We're pleased to confirm that the Adventurer Conqueror King System books have been shipped. To everyone who has a hardback or softcover coming from the Kickstarter or pre-order: it is in the mail!
We're working with Game Salute to fulfill these orders. Questions about your shipment can be best answered by contacting Game Salute - although don't hesitate to communicate with us through Kickstarter or at support@autarch.co either.
We've gotten glowing reviews on the cover for the Player's Companion. The piece, called "Inheritance," was created by Michael C. Hayes. While you've doubtless seen his work on books, games, and Magic cards, today we thought we'd introduce you to the artist himself.
AUTARCH: Many RPG players are influenced to buy a book based on the cover artwork, but cover artists don't get as much recognition for their work as the designers do. Could you please tell us about yourself?
The Lakeys have completed another round of illustrations for the Adventurer Conqueror King Player's Companion. The one shown above depicts a class created by Patron Deity Jeffrey Binder, who described the iconic image thusly:
I'm glad to announce that the files for the limited edition pre-release softcover of the Adventurer Conqueror King System Player’s Companion were sent to our printer, McNaughton & Gunn, yesterday. Thanks to the miraculous speed of 21st century printing technology and the hard work of Autarch's production team, especially Carrie Keymel, this means we will have them in hand for GaryCon IV. Backers at the King level and above who are fortunate enough to be in Lake Geneva next weekend will get their copies signed by us at the convention; we'll send the others immediately afterward.
After months of assembling the kind of collaboration that characterizes the best adventuring parties,I am proud to outline the rewards that Autarch will be helping Grognardia Games make available to supporters of our Dwimmermount crowdfunding campaign.
One of the rewards that backers of the Kickstarter for the Adventurer Conqueror King Player's Companion can claim is to describe their vision of one of the new classes in the book. John and Laura Lakey have now completed the first illustration based on these backer descriptions. Here's the iconic image of the dwarven machinist that will be published in the Player's Companion:
Over at the Play-Generated Maps and Documents Archive, curator Tim Hutchings is displaying some fantastic stuff donated by Bill Owen dating back to the campaign his future partner in Judges Guild, Bob Bledsaw, began after purchasing the original Dungeons & Dragons books at Gen Con in August of 1974.
Those who have been closely reading the latest PDF release of the Adventurer Conqueror King System will have noticed a teaser for a forthcoming product we are very excited about:
This list of reviews of the Adventurer Conqueror King System includes all we know about as of May 1, 2012. Let us know if you've seen an ACKS review that is not listed below!
I noticed when using Google search to look for "Adventurer Conqueror King" that it auto-completes - which is a good sign that people are looking for info about ACKS - and that one of the things it auto-completes as is "Adventurer Conqueror King release date", which suggests that this is something in particular that people want to know. Reasonable enough! Here's the best answer I can give at the moment.
“I'd seriously eat my own face off to get my hands on a copy of this.”
— Anonymous, 7-chan /tg/
“I've been running this game for months now using an open world sandbox game, similar to Ben Robbins' West Marches game, and it's downright amazing. Love the comprehensive rules for everything economic and the B/X framework with layered extras, like proficiencies and special maneuvers (disarm, wrestling, etc.). If you're at all into D&D, I would check this out.”
“Adventurer Conqueror King adds a new wing to the Old School with its epic-scale world construction rules, which help the Judge develop an entire setting, logically and organically, in the sandbox spirit of the hobby's earliest campaigns.”
— Allen Varney
“What does this offer that the OSR books and rules already in your collection don't? Strongholds, domains, and even mercantile ventures are addressed. Yes, your character may just outgrow the dungeon life. If you play in any fantasy type RPG and are interested in building your own campaign, many of the tools are here.”
“It makes good on D&D's largely unfulfilled promise to take characters from lowly insignificance to the heights of power. There are rules for building castles, establishing and ruling domains (as well as wizard's sanctums and thieves guilds), and trading -- just about anything a high-level, power-hungry fantasy character might be interested in pursuing. Adventurer, Conqueror, King is a very cleverly designed game whose rules are quite compatible with most retro-clones, particularly Labyrinth Lord, making it extremely valuable to any player or referee looking to add any of its rules to their existing campaigns. This is good stuff and well worth a look.”
“This is what a rationalised 21st century dungeoncrawling RPG can look like: enough old school aspects to appeal to grognards, but with enough mechanical crunch to appeal to new(er) school players. The systems maths is robust enough that it doesn't fall to pieces if you breathe on it, but simple enough that you only need to do simple-addition-up-to-20 in play. And we did it crowdfunded and with substantiative fan base interaction and customer feedback.”
“The Player's Companion extends the core rules by adding a series of new classes, the dwarven machinist and spelunker, the elven ranger, and some human classes - mystic (monk), shaman (druid), and priestess. I'll come out and say it though, the thing that got me fired up with the book-love was the extensive list of templates. (I think they claim there are 144 of them). An ACKS template is basically some pre-selected options that speeds up character generation and gives the character a bit of early flavor. ACKS supports the old school roll-and-go - it's got basic 3d6 in order for abilities and simple classes, like classic D&D. The templates take it the rest of the way, by adding a preconfigured set of starting equipment, starting money, and suggested proficiency selections.”
If you are a Kickstarter backer who wants to upgrade your
reward or cover international shipping, or a generous fan who wants to help support our next projects!
