Re: 'Maybe' backing the treasure tome and what would push me over the line
The biggest obstacle is that I don't have the books I ordered in my hands yet. I'm always hesitant to throw more money at someone who has not yet delivered on what I've already paid for. I understand that's not how company production lines work and if you waited you'd have writers and artists doing nothing while waiting for production and distribution, but trust comes from fulfilling promises not being pretty sure you're going to fulfill promises, so there it is.
Barring that, I want a solid look at the writing and art going into this. Most importantly, I want to see that this won't be redundant with all the other books of magic items I've got with mechanics tweaked for ACKS, I could just do that myself. I want to see that you're coming up with lots of concepts for magic items that I haven't heard of before that are interesting, imaginative and inspire stories for my games.
I hope that after 12 Kickstarters people have trust in Autarch but a lot of ACKS II backers are first-time backers so from their perspective they haven't yet gotten a book.
As a general rule, I don't start the next Kickstarter until I have delivered the PDFs of the prior Kickstarter. I found that if I wait until I've delivered the books in hardcopy it can stretch out timelines too long for my business to be sustainable and it becomes hard to compete with other companies that churn out material much faster.
If you're a backer of ACKS II, you could see some of the items from TT sent to you as a preview. Autarch also posted some of them for public on the Kickstarter updates for ACKS II. Take a look!
I was one of the people that voted “maybe” on the treasure tome also.
For me, I have to be 100% committed and invested in the ACKS II system and universe to justify the extra cost, especially considering how much I already paid towards the ACKS II campaign. I’m still new to ACKS and still learning about the intricacies of the rules and lore and setting. In fact I’m still relatively new to TTRPGs as a whole so it’s a lot to take in just with the core rules alone.
I have to admit that I thought the first ACKS II crowdfunding campaign would come included with at least a few introductory modules or quests or something similar to get new players started out of the box, but come to find out there are introductory modules I have to buy separately. So as of right now it makes more economical sense to spend money on getting some ACKS modules instead of another crowdfunding campaign. My creativity is not yet good enough to create my own campaign scenarios from scratch.
One other thing I feel I should mention: I’m still reeling from the failure of Chuck Dixon’s Conan. It was seeing his adaptation in ACKS form that really set me over the edge to back ACKS II and when that fell through I seriously considered withdrawing my pledge before deciding to give your own created lore and setting a fair chance on its own merits. I totally get that the loss of Conan was not your fault and that you were equally if not more disappointed as I later learned how the name ACKS was inspired by the Conan books. But regardless of who’s to blame it I’d now rather see what I can come up with the ACKS material I already have or can obtain for free or cheap before getting more supplements in this system.
Outside of ACK there’s other systems and worlds I wish I could make more time for. I’m current part of a Starfinder group and I still want to get more into Cyberpunk 2020 and even RED…
Dan, thanks for taking the time to answer. I really appreciate the candor.
Yes, the loss of Chuck Dixon's Conan was a painful setback. I had done all the preliminary work needed and then it was just yanked away.
The next installment of the Judges Journal (the final) will have 9 one-page adventures included -- that was a bonus goal that was met. I'm just waiting for them to finish being playtested.
“But seriously 666 votes for After The Flesh? And that comes after ACKS II was 666% funded, too. I’m starting to get worried, bros.”
The Evil Legion of Evil, and the Supreme Dark Lord’s Vile Faceless Minions and Dread Ilk, have no comment.
Re: 'Maybe' backing the treasure tome and what would push me over the line
The biggest obstacle is that I don't have the books I ordered in my hands yet. I'm always hesitant to throw more money at someone who has not yet delivered on what I've already paid for. I understand that's not how company production lines work and if you waited you'd have writers and artists doing nothing while waiting for production and distribution, but trust comes from fulfilling promises not being pretty sure you're going to fulfill promises, so there it is.
Barring that, I want a solid look at the writing and art going into this. Most importantly, I want to see that this won't be redundant with all the other books of magic items I've got with mechanics tweaked for ACKS, I could just do that myself. I want to see that you're coming up with lots of concepts for magic items that I haven't heard of before that are interesting, imaginative and inspire stories for my games.
Thanks, that's valuable feedback.
I hope that after 12 Kickstarters people have trust in Autarch but a lot of ACKS II backers are first-time backers so from their perspective they haven't yet gotten a book.
As a general rule, I don't start the next Kickstarter until I have delivered the PDFs of the prior Kickstarter. I found that if I wait until I've delivered the books in hardcopy it can stretch out timelines too long for my business to be sustainable and it becomes hard to compete with other companies that churn out material much faster.
TY again for taking the time to respond!
If you're a backer of ACKS II, you could see some of the items from TT sent to you as a preview. Autarch also posted some of them for public on the Kickstarter updates for ACKS II. Take a look!
I was one of the people that voted “maybe” on the treasure tome also.
For me, I have to be 100% committed and invested in the ACKS II system and universe to justify the extra cost, especially considering how much I already paid towards the ACKS II campaign. I’m still new to ACKS and still learning about the intricacies of the rules and lore and setting. In fact I’m still relatively new to TTRPGs as a whole so it’s a lot to take in just with the core rules alone.
I have to admit that I thought the first ACKS II crowdfunding campaign would come included with at least a few introductory modules or quests or something similar to get new players started out of the box, but come to find out there are introductory modules I have to buy separately. So as of right now it makes more economical sense to spend money on getting some ACKS modules instead of another crowdfunding campaign. My creativity is not yet good enough to create my own campaign scenarios from scratch.
One other thing I feel I should mention: I’m still reeling from the failure of Chuck Dixon’s Conan. It was seeing his adaptation in ACKS form that really set me over the edge to back ACKS II and when that fell through I seriously considered withdrawing my pledge before deciding to give your own created lore and setting a fair chance on its own merits. I totally get that the loss of Conan was not your fault and that you were equally if not more disappointed as I later learned how the name ACKS was inspired by the Conan books. But regardless of who’s to blame it I’d now rather see what I can come up with the ACKS material I already have or can obtain for free or cheap before getting more supplements in this system.
Outside of ACK there’s other systems and worlds I wish I could make more time for. I’m current part of a Starfinder group and I still want to get more into Cyberpunk 2020 and even RED…
Dan, thanks for taking the time to answer. I really appreciate the candor.
Yes, the loss of Chuck Dixon's Conan was a painful setback. I had done all the preliminary work needed and then it was just yanked away.
The next installment of the Judges Journal (the final) will have 9 one-page adventures included -- that was a bonus goal that was met. I'm just waiting for them to finish being playtested.
Thank you again!
Thanks for your response! I’ll be waiting for the finished Judges Journal then! Though the modules on DriveThruRPG still seem intriguing…