Meditations on Death (in RPGs)

Put on your robe and wizard hate for this one!

In this week’s episode of Arbiter of Worlds, I offer some meditations on death in RPGs. Why is death a necessary risk that PCs must face? Should you burn up the player's character sheet? Does the character fear death? I do all of this wearing a wizard robe, because I promised I’d don a wizard robe when I hit 1,000 subscribers.

Watch the video for my thoughts on the nature and role of death in RPGs. And enjoy the blooper reel at the end!

By This Axe Now Available on Autarch Emporium

By This Axe is now available on the 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 1 week 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!

ACKS on Substack!

If you haven’t checked out the flourishing ACKS Substack community, 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.

ACKS II Update

Last week I shared the bad news that my long-time layout artist, Todd Crapper, had retired from the industry. My search for a layout artist continues apace. I have found two candidates who might be good choices. However, until this is resolved, I don’t feel comfortable giving a hard date for my ACKS II Kickstarter - it would be foolish and reckless to proceed without a team in place. So, sadly, it won’t be Kickstarting this month.

This month, Adventurer-tier backers of my Patreon got version 104 of the ACKS II Revised Rulebook, Conqueror-tier backers will be betting v29 of the Judges Journal, and King-tier backers will be getting v36 of the Monstrous Manual. 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 [fixed!]

• 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