Deal of the Day - ACKS Domains at War: The Complete Set (OSR)

I remember participating in a Domains of War playtest in Manhattan years ago. We had a blast using mass combat rules in the environs around Dwimmermount. In my humble experience, everything published for the ACKS system has been excellent, and easy to migrate to the OSR system of your choice.

Today's DTRPG Deal of the Day is ACKS Domains at War: The Complete Set. If you've ever wanted to bring mass combat and the intrigue of war to your OSR campaign, here's your chance to do so at an affordable price.

Until tomorrow morning at 11 AM Eastern, ACKS Domains at War: The Complete Set in PDF is discounted from 14 bucks to 5.60, a 60% discount!

Domains at War™ brings the full sweep of fantasy warfare to tabletop gaming and role-playing campaigns. The Domains at War Complete Set offers three interlocking systems to cover the full sweep of military struggles in a fantasy, ancient, or medieval world:

• A quick mass combat rule system for use in any role-playing game that uses concepts like hit points and armor class
• A comprehensive campaign toolkit for use in ongoing games, fully compatible with the Adventurer Conqueror King System's rules for mercenaries, strongholds, magic, and rulership
• A fast-playing tactical wargame derived from these systems, so that playing a battle generates outcomes like what you'd get if you fought it out on the one-on-one roleplaying scale

The Domains at War Complete Set comes with two rulebooks, Campaigns and Battles, as well as 12 pages of printable full-color counters for units, leaders, spells, and terrain and a 4' x 3' PDF battlemap for tabletop warfare.

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern. 

You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on YouTube - Tenkar

Sometimes It's Good to be King (Adventurer Conqueror King System)

The Adventurer Conqueror King System play test document was recently updated.  I've no idea what the particular changes were (it's probably in the forum), but I'm looking at this with fresh eyes (and eagerly awaiting my printed copy to arrive).

Things I've noticed this time (but but may or may not have noticed before):
- High Int is just as good for Wizards as High Wis is for Clerics.  I've been using that as a house rule for ages and I'm happy to see it here.
- I didn't miss this the first time, but I am happy to see a game that gives options to demi-humans as far as classes go without giving them human classes.  Dwarves can be Dwarven fighters or Dwarven Craftpriests and Elves can be Spellswords or Nightblades.
-Thief skills are rolled on a D20, not percentile based.  Apples and oranges for some, but I like the D20 roll high method.
-Bard class is included.  Yay!
-Character inheritance: for when your PC is dead and you planned ahead to replace him.  Leave him a good amount of starting cash.
-Domain Rules - I really need to read these through.  Damn interesting.

K, all for now.

There Are Some Extra Copies of Tome of Horrors (S&W Version) Available

According to Mythmere, there should be an extra 100 or so copies of Tome of Horrors (S&W Version) available for purchase.  If you buy a book (which should be shipping in about a month) you get the PDF for free.  If you buy the PDF directly from Frog God, and follow the instructions laid out by Mythmere, you can decide later to purchase the hard cover and have the price you paid for the PDF applied to you payment.  Not technically saving you anything, but it does let you buy the PDF and see if you want the HC.

Personally, I'm trilled by the PDF myself and I'm eagerly awaiting the hardcover to go on my bookshelf.  I need to review this beast of a book in depth in the future.  It is worth every penny IMHO.  Not sure if I'll be using it with S&W Complete or with Adventurer Conqueror King, but it's definitely going to get use.

Sometimes it Helps to Hold It

The two copies I have of The Secret Fire paperback look awesome.  Hopefully I'll find some time to read this weekend (renovations never seem to end).  Soon I should have my pre-release copy of Adventurer Conqueror King.  I just found out earlier tonight that George Strayton plays in a White Box campaign run by one of the guys behind ACK.  The two games currently on my mind the most.  Go figure.

Think I may need to Frankendragon the two ;)

Or maybe not.  But stealing from one for the other is also fun.

Oh, and just to throw this out there, I don't think I could use descriptors in place of numerical modifiers as The Secret Fire relies upon.  That's one of those things that's been hard wired into my D&D brain.  I don't think it would suffer much from avoiding the descriptors.  Guess time will tell when I get to actually play it.

Adventurer Conqueror King Hit Another Goal

Adventurer Conqueror King has now hit it's second bonus goal via Kickstarter. If it hits the third bonus goal, the creators will run some game sessions for the supporters via Google+. Google+ is really becoming more of a hit then I ever expected. Well, that and ACK is getting more support then I expected, but really, I should have expected it. The OSR corner is small but strong, and ACK really is bringing new stuff to the OSR corner of the gaming table.

I wonder if iTabletop/Pandoren is getting any of the G+ overflow on the gaming side. It does video, voice, game table, dice and all the rest. For me, if G+ had a whiteboard and a dice rolling macro it would probably be all I need, but at this point I think I would need more.

Spending More Time With Adventurer Conqueror King

It looks like Adventurer Conqueror King will be hitting it's second goal, which will give every patron a PDF copy of Domains of War when it's released.  Not sure if they will be aiming for a third goal or not, but it's nice to see the interest in the system.

Anyhow, it's nice to see a system that addresses high level play.  Actually, that's not the right way to put it.  It's a system that allows for the progression from adventurer, to land owner (taker) to ruler.  These are the rules I had to make up on the fly.  Later on, Birthright held that potential, but it was unwieldily to play and didn't resonate with my group.  Still, everyone wanted to become more then a spell slinger pr a sword swinger.

That is the definitive difference between ACK and the rest of the D&D clones - high level play includes additional responsibilities.  It's definitely something you could borrow or steal for other OSR games with little trouble (I just love mixing my rulesets... heh).

Not that the rest of the rules aren't tweaked... they are.  I like the tweaks for the most part - I have less of an urge to tweak these rules then other OSR rules I've read.  I like the addition of proficiencies, as they allow characters to be class based yet fairly unique in their individual makeup.

Did I mention the world economy is logically thought out?  Not that I overly concerned myself with such in my earlier gaming days, but knowing how much land will support how many people (with fairly accurate historical data used to reach those number) does mean there is one less suspension  of disbelief one must accomplish.

Alright, back to reading, then an early night to bed.

Picking Nits in My Own Work

When I do a project (in this close putting new flooring in a room) I want perfection, or damn close to it.  I'm still quite annoyed that one box of flooring was too damaged for use (it will probably work fine in the second room, in the space where I am building the closet).  The thing is, I still found a few imperfections... peaking in two spots (one which will be under the bed) and some slightly chipped laminate where i had to work too close to a wall - they will be covered by an armoire and a bookshelf, but still, I know they are  there.

I suspect the same happens in publishing, especially when you serve as your own proofreader.  I know it happens with my blogging - and I correct it as I see it.  Thankfully, online posts and PDFs can be corrected and update.  Print copies can only be corrected by a new printing (an errata sheet doesn't really corrects the mistakes).

Tomorrow I do the finishing touches (reattach moldings, stain some other pieces, touch up paint where needed) and then prep the other room for its new flooring.  That also means I can put more time into reading an reviewing.  I really want to talk more about Adventurer Conqueror King.  I'm really digging it.

Not All Kickstarter Projects Are Created Equally, If At All

I happen to really like the concept behind Kickstarter.  It's like taking preorders without actually taking the money for the preorders until you have enough preorders to justify actually going thru with the project.

Case in point:  AGP - Adventure Games Publishing - James Mishler's startup.  James came out of the gate with a really strong product and offered subscriptions to upcoming products.  Liking what I saw and looking to support a new publisher I ponied up for a sub - which was cancelled after one or two releases.  I'm still out the cash on that (no biggie - I'm a grown man, I knew the risks)

Then we have iTabletop / Pandoren, a VTT which was asking for $200 from early adapters - and has now gone free.

I still do the preorder thing - DCC and Delving Deeper (edit - 11/8/12 and I'm still waiting on DD to ship - When the fuck did I preorder it?) are games I placed my hard earned cash in the hands of publishers and expect to see a product down the line.  An act of faith, if you will.

With Kickstarter, you don't actually spend the cash until the project meets it's funding goals and reaches the end of the funding time set.  Which is just a bit less of a gamble.

Some projects ask their backers for input, most offer extras for higher pledges.  Eh, I've been doing the patron thing since Open Design started their patron projects.  It resonates with me.

My latest is Adventurer Conqueror King.  I know I saw someone else blogging about it earlier.

Oh, and DungeonMorph Dice, which I don't think would have been produced without Kickstarter.  I'm looking forward to my dice ;)

Come to think of it, those are the only 2 projects I've funded that met their goals.  The ones that crashed, crashed bad (and will remain nameless)