By This Axe, Domains at War, and More

And the Latest and Greatest Episode of Arbiter of Worlds

Friends, Aurans, Countrymen —

It delights me to announce that By This Axe has now been dispatched to our backers worldwide. As such, it is now time to make it available on Autarch Emporium. We have a very small inventory of these books, so if you want the original stitched-cover offset print sourcebook, buy it now. Otherwise, in about 2 weeks it will also go on sale on DriveThruRPG in Print on Demand.

Meanwhile, in light of the imminent crowdfunding of ACKS II, I have also placed the other ACKS products on sale at 33% off. This is not because they won’t be compatible with ACKS II; they will be. It’s just a matter of wanting to clear inventory and gain funds for marketing ACKS II. Head over to the Autarch Emporium!

RPG Mass Combat with Domains at War

Last week I introduced everyone to the design challenges of mass combat in tabletop RPGs. A lot of commenters asked for a deeper dive into how my game, the Adventurer Conqueror King System, tackles these challenges.

As it happens, for the last 12 months, a game developer named Mike Gai has been secretly working in collaboration with me to develop a browser-playable version of ACKS Domains at War, the mass combat system for ACKS. While that project is by no means complete, it's far enough along that I am going to use it to demonstrate how Domains at War works.

As you watch keep in mind that Domains at War is a tabletop miniature game. What you are seeing is just an online version of that. When I run Domains at War battles in my home game, we set up the hex map and pull out the miniatures at the table. It's not the case that I'm expecting you to sit in front of a laptop to play a videogame during your RPG, though of course some people do or play online entirely. If you check the links in the Description below, I have shared the hex map and counters for the tabletop game. That way if you like what you see, you just need to order Domains at War on DTRPG or Autarch Emporium and you'll be ready for war. The books are on sale in both places!

Rogues Gallery Art

Meanwhile, the Ascendant product line continues to shape up marvelously. The art that’s being developed for Rogues Gallery continues to amaze me.

ACKS on Substack!

We’re beginning to see a Substack community form around ACKS and simulationism. Here’s some blogs to check out:

If you have a blog or third-party product that supports ACKS or Ascendant, please let me know and I’ll be happy to include you in my next round-up.

Right now Adventurer-tier backers of my Patreon have gotten v100 of the ACKS II Revised Rulebook, while King-tier backers have the latest draft of the ACKS II Monstrous Manual and Conqueror-tier backers will soon be getting an update of the ACKS II Judges Journal. If you’ve been wanting to check out how ACKS II is shaping up, you can head over to the Patreon now.

If you haven’t already, don’t forget to subscribe to the YouTube channel, then head over to the links below for others ways to get involved in my recently-declared Simulationist culture movement. If you’re already a fan, be kind and spread the word!

• Autarch Discord with the smartest, nicest gamers around

• Autarch Reddit with a sub-set of the aforementioned smartest, nicest gamers

• ACKS Patreon with sneak previews of ACKS II every month

• Ascendant Patreon with a new character and story hook every month

• Autarch Facebook page with news and updates about our projects

• Autarch Twitter channel with brief comments and witty quirks

• Ascendant Comics Facebook page with sneak previews of the upcoming comics

• Ascendant Comics Instagram page with tons of art and cosplay

• Ascendant Comics Twitter channel with short messages and quirky wit

• ACKS Forums with discussion for the game

• Ascendant Forums with FAQ and Errata for the game