Waylaid by Layout

And the Trouble with Thieves

Friends, Aurans, Countrymen —

I must open this missive with sad news. My long-time friend and collaborator, Todd Crapper, has decided to retire from the tabletop RPG business in favor of something called a “paying job.” As a result, I have lost one of the best layout artists I have ever had the pleasure of working with. Sadly, this upheaval has pushed back my timeline for ACKS II. If I have to do the layout myself, the books will be crowdfunding in September 2032, not 2023. Therefore, if you happen to be a layout artist who is familiar with tabletop RPGs, knows how to layout for DTRPG POD and offset printing, is willing to deal with my Kubrickian obsessiveness about every detail, and has the time to tackle a… 1,500… page project, please reach out. Our agents are standing by.

Todd’s last complete work for Autarch was, of course, By This Axe, which 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!

The Trouble With Thieves

In this week’s episode of Arbiter of Worlds, I tackle the trouble with thieves. If you're an old school gamer, you already know what I'm talking about. The thief class has been a perennial sore point within old school gaming circles. It's been less so in new school gaming circles, but not because they solved the problem. They just eliminated most of the exploration phase of the game and got rid of the traditional thief class.

And that's too bad. Because, from the Gray Mouser to Cugel the Clever to Locke Lamora to Sinbad, the thief is one of the most common archetypes in myth, legend, and fantasy. Thieves are supposed to be audacious risk-takers who infiltrate impenetrable fortresses, steal the crown jewels, and kidnap the princess on the way out. And what thieves are not supposed to be... is MMO strikers who deal more damage than Conan the Barbarian.

Watch the video for my insights and approaches to the problem:

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

This month, Adventurer-tier backers of my Patreon will be getting v104 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