Adventurer Conquerer, Lawyer: Is this okay?

Inspired by the ACKS rules, I created a setting for my campaign. It started off with a general outline and a worldmap, but it quickly got out of hand.

Combining all my notes and ideas, I am writing a sourcebook / players’ guide for my campaign setting, Dawn of Kings. Obviously, I will want to include some houserules, etc. In a large part, though, the system will be ‘pure’ ACKS.

Now, if (and that’s a big if) I were to publish this, would it be okay to mention ACKS? You’ve done a great job with the system, and I really don’t want to infringe your copyright.

Would it be okay to say something like: okay, Dawn of Kings is an unofficial sourcebook for ACKS. General ACKS rules apply, except (houserule 1, houserule 2, etc).

Would it be okay to say: this works like the X proficiency from ACKS, except Y - without actually printing the exact rules of the proficiency?

I’m looking for general guidelines on what you would consider ‘not done’.

Thanks in advance!

Why not go official?

There is a compatibility license at the back of ACKS that is very easy to qualify under, and the rules themselves are open-source. If you want to chat further, drop me an email at amacris at gmail dot com and I’m sure we can work something out!

If I’m not mistaken, aren’t there two things like this already on the rise? Barbarian, Conqueror, King and the late-antiquity focused variant who’s name escapes me? (I believe the campaign itself was called Tyche’s Favorites)

Mercenary, Liberator, Tyrant?

Yeah, I think that’s what it was.

Yes, there are!

I’ve read the compatibility license (silly that I didn’t find it earlier), and that does seem easy to adhere to. Awesome! I’ll send you an example of the type of thing I mean by e-mail, if that’s okay, Alex.

Definitely.

I’d actually be really fired up if people started using ACKS et al as the basis for more content. I know that many segments of the industry (Wizards, etc.) have moved away from seeing OGL as a good thing, but nothing would make me happier as a designer than to have my work become a platform for bigger and better things.

It is indeed, and I am still working on it, progress goes in fits and starts. Mostly it’s all the contextual material I’m writing around how to make it an actual historical game, rather than just D&D-in-sandals, that’s taking the time and effort.