“I think its safe to say that I have never seen a set of rules and guidelines for stronghold and dominion management in any other D&D game (or even any other game remotely similar to D&D) that were this complete. The mechanics in the BECMI/Rules Cyclopedia books pale in comparison. Even Pendragon, which probably has the most detailed rules on manors that I’d seen systematized until now, doesn’t really match up. You get complete rules for just what kind of stronghold each class can make, how many followers it will attract, what every little bit of it will cost, how many peasant families you can attract and support, and what kind of revenue you can collect. On top of that you get rules for how to expand your domain, what kind of various expenses are involved on a regular basis, rules and tables for being a vassal of a lord or king, morale rules for your dominion to see if the peasants are revolting, rules for building and running villages, towns and cities, and building and managing markets.”
Hello luftmench, very kind of you to take an interest.
Ryan Browning, the primary illustrator for the ACKS core book is more widely known for his impressive contemporary paintings and art practice which you can witness at his website:
http://www.ryanbrowning.com/recent.html
The ACKS core book has the lionshare of his illustrated game art output within its pages and you can buy the originals through his Etsy page:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/frontierbright?page=1&order=price_desc
I did some minor illustrations for the ACKS core book, but I am gearing to do the troop counters for Domains at War and maps for forthcoming ACKS supplements. I am working on my illustration portfolio page, but it has some ways to go:
http://studiogreengoat.wordpress.com/
I also have an alternate identity when I am not drawing tiny plate-mailed elves:
http://chrishagerty.com/galleryjump_chrishagerty.html
Excellent!
nice, thanks for the promotion. I need to redo my illustration site since I killed the last one. I think I might need a handy alias like Greengoat! Perhaps Periloth will do :)
The subject of aliases or pseudonyms is interesting. The only famous artist I can think of that did professional illustration work is Andy Warhol, and he went by the more formal "Andrew Warhola". I think it's a good tool to differentiate intents.
I'm now the proud owner of Ryan's map/astrolabe drawing that features so much in the ACKS advertising. To me it immediately spoke of adventure and exploration. Thus, I can't wait until it's framed and on my wall.
excellent! luftmensch and I also worked out a great trade - drawings for a few old monster manuals/compendiums/etc. How great is that? Thanks guys!
i also am now the proud owner of some of the art i got from Ryan, i sent him an email about the d20 art and got a very neat piece with that and some other random goodies for my gameroom.
i just want to say its very cool that on the Autarch forums you can communicate with the artists of the books and even sometimes get the art that speaks to you from the books. its a wonderful thing that the artists and Autarch work so closely together
I've got to say that it's been very cool working with everyone who supports ACKS - it's been a blast! I wish I could be around more :)