ACKS II, Myth, Legend, and Culture

ACKS II is stunning in its representation of cultures and peoples who brought the original myths and legends to the fantasy gaming genre. Finally, we have a game for mature minds, but not in a salacious or exploitative way. It does not pander to us by falsely attempting to replace entire cultures with monsters, and then claim diversity because the monsters are now player options.

Modern games just do not get it. They are hopelessly off course. They ignore actual history, culture, myth, and legend. They replace it with the cultural equivalent of processed foods, those artificially flavored and powdered carbohydrates that pretend to be nourishing, but slowly kill us with their toxic ingredients, designed to create generational food addicts.

You need to go back to your history books to learn culture. Read. You need to talk with grandma and grandpa, and hear about their grandparents and how they grew up. You aren't getting authentic culture from D&D.

Yes, the "but it is fantasy" argument applies. But, still, this is toxic Wall Street culture designed to create truths to replace your ideas of what actually happened, and all the things passed down from your ancestors. They just want to sell you fake culture as identity, replacing actual outstanding achievements and cultures with fictional fake concepts and identities that are corporate IP.

You can't have culture unless it's owned by a corporation. The ideas, myths, and legends of your people become theirs to profit from.

ACKS 2 Revised Rulebook, page 498. Copyright © 2025 Autarch, LLC.

ACKS II raises the bar unapologetically, and it is not sorry for what it is, how it presents the subject, and how it plays. Finally, we have a game that does not apologize for what it is or for the bad things in the hobby that came before, but celebrates what the source cultures have brought to the hobby. ACKS II is also far more diverse than D&D, with parallels for every Mediterranean racial type existing in the setting, depicted beautifully, with pride and strength, and as iconic role models of what heroes should look like.

Look at the above picture as the book's depiction of the Kushtu people of the Ivory Kingdoms. These are possible adventurers and heroes. Put one way, this is ACKS II's "D&D heroes" that will put on leather armor and pick up the short sword, learn magic, and fight off the beast-men attacking their homes. They will be the ones rising to found kingdoms and driving evil from the lands. They will be the ones clearing the dungeons and slaying the dragons.

You respect a culture by tracing its roots back far, honoring its identity and myths, all the way to its ancestors' ancestors. You don't give them steampunk clothing, dyed hair, and Supercuts hairstyles. You present their history as strong, heroic, capable people. They are every bit a part of the myths and legends that built this hobby, just like the European parts (and Asian, and Indian, and Central American, and Middle Eastern, and so on).

Modern games are content to give us dozens of cartoon character races, talking anthropomorphs, and half-demons, and tell us, "Look, we have diversity."

ACKS II also does not cartoonishly paint its enemies, like Pathfinder's Goblins, D&D's Demons, ToV's Kobolds, or Orcs in all of these games. The monsters are a corruption of good, and they are entirely evil. They are not made to be appealing. They don't represent anything. They are also quite different than what we are used to in D&D, as goblins are short, furry, wicked little beasts.

Hollywood, Westernized anime, MMOs, video games, tabletop games, and these other manufactured corporate properties have destroyed the historical myths and legends on which our concepts of fantasy were built. When our original sources of myth are generations removed from the original content, we lose the original meaning. They become more about corporate IP than they do about what is real to us as humanity.

The ACKS II setting is one of the greatest fantasy settings, just because of its representation and refusal to bend the knee to the Wall Street tropes and the artificial culture-for-sale. Even though it is all human, the robust and respectful representations of the diverse mix of cultures raise this above the cartoonish modern-day Forgotten Realms, or the ever-sleeping Greyhawk that gets pulled out for nostalgia every few editions. I still love those settings, but they have their flaws.

Modern designers often become lazy, incorporating elements from every culture into a single piece of art and claiming to promote diversity. The settings are everything in a blender, and they press the speed setting of ten. Even many OSR games lean too heavily on European tropes and ignore the best parts from older and more influential cultures. Some games feel like Renaissance Faire theme parks with silly places like Egypt World to wander around in, dressed like an Arthurian Knight.

Give me a game with actual cultures based on history, presented realistically and respectfully? I can play this game as a resident of the Ivory Kingdoms, and learn about their traditions and unique culture?

ACKS II is that game, and about 10 years ahead of the curve here. Just wait, soon, these big companies will be designing "respectful representations" of "authentic cultures" in their fantasy games and trying to do what ACKS II already did.

We can play that game today.