ACKS: The Dark Project (my new setting)

Wow, awesome! Just started playing Thief again for first time since it came out in the 90’s. One of my favorite games ever. This looks very cool, looking forward to see what you do with it.

Thanks!

I’ve just re-read the Custom Classes chapter of the Player’s Companion, as well as the ACKS Rulebook section about the Cleric, and came to the conclusion that the typical Hammerite would be a “vanilla” cleric, with the only modification being his weapon selection - Maces/Hammers/Flails/Morningstars and Bows/Crossbows/Arbalests instead of the Maces/Hammers/Flails/Morningstars and Bolas/Nets/Slings/Saps/Staffs of the “vanilla” cleric.

A massive two-handed maul used by some of the Hammers would simply use the Morningstar stats.

I’ll craft a custom Hammerite Engineer class later on, though, as this setting has no Dwarves; this will use some of the rules of the Dwarven Machinist. But this should be rare in my setting as it is based far more on Thief: The Dark Project and Thief: Deadly Shadows than on Thief: The Metal Age.

Sounds like a really impressive and fun game setting! Please keep on posting as you get it developed.

Many thanks!

I’ve made a preliminary campaign map in Hexographer. You can see it in my blog:

http://spacecockroach.blogspot.co.il/2012/12/acks-dark-project-preliminary-campaign.html

Let’s do some basic math for my ACKS: The Dark Project.

The City is the largest urban settlement in the campaign area. In terms of realm size, The City and its rival city-states are Principalities, with 18-65 or so 24-mile hexes each. The City is ruled by a Prince (a title which fits the ACKS domain system better than a lowly Baron, IMHO) and so are its rivals.

The City has a realm of 47 24-mile hexes, a sizeable Principality; its main rival, Blackbrook, has 44 hexes; Cyric has 35 hexes; and Bohn has 27 hexes. Everything else on the map is no man’s land, either badlands between the city-states’ realms or wilderness into which the forces of Chaos creep.

The Thief world is a relatively advanced one, technologically speaking, but also a world well past its age of Imperial glory. So I’d use the default average population density, especially since not all hexes in a realm are proper farmland - most realms have many hexes of mountains and woods, which, while providing rich resources (such as timber, metal and coal) in many cases, have a much smaller population than typical farmland. So, on average, it’s 50 people per square mile, 300 families per 6-mile hex and 5,000 families per 24-mile hex.

Also note that most of these people do not live in the countryside but rather in the city-states themselves.

So the base population sizes would be:

The City - 250,000 families, 1,250,000 people total (I bumped this to 250,000 because this is the most developed realm in the setting)

Blackbrook - 220,000 families, 1,100,000 people total

Cyric - 175,000 families, 875,000 people total

Bohn - 135,000 families, 675,000 people total

However, urban demographics greatly vary from the ACKS norm, as this is a world of city-states, and advanced ones at that. So The City and Blackbrook realms go 2 rows downward on the Urban Population table AND 2 rows downward on the Largest Settlement table. The other two cities go 1 row downward on the Urban Population table and 1 row downward on the Largest Settlement table

So how does the urban population look like (in families)?

The City - 250,000 families total, 125,000 urban families total, 62,500 of whom living in the largest settlement (The City) which is a Metropolis and a Class I market.

Blackbrook - 220,000 families total, 50,000 urban families total, 30,000 of them live in the largest settlement (Blackbrook) which is a Metropolis and a Class I market.

Cyric - 175,000 families total, 35,000 urban families total, 12,000 of them live in the largest city (Cyric) which is a Large City and a Class II market.

Bohn - 135,000 families total, 27,000 urban families total, 10,000 of them live in the largest city (Bohn) which is a Large City and a Class II market.

Yes, The City is HUGE.

Now, on to realm subdivision into Duchies:

The City is a Principality. The Prince himself rules only The City directly - it is wealthier than any Duchy under his command and enough of a hassle to manage all by itself. All his lands outside The City are divided between the five Dukes.

Blackbrook also has five Duchies.

Cyric has four Duchies.

And Bohn has three duchies.

Generally speaking, each Duchy is dominated by a City of about 3,000-4,000 families, a Class III market.

So here’s an updated work-in-progress Campaign Map:
http://spacecockroach.blogspot.co.il/2012/12/acks-dark-project-initial-campaign.html

You should add different border colors for each city.

Warder

I am not sure I can do this in free Hexographer.

I’m 99.9% sure that you can. Go to the ‘Custom Lines’ tab, select whether you want freehand or vertex based lines and click on the little palette icon to select the colour. Et voila!

I’ll try, thanks!

Updated map with duchy names:

http://spacecockroach.blogspot.co.il/2012/12/acks-dark-project-duchy-map.html

So my slight delay in developing this setting due to RL concerns and Warhammer 40,000 temptations is over and I am back to work!

Here you can see some preliminary work on the Principality-level economics pf this setting:

http://spacecockroach.blogspot.co.il/2013/01/acks-dark-project-macroeconomics.html

I’m starting work on a regional map:

http://spacecockroach.blogspot.co.il/2013/01/acks-dark-project-starting-work-on.html

Great stuff. I want to play a Venturer in your campaign!

Thanks!

Now, about classes I allow or disallow on the campaign ((C) denotes Player’s Companion class):

Allowed Classes
Anti-Paladin (C)
Assassin
Barbarian (C) - usually Pagan warriors
Bard
Cleric - a Hammerite (must always choose the Mace/Flail/Hammer and Bow/Crossbow weapon groups)
Elven Enchanter (C) - a Changeling (-2 to Reaction from Lawful characters)
Elven Nightblade - a Changeling (-2 to Reaction from Lawful characters)
Elven Spellsword - a Changeling (-2 to Reaction from Lawful characters)
Elven Ranger (C) - a Changeling (-2 to Reaction from Lawful characters)
Explorer
Fighter
Hammerite Machinist (NEW CLASS) - a rare Hammerite scholar deep into clockwork engineering
Mage
Paladin (C) - a Hammerite holy warrior
Priestess (C) - either a Hammerite nun or a Pagan cultist
Shaman (C) - a Pagan priest
Thief
Venturer (C)
Warlock (C)
Witch (C) - village or slum hedge-wizards - WARNING! Presecuted by Hammerites as suspected pagans!

Disallowed Classes
Dwarven Craftpriest - No Dwarves in this setting
Dwarven Delver (C) - No Dwarves in this setting
Dwarven Fury (C) - No Dwarves in this setting
Dwarven Machinist (C) - No Dwarves in this setting
Dwarven Vaultguard - No Dwarves in this setting
Gnomish Trickster (C) - No Gnomes in this setting
Nobiran Wonderworker (C) - No Nobirans in this setting
Thrassian Gladiator (C) - No Lizardmen in this setting
Zaharan Runeguard (C) - No Zaharans in this setting

Classes I might allow if the player has a REALLY creative argument for their inclusion
Bladedancer - would probably come from an exotic culture
Elven Courtier (C) - no real Changeling nobility
Mystic (C) - would probably come from an exotic culture

You can find the new Mechanist class (which I have created for this setting) here:

http://spacecockroach.blogspot.co.il/2013/02/acks-dark-project-mechanist.html

Also, if you like Thief, check out the Dark Mod - a free, stand-alone Thief-style engine with dozens of free missions you can also get.

http://www.thedarkmod.com/main/

Sweet, it even has a linux version! Guess I know what I’m doing tonight after work.