The new edition of Adventurer Conqueror King System (ACKS) is the Imperial Imprint (ergo ACKS II), and it’s shot through the £100,000 funding barrier. The publisher, Autarch, is based in Durham, NC, so they might not know that.
On offer is an OSR game of adventuring, conquering and reign (often in that order), and you can see progress on the project page.
The setting is a world on the brink of imperial wars, with monsters pushing at the borderlands of humankind and cities decaying from the inside. Innocents are sacrificed, and dark magic is used to steal thrones.
The system includes mass combat, balances mages and fighters and gets into the details of the economy.
What makes ACKS II offer that other OSRs do not? Autarch says that ACKS II has an endgame beyond a BBG with the reign aspect, and that’s why the mass battles and economy become essential, as they might be meaningful to the characters.
Autarch also says that the RPG has a ‘fractal design with modular rules’, whatever that means.
The book will be huge, 560 pages of full colour, 18 character classes, 110 proficiencies and hundreds of spells. That’s the core rules. There’s also the 496-page Judges Journal and a 416-page Monstrous Manual.
A wooden slipcase, aka a small crate, is also being made to hold this small library.
Backers can support by spreading the word or offering cash. Those seeking rewards must offer up to $50 to get the first deliverable. The adventurer tier includes all three books in PDF.
If you’re just after the physical books, then the core rules, which comes with the PDF, is the reward at $75. Autarch can offer worldwide shipping. $100 gets you the ACKS II revised rulebook in hardcover and all three core books in PDF.
$150 adds the Judges Journal to the previous tier, and $200 offers all three physical books, with the Judges Screen.
There are higher tiers; $375 adds a commissioned illustration for a chapter intro and is limited; $600 includes four copies of the core rules, copies of the others and that ‘wood slipcase’, and $1,200 adds an adventure and a magical ritual.
The tiers increase, the multiples of books increase, and some are retailer-only.
Adventurer Conqueror King System 2e is slated for November 2024.
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