Using ACKS for a historical game?

Oh, and one other thing. The only UK outlet that seems to stock ACKS is Leisure Games, and they seem to be all out. When is the second printing planned?

Thanks for the kind words on the game. I’m glad you are digging it. I haven’t read Christian Cameron’s Tyrant, but it sounds awesome! I was an Ancient History major as an undergraduate, and did my senior seminar on siege weaponry of the ancient world.

XP - I don’t know how to account for the variant saves, really, in the XP progression; given no magic, no giant scorpions, no giant spiders, etc. saves will be less important, so I wouldn’t worry about it. You might consider giving every class the Fighter proficiency progression (the fastest one) - that will enable your players to have more proficiencies with which to differentiate their characters in the absence of magic and magic items.

As far as UK retail, we are working on the second printing right now. We are probably 1-2 weeks from going to print, which means 8-12 weeks from distribution. If you need a hardcopy ASAP, I could ship you one of our 1st printing books from here in the office if you can Paypal us the price + shipping; but with freight charges being what they are these days it’s an expensive option.

Incidentally, I worked this up a while back:

ALEXANDER THE GREAT, 14th level Fighter
Strength 14
Intelligence 18
Wisdom 12
Dexterity 18
Constitution 18
Charisma 18

Alignment: Lawful
AC: 9
HP: 82
Languages: Greek, Macedonian, Persian, Thracian
Class Proficiencies: Combat Reflexes, Command, Endurance, Manual of Arms, Running
General Proficiencies: Adventuring, Diplomacy, Knowledge (Philosophy), Leadership, Military Strategy 3, Riding (Horses)

Equipment: Lance, short sword, shield, lamellar armor, heavy helm

Domains at War Characteristics
Leadership Ability: 8
Strategic Ability: 6
Morale Modifier: 6

Notes:
Strength: Alexander is notably fit and strong but not overly so.
Intelligence: Alexander’s undeniable brilliance in war and politics certainly place him in the top 0.5% of human intelligence. Whether he was solving the Gordian Knot, capturing the Sogdian Rock, or besieging Tyre, his ingenuity knew no bounds.
Wisdom: Alexander was strong-willed and confident, but also prone to bouts of drinking and emotional excess. I have assigned him a Wisdom which is above average, but not high enough to help him avoid his nemesis.
Dexterity: Alexander frequently accomplished great feats of dexterity. As a child he mastered a powerful warhorse. He famously beat his own bodyguard, Cleitus the Black, in a key initiative roll. He was reputed a very swift runner who might have competed in the Olympiad 200m but refused because the other runners were not kings.
Constitution: Alexander’s endurance is legendary. He survived wound after wounds that would have killed most men. He survived the march through the Gedrosian Desert when all around him men dropped dead of sunstroke and dehydration.
Charisma: One of the few historical figures labeled The Great, he was worshipped as a god in his own lifetime and proclaimed ‘master of the Universe’ by the Egyptians. One doesn’t rate Alexander’s Charisma relative to an 18. One rates Charisma 18 relative to Alexander.

Proficiencies: Combat Reflexes, Command, Diplomacy, Manual of Arms, Leadership, and Military Strategy 3 are all self-evident from his historical accomplishments. Endurance represents his almost super-human stamina on the march. Running reflects his reputed Olympic-level speed. His taming of Bucephalus and lifelong positions as a cavalryman justify Riding (Horses). (He probably merits Animal Training, too, but alas Alexander had no more proficiency slots.) Knowledge (Philosophy) is from his tutoring by Aristotle.

Domains at War Characteristics: These are all at the maximum possible rank. Simply put, you do not want to face Alexander on the battlefield.

[People on the forums mostly think that I rate Alexander too highly, but I say they’re just jealous they didn’t roll 4 18s. :P]

XP - I was wondering about just giving everyone the Fighter progression for Proficiencies, now I’m convinced I should.

Given my inclination towards capping advancement at 9th or maybe 10th level, I’m wondering about giving out a General Proficiency every level, since that does a nice job of rounding people out without making them demigods of battle (well, except mass combat if they go with Military Strategy).

UK retail - I can wait; our group is waiting to reform after a birth-related hiatus, and even then it’s back to historical Mage: the Awakening before I get a slot. Unless the GM is too knackered to run anything.

Alexander - he makes an appearance in the second Tyrant novel, and gets beaten for his troubles (this is against the Scythians). Cameron also wrote one of the many, many historical fiction novels about Alexander’s life.

Ever thought about statting up the equally colourful (if not as brilliant, due to how erratic he was) Demetrius Poliorcetes? I’ve heard of fewer figures from history who could have been described as dying from boredom.

RE: Demetrius Poliorcetes, I'd have to refresh myself on the details of his history, but from what I remember he certainly merited a high INT and CHA, but perhaps a WIS that was not as high as one might like...

One of the bonus goals for Domains at War is a series of historical battles. I wonder if doing the assault on Rhodes should go in there. That would be amazing to play on a tabletop at brigade scale.

 

Hi Alex / Kiero.

I’m very new to ACKS as well, love the system and am planning on running Microscope type “zoom in, zoom out” against the backdrop of conquering Brittania and political machinations in Rome.

Anyways, just wanted to say that I’m really enjoying this discussion.

Alex, have you worked up any Roman historical figures?

CG7

Alright, so reading over the treasure conversion again; couldn’t I halve the values, call them silver drachmae rather than silver pieces, and just assume the weights are adjusted so there’s still 100 coins to the pound of weight?

Yes, you should just be able to conver to SP, reduce the prices by 1/2, and have close-to-historical prices. So, for example, a heavy infantry makes(12gp x 10sp/gp x 1 drachma/2sp) 60 drachma per month. A warhorse costing 250gp (2,500sp) becomes 1,250 drachma. 

Going the other way, Bucephalus, at 13 talents, costs 7,800 drachma. That would then be 15,600sp or 1,560gp in normal ACKS.

 

I haven't, no! I was thinking that I'd start with Scipio Africanus so I could pit him against Hannibal. Of course, there's so many awesome Roman generals to pick from!

Yes, dude, yes.

Another random one. Ships and naval combat are an extremely important part of this era. How easily do the polyremes (trireme, quadrireme, quinquireme, etc) map to the generic ships listed?

Does naval combat account for stuff like rower condition (how well motivated, fit, well-fed and fatigued)?

ACKS offers 3 types of galleys:

Small Galley - 60 rowers. This is a bireme or penteconter.

Large Galley - 180 rowers. This is a trireme.

War Galley - 300 rowers. This is a quinquereme.

You could probably extrapolate from the structural hit points and speeds of these three to cover any other galley types you'd want to include.

There are no specific rules for rower condition. By default, ACKS assumes you can engage in 50 minutes of physical activity and then need to rest for 10 minutes. You could easily modify these rules, I think, to get the effect you want. 

One thing about rower condition that I find interesting is that, in re-enactment tests, modern athletes cannot sustain the routine rowing speeds described in the ancient sources (or wear hoplite armor long enough to fight a battle). You'll have to decide if you want to base your fatigue rules on what the ancient sources say, or what the modern re-enactments suggest. I personally think th ancient sources are right (why would they lie about the day-to-day?) and that modern athletes are just epigenetically weaker.  The book Manthropology has some great information on this. 

Excellent. A hemiola is also a Small Galley (since it’s also 60 oars).

As you say, from those you can extrapolate others; the trihemiola is neatly between Small and Large, having around 120 rowers. A four is probably about the same sort of size (apparently they were around 60 tons to a fives 100 tons). So there’s a Medium Galley category that could be slotted between the two.

On the modern rowers conundrum, one interesting tidbit I saw was that there may be an issue with the size of the reconstructed vessels - namely that modern people are bigger than their ancient counterparts, making using ships designed for shorter people more tiring. I agree, though, that it doesn’t make sense for ancient sources to lie about something so ordinary.

Or I could, you know, play what I know I actually enjoy, based on over two decades of RPGing experience.

I used to be right where Kiero is now, then I fell into the “system matters” story-game crowd, which led me back, by way of its cohesive system, to ACKs. I personally don’t like “old-school” games. Their piecemeal nature and lack of focus are painful. I like ACKs specifically because it’s better than that. :slight_smile:

Of course, if I was going to do a high-drama, hand-wavy, game of thrones sort of thing, I’d use Reign or Burning Wheel or something. Right tool for the job and all that.

That’s not to say that Kiero shouldn’t do what Kiero wants, or is even really in an analogous situation. It’s just that I see myself there, and feel compelled to offer what I feel is my insight to the situation.

(I also feel weird dissuading a sale on the Autarch forums. Everybody should buy ACKs, just because it’s awesome.)

I've just realised, a four is between Large and War, not between Large and Small. So there is a Medium Galley category needed, but also a fifth one (possibly by splitting War Galley).
 
 
I'm looking at the excellent Judges Screen, which has some nice summaries of stuff (I remember making one of these back when I was GMing AD&D2e), and noting something that stands out to me.
 
 
Encumbrance - I think I've seen a houserule applying Strength to it. Add (or subtract) your Str mod to each category?
 
Saves - would it skew the maths badly if I allowed Dex mod to apply to Reflex (Petrification/Paralysis), Con mod to apply to Fortitude (Death/Poison), and Wis mod to Will (Staffs/Wands)?
 
Overland travel - and remounts. Do the overland travel rates account, at all, for having remounts? Because if you've got spare horses for everyone, you can travel a lot faster than you would if you were trying to preserve one mount.
 

One of the neat things about older games was the possibility for unplanned encounters while out and about in the world. While the existing tables are already helpfully divided into wilderness and dungeon (thus I can happily ignore the latter), if the Expert set is anything to go by, there’s still some fantastical in the tables that do still apply. They being Animals and Men, which have giant and fantastical creatures in the former, and things like magic users and clerics in the latter.

I wonder if it’s worth genericising the animal tables, for example to say “herd, large” or “predators, small pack”; then I could adapt on the spot to whatever is appropriate for the terrain. Or is that too much messing about?

I could also do with a Natural Events table, which might describe things like floods, landslides, earthquakes, eruptions and so on. In the case of the extreme ones, I’m imagining coming upon the scene of one that has already happened is more likely than one occurring while the PCs are in the area. Maybe those tables might be split into aftermath and active or something?

Anyone given this any thought?

You can't have a game involving Hellenistic cultures without consideration of ships, they were vital for trade and warfare. I'm looking at the Expert set which I'm presuming ACKS hews fairly close to in terms of stats and such.

There's some obvious, easy mapping of types (discussed with Alex on the Autarch forum):

  • Small Galley - bireme, hemiola, pentekonter
  • Large Galley - trireme
  • War Galley - quadrireme/tetrere, quinquireme/pentere

To which I need to add a new category of Medium Galley, covering trihemiolas. These were smaller, fast vessels, favoured by Rhodes in particular as pirate-hunters. Length 90'-120', Beam 10'-15', Draft 2'-3'. Standard crew is 120 rowers, 15 sailors, 10-20 marines, 1 captain. Capacity 30,000cn plus crew. May have a ram (1/3 extra cost). Movement rate: Miles/day: 18/72, Feet/round: 90/135. Hull points 90-105.

Some alterations to the stats there (at least as far as what I can see in the Expert booklet):

  • All ships: artillery are not installed as standard. Ballistae (actually torsion engines) might be installed on warships, in place of light catapults.
  • Small Galley: Crew: 5-10 marines.
  • Large Galley (trireme): Crew: 10-30 marines - smaller complement was more usual for a trireme. Always has a ram.
  • War Galley (quadrireme): Use the lower end of size/hull points estimates. Movement rate: Miles/day: 15/72, Feet/round: 75/120 - fours were notably fast and maneuverable for their size. Crew: 230 rowers, 20 sailors, 50-75 marines. Capacity: 70,000cn (whatever the conversion is to stones in ACKS).
  • War Galley (quinquireme): Use upper end of size/hull points estimates. Crew: 20-30 sailors, 70-120 marines - fives could carry bigger marine complements than fours.

Essentially we're splitting the War Galley into two classes. There were, of course, even bigger ships (the Ptolemies and Antigonids liked their "sixes" and "sevens"), but they'll be dealt with individually, as special cases because I don't think there was any kind of consistency when it came to those monsters.

What I'd also like to discuss is more customisation of vessels; if my PCs get hold of a ship or two, I'm expecting they might want to spend their loot to make their trick ride even spiffier. I remember AD&D2e's setting Spelljammer had stuff about modifying ships, which might have been based on some stuff from the AD&D2e PHB/DMG.

Broadly there's two dimensions upon which to apply customisation: crew and ship. Changes to crew are a tricky balance, more people means more weight (people and provisions), which means slower travel. But it might also mean more fighting capacity (if you add marines), fresher crews (if you can rotate rowers and sailors). It would be nice to be able to consider the condition of rowers too; their fitness, skill, fatigue and morale. There should be a difference between one ship with a crew of well-motivated and experienced free men at the oars, an another with some beaten-down slaves chained to their benches. Similarly a well-oiled crew used to working under their trierarch should be snappier than one comprised of new hires under a novice captain.

As far as ship goes, again more weight generally means slower travel. There's a wealth of things you can do here. Decking is one; having it means it's easy to get around on top and the uppermost deck of rowers are protected from missiles and the elements (though they're also much hotter). Not having it means you save on some weight and the rowers get better ventilation. Towers for artillery or platforms (or baskets in the rigging) for archers. Thickening or thinning the hull. Topping out the rigging, or stripping it away. For certain variations you could remove the masts entirely or change the internal arrangements for transport.

Has anyone given any thought to expanding on ships?

If you’ve ever gotten a look at the 1e Oriental Adventures book, it has excellent tables for randomly generating events like wars, earthquakes, assassinations, deaths from old age, and such. You roll out large events for the year, then roll out monthly events from sub tables.

I've posted my mostly-complete hack in the House Rules forum, but for some reason it isn't displayed on the forum view.

The reason ACKS encumbrance is strength independent (save for dealing with maximum load) is because fighter-types were running around as quickly as thief types in play-testing, and it was determined that this was far too silly. I’m not saying you can’t change it, but Alex has often surprised me with intricate explanations when there is a question about why the rules are what they are.