where an AC of 0 is excellent, and gives characters a target number to hit, such as a 14+ on a d20. Then, AC is simply added to the attack throw. A higher AC is easier to hit, such as an AC 7 target, which is a +7 to the roll.
ACKS II also clarified the language using a throw versus a check, which makes the game far easier to grasp and play.
"The throw mechanic puts the emphasis on the character, rather than the situation. A player understands that if he has “Listening 14+” in most circumstances his character can eavesdrop on a roll of 14-20. If there is a modifier to this chance, it’s transparent to the player: “A penalty of -4 to your roll due to the loud noise”.
In contrast, systems such as 5E or Pathfinder, which use a fixed bonus against a variable difficulty, put the emphasis on the Judge’s decision as to the situation. In some games, the Judge is actually encouraged to calculate what chance he wants for success, and to then ‘customize’ the Difficulty accordingly (this is explicit in D&D 4E).
These sort of accounting illusions are unnecessary in ACKS. Where we believed a task should be equally challenging for characters of varying level, we simply use a type of throw that doesn’t change with level (such as the proficiency throw to bash open doors)."
- ACKS II System Compatibility Guide, page 1.
That explanation tells you all you need to know about ACKS II. The game isn't "grading on a curve" when it comes to high-level characters, and arbitrarily making all the locks in this castle DC 25 because there happens to be a higher-level adventure going on in here at the moment. Or else they would be too easy! Right? We can't have that.
I love how this example calls out D&D 4E for "massaging" the chance to succeed and "faking it" - well done. That game was so full of tricks and deceptions to make you feel more powerful than you actually were, such as the fireball spell, which was only valid as a "minion mop." That game was one of the largest shell games played in the hobby's history of D&D. In D&D 5E, they hid things a little better, but a lot did not change, especially getting weaker as you leveled, and fights still took forever.
A "Listening 14+" throw tells me precisely what my character can do, and gives me the odds right there. If the referee wishes to make it easier or more complicated, that is their decision.
That solid design ethos is baked into ACKS II, and the system will not let you down.
This game is not particularly challenging. The core concepts are the same as those of Old School Essentials and other games. To get started with ACKS II, begin by using the conversion guide and applying your existing OSR knowledge.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/autarch/before-all-others/
The prelaunch campaign for the Elven book for ACKS II is now live, so you'll be notified when it launches. These are great sourcebooks, so sign up to be one of the first to know and jump in.
ACKS II works as a dungeon game.
While a lot is said about the endgame options, and this is a strong and well-detailed part of the game, you don't really need to use it. ACKS II makes a fine dungeon-based game, and even more so when the Treasures book ships and is released soon.
The end-game content provides a wealth of campaign inspiration for the world around the characters. You could be searching for a lost tomb and wander into a regional war, or even a small-scale skirmish between two kingdoms that hate each other and are fighting over farmland. How do beast-men raiding parties work? Entering the Temple of Evil and Darkness nearby may be a lot more risky, considering a raiding camp is situated a few miles away and poses a constant threat to getting in and out with the treasure.
D&D has "wilderness encounters," but they are presented in a way that makes them appear as "random table results," and they function similarly to the random map encounters in a Final Fantasy video game. That double-rush sound effect plays, and the battle music kicks off.
Why are the beast-men here? Are they part of a bigger group? Do we usually see wyverns around here? Are there more giant ants in a nest somewhere? No, I rolled a 40. Please make some skill rolls or fight.
But as a dungeon game? ACKS II would do fine. This can be played at the low to mid levels without worrying about dominion building as a "hero game," and it would be a lot of fun.
I love my Castles & Crusades game. There is no better game for doing everything that 5E does, but fitting it all on a 4x6" index card and tossing the rest out. I saw a few posts on ACKS videos commenting that C&C is still a great game, and guess what, it is! Don't drop C&C because you have ACKS, since I would play C&C in the classic settings of Greyhawk and the Forgotten Realms, and be just as happy as I would in 5E. It feels close enough to the original game that it works, and it works very well.
And I love Troll Lord Games' business model, which is printed in the USA. They are building a new print shop factory and keeping jobs in this country. They are a fantastic group, ethical, and worth spending your gaming dollars with. They love the game and keep it for everybody.
Castles & Crusades kills any need for me to have any interest in 5E. It does the "D&D thing" well enough, and I do not notice the difference. If you want to play a game more like classic D&D, then C&C should be your jam. C&C is the D&D killer, and it was the last game Gygax was involved with. It is the true heir to the kingdom, where Wizards squandered its legacy and allowed the game to be tarnished by a mix of corporate interests and silly Internet psychology fads and memes, most of which have come and gone, but are now immortalized in the game.
C&C has maintained the course since its founding over 20 years ago, and the rules have remained unchanged across five D&D editions and various point versions. It costs a lot of money to rebuy your books every five years.
C&C, even without the OGL, is traditional. It feels like old-school AD&D and plays a lot easier. The characters are more expressive and fun. The SIEGE Engine drives the fun. Leveling means something. You grow in power to fantastic levels. You get that "high-level character" feeling here, and the optional rules are amazing. If you love C&C, there is no reason to switch.
If you like "what makes D&D, D&D," then stick with C&C. It does not change the formula too much, but improves it in every way, while keeping the things we love the way they are.
ACKS II is a different game. The focus at the higher levels is not "the most powerful monsters and biggest treasures," it is on domain-level play. You still get that high-level character feeling here, but you are more than just a hero. You are a possible conqueror and a future king. Your character can be a unit in a mass battle; you are that powerful.
Also, ACKS II is closer to its setting, a mythical "fall of the Roman Empire" setting of antiquity, where the lands are filled with chaos and strife. It is not your typical Dungeons & Dragons setting. It's sandbox play, starting in the dungeons and extending across domains. You can be a mad wizard and build a dungeon, luring in monsters and adventurers, and farming the dungeon for monster parts. Or farming adventurers. What the heck is this game? This is cool!
Found a thief's Guild? Build a kingdom? Run a pirate fleet? Be a merchant prince? Run a merchant fleet? Be a senator? Run a temple of good? Run a temple of evil? Do magic research? Build constructs? Breed monsters? Be mercenaries? Run a mercenary army? Fight in gladiatorial combat as a senator's champion? Work your way up the ranks and become a general? Be a spy or assassin? And the list of things to do in ACKS II goes on, and on...
Think of all these things as the "minigames" you get to do later on in Grand Theft Auto. Things open up, and hey, wow, I am sure having fun going out to get treasure so I can build my castle or hideout a little bigger. You may not want all these distractions, and you want your games to be more adventure-focused. While ACKS II can do that too, I see why you may want to stick with C&C.
Or play both, and have the best of both worlds.
ACKS II is like a traditional role-playing game that starts out exactly like you are used to, but slowly morphs into the macro-game of your dreams, be it a 4X build and conquer game, a merchant trading sim, a game of political intrigue, or a game about being a general and putting down rebellions. In this game, you can run a dungeon, explore the world on sailing ships, or live any other fantasy you have about the classic world. It goes beyond the dungeon and does all the things you imagined classic D&D could do, but the game never delivered rules for.
Where C&C focuses on the classic heroic adventures and dungeon crawling aspects of the game, ACKS II is like Breaking Bad meets Game of Thrones, with a little bit of GTA 5 in there in a Bronze Age setting. No other game lets you do this much "stuff" outside of the standard "find a dungeon and adventure" gameplay model of most OSR games, and that includes C&C.
Some may not want all this extra stuff! That is fine, C&C covers the basics and does a fantastic job.
I love both games for different reasons. It is also possible they co-exist, and you can use the ACKS II tables for C&C games. This is the OSR! Stuff works together here, and everyone plays well together.
The reasons I would play ACKS II instead of C&C?
If you were tired of dungeon crawls in 5E, you will still be weary of them in C&C. The system is far better, though, and you may rediscover the fun in C&C. If you want something more, then ACKS II deserves a look.
It's fun to watch other Kickster projects for different games, which include stretch goals for features that ACKS includes with the basic rules. Some of them are even in expansion books and should be considered a part of the core game. The goal is missed, and we wonder what could have been.
But, again, ACKS has them.
No stretch goals needed.
Tom's Game Table hits a home run with his video today on ACKS, giving an overview and comparison between ACKS II and D&D. Please like and subscribe to his channel, and watch the video the whole way through! Let's lift up our YouTube creators who provide good content and coverage for the games we love. Show the comments some appreciation, too, as every bit of interaction helps.
Here is a slightly cleaned-up part of the transcript to get his point across:
"...all right, I have teenage boys and cousins. They have not really jived much with modern D&D. Let's say they don't they don't really - not all of them, I don't want to speak for all of them - but some of them have a sense that Dungeons and Dragons has gone a different direction than the appeal and ideas that they really like.
These are guys who play Warhammer 40,000, old-school Warhammer Fantasy, and they play other war games. They play their video games like Call of Duty and Battlefield.
ACKS seems to speak to them."
That feeling exactly. ACKS has this mature, responsible, serious, and masculine feeling, much like Warhammer 40K, Call of Duty, or Battlefield. It isn't excluding females at all; some classes in ACKS are female-only, and some of the deadliest, most needed, and most potent in the game. The game gives every sex a moment to shine as "the best." Some classes are for elves or dwarves only. Everyone has a role to fill. Nobody is excluded, but there is nothing wrong with having a game that feels like it speaks to you.
D&D is still here! It is what it is, and that is a good thing. There is Daggerheart, too! Different games can appeal to various people and groups; this is what we aim for in the hobby.
There is another very nice comment from Black Lodge Games (subscribe to them as well, they are fantastic) about learning the game, and this is going to help me a great deal:
"+1 for Sinister Stone. It is easy to run and a great introduction to a sandbox region. The important chapters in the core rules for GMs and players to read are Revised Rulebook: Chapter 1 - Characters, Chapter 6 - Adventures, and for GMs in particular: Judges Journal Chapter 1- Foundations, Chapter 2 - Adventures. The rest can be consumed more slowly, but those are the most important for the core rules imo."
An excellent video, and one of the best on ACKS I have seen. Please check this out!
