The ACKS II Treasure Tome Meme Contest

And an RPG Video You MUST Watch

Oct 29, 2024

I woke up this morning to see that the ACKS II Treasure Tome Kickstarter had exceeded $60,000 in our first 24 hours. This is no small achievement for any crowdfunding campaign; given the obstacles Autarch faces, it is a tremendous achievement. To put the funding in perspective, By This Axe raised $51,000 -- in 30 days. If you've already backed Treasure Tome then, on behalf of the Autarch team on this project (D. McGrane, Daniel Hicks, and myself), thank you for the massive showing of support.

To celebrate this inordinate success, I am hereby announcing…

The ACKS II Treasure Tome Meme Contest

To enter the contest, create a meme about ACKS II, Autarch, Archon, Treasure Tome, and/or all of the above and post it on X. Include the hashtag #ACKS2 and #OSR in the post. You can but don't have to post a link to your Meme in @ACKS General Discussion.
The preliminary round will be determined by X Likes. All X posts that get at least 10 Likes will qualify for the final round.
The final round winner will be determined by Mrs. Archon based on whatever strange and subjective criteria women use to evaluate the achievements of men. She doesn't know who you are so she will be unbiased with regard to your posting history.
The winner will get to select the chapter image for one chapter in the ACKS II Treasure Tome.
All memes must be submitted by no later than November 5th. Judging will be held and results announced on the last Wednesday before Thanksgiving.
No purchase necessary and void where prohibited.

Let the memes begin!

The Stretch Goals

We had a plan in mind to carefully reveal interesting facts about each of the add-on goals step by step over the 30 days, but all of that planning has been tossed aside. As Alexander the Great once remarked, "no plan survives contact with ACKS gamers." Because of our tremendous day-one momentum, as of this moment we have already unlocked 4 stretch goals with 18 additional pages of content. We've unlocked:

Potion Miscibility rules
Curses & Corruption rules
Weapon Advancement & Cultivation rules
Advanced Magic Item Creation rules

The next bonus goal is the 13-page rules for Procedural Mechanics for Creating Items, which is coming at $85,000. What is that, you ask?

Imagine that, instead of rolling to see what pre-existing magic item your adventurers have discovered, instead you create the item on the fly by following guidance through a number of nested tables.

However, like all ACKS II tables and procedures, this isn't arbitrary or unguided randomness - this is carefully managed randomness that yields the results that match the rest of the game offers. If you're a zero-prep or low-prep GM who enjoys the oracular power of the dice at your tabletop, you'll love the procedural mechanics for creating items.

In the hands of a clever Judge, the procedural mechanics for creating items can be used to delightful purposes far beyond mere treasure stocking. What if the party's high-level mage wants to do exploratory magic item research, where he invests his time in "seeing what happens if I randomly experiment?" Voila. Use the tables to see what happens. What if a badly-worded wish spell is used to acquire a magic item that actually doesn't exist? Again, just make a few rolls and now it does.

Sounds great, right? Go fund the Kickstarter right away!

Must See TV YouTube: ACKS II vs. D&D 5E

Before you go, spend a few minutes to watch this remarkable video by Black Lodge Games. It begins as a comparison between D&D 5E's Bastions and ACKS II's domain mechanics but goes much further.

Indeed, if you're reading this update wondering whether ACKS II is the right game for you, this video will tell you whether it is. If it is, you know what to do.

P.S. This video did such a good job of laying out why ACKS II is special that I actually showed it to my mother. She's 82 and doesn't quite "get" what I do. Well, she got it, finally! I'm proud to say she's upgraded me from "Alexander the Vaguely Disappointing" to "Alexander the Not Entirely Inadequate." That was satisfying. If we hit the $110,000 stretch goal I might even merit the long-coveted title of "Alexander the Pretty Good."

Support the Community

Once you’ve pledged for the Discord, head on over to these community links:

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