Blame Brad. His harassment has finally gotten to me, so I'm doing this mini-review of ACKSII...

So, you want to know if ACKII is worth the coin?

Yes, but those are some serious tomes dude, how complex is this shit?

ACKSII is simplified and streamlined compared to 5e PC's in terms of complexity. You have class abilities, and proficiencies a.k.a. 'Feats', but you never get more than 6-7 or so of them over 14 levels, so it is more manageable. If you can do B/X, ACKSII does not burden the player much more. If anything, they'd probably like the additional options to individualize their class. i.e. You can have 3 fighters in a group, and have them start and be different to each other over their level progression.

The game is not fundamentally more complex than base B/X. What makes it look intimidating, is that it is Very Complete:

Naval battles; rules for that. Mass combat; rules for that. Sieges; rules for that. Ocean voyages and exploration; rules for that. Downtime activities; rules for that. INVADING, CONQUERING, OCCUPYING, AND PILLAGING DOMAINS; rules for that. Many games talked the talk, but when it comes to Domain play; ACKSII walks the walk.

And the Judge's journal will tell you how to run all of that. Custom Classes; rules for that. Custom monsters; rules for that. And they are the exact same rules used to build the classes and monsters in the game. Want to have realistic population demographics and economics in your game world based on circa 300ad historical Roman data? Rules for that. He also gives you the underlying math. One of the books in the recommended non-fiction section is: 'The Grain Market in the Roman Empire'... The fuck.

The Monster book: You can kill them and take their stuff. In this case their stuff also includes their hides and internal organs that are valuable trade goods, and can be used for spell components. And if one of your PC's decides he wants to capture, tame, and train one of the beast or monsters; rules for that. FYI; for game classification reasons Orcs are listed alphabetically under 'B' for Beastman, Orc. Not under 'O' for just Orc.

Attend, the only good Orc is a dead Orc. Verily, I have spoken.

It is the modular rules set that D&D Next promised, but 5e scuttled 'because reasons'. Macris took one look at the Rules Cyclopedia and said: "Your game is weak. Hold my beer..." He then fixed the whole linear fighter, quadratic wizard problem as a side-quest for the LOLZ.

I have designed a homebrew system that I have used to run a multi-year Star Wars campaign with. After reading ACKSII I have come to the following conclusion:

I am stupid.

All that being said, at its core, if all you want to do is play Keep on the Borderlands without all that additional rules crap; You can do that to. In fact, your players will like it better because the PC classes are more mechanically engaging than standard B/X.

Yes, ACKSII are some hefty tomes, but they are also very much choose your own adventure books in terms of how much of the rules you want to engage with at any given time at your table.

So should you get it?

Well, if you are perfectly happy with your old-school game of choice with it's whacked-ass busted rules, then probably not.

However, if 'ACKSII has rules for that' is indeed your bag baby, then yes, hell yes, throw a coin to your Macris o' valley of plenty.

Thanks for the review. Do you have experience of ACKSI, and if so, can you comment on whether it's worth upgrading to ACKSII?

Yes, thanks for the review.

Quote from: Krazz on January 28, 2025, 03:34:42 PMThanks for the review. Do you have experience of ACKSI, and if so, can you comment on whether it's worth upgrading to ACKSII?

I just have the main ACKS1e corebook, so my view comes from that.

The two main reasons why you would want to upgrade:

1: ACKSII is consolidating several separate supplements under one roof with the benefit of the years of playtesting as they are merged together. (This was the big reason for me, as I discovered ACKS just a few months before ACKSII was announced.)

2: The subtle, but very impactful rules tweaks made to ACKSII. For example; the cleave ability given to various classes in ACKSII, that are not in ACKS1e. This is an important part of fixing the linear fighter, quadratic wizard problem. Part of this is also the subtle re-working of the spell list to enable this. Also the whole thing of actually balancing magic with mass combat...

Macris lays this out better than I can here:

Solving the Quandary of the Quadratic Wizard and the Linear Fighter:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZaq9gh5L8E

Design Challenges of Mass Combat in Fantasy RPGs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEoz3-HCKxs

Some of the stuff ACKSII does is not obvious at first glance. But that's OK. Macris has already figured it out so that you don't have to...

So it really depends on how pot-invested you feel you are in ACKS1e. If you don't engage in the areas of the game that ACKSII is a step ahead in, it might not matter that much to you.

But if wish a few things about ACKS were still just like ACKS, but objectively better; Then ACKSII is the new hotness.

I have like all the ACKSI stuff. Have only played it once at a convention, and enjoyed it

not all that motivated to go out and buy all new books and relegate the old ones to a lonely shelf.

Quote from: Jaeger on January 28, 2025, 03:05:11 PMBlame Brad. His harassment has finally gotten to me, so I'm doing this mini-review of ACKSII...

It was literally only like two PMs, sir.

Thanks for the info, though. Gonna go ahead and buy it.

Quote from: Brad on January 28, 2025, 08:15:33 PM...
It was literally only like two PMs, sir.

'Twas pernicious harassment! A veritable brigading campaign I say!

Aren't we supposed to believe all accusers!?

Quote from: MerrillWeathermay on January 28, 2025, 07:57:12 PMI have like all the ACKSI stuff. Have only played it once at a convention, and enjoyed it

not all that motivated to go out and buy all new books and relegate the old ones to a lonely shelf.

I'm not sure on the fiddly details of backwards compatibility, but you might only need to get the single revised rulebook to work with everything else you have for the updated/re-balanced classes and spell lists.

Hopefully Macris may elect to descend down from on high, and inform the unwashed as to the practicality of such a thing...

Quote from: Jaeger on January 28, 2025, 05:34:38 PMSolving the Quandary of the Quadratic Wizard and the Linear Fighter:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZaq9gh5L8E

Incredibly valuable video. Recommended.

It may be sacrilege, but I want the "A" part and not the "CK" parts. I'm sure it's all amazing, but I just don't have time for anything that extensive. No desire for mass combat, naval battles, economics, etc.

Hey Macris, any chance of a 30 page "ACKS Lite?"

Quote from: Aglondir on January 28, 2025, 11:01:18 PM

Quote from: Jaeger on January 28, 2025, 05:34:38 PMSolving the Quandary of the Quadratic Wizard and the Linear Fighter:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZaq9gh5L8E

Incredibly valuable video. Recommended.

It may be sacrilege, but I want the "A" part and not the "CK" parts. I'm sure it's all amazing, but I just don't have time for anything that extensive. No desire for mass combat, naval battles, economics, etc.

Hey Macris, any chance of a 30 page "ACKS Lite?"

It can't hurt to ask.

My interest in ACKS developed late in the lifetime of 1e. It seemed too large an investment in both time and funds to get a real handle on. Internally I said to myself I would have a look if there was ever a second edition. Then lo and behold Kickstarter. So I pledged for the book set.

Now that I've had some time with the pre-release material I see that it does exactly what I want it too. And to my eyes that is B/X had it not been revised to align with Mentzer's vision. More importantly it is the most comprehensive OSR product on the market.

When playing OSR games I tinker with rules a lot and I like to jump around from base system to base system bringing along the tweaks that I've made along the way. ACKSII strikes me as a great reference as a consistent base system that I can apply those tweaks to and not have to recontextualize them against the current system I am using.

I will run a RAW ACKSII game when the books arrive but I think the greater value to me is having all those sub-systems at my fingertips. The domain level rules, particularly hijinks, mercantile ventures, and politics, are the missing piece of the puzzle for a campaign I have been planning for close to a decade.

My players are not particularly inclined to engage with in-depth mechanics so most of the game will remain GM-facing but that's fine with me. The mechanical foundation let's me focus on running the game and not building rules to run the game. I'm excited about this game not because it will supplant anything at my table but will enhance all of my OSR games going forward.

Quote from: Aglondir on January 28, 2025, 11:01:18 PMIt may be sacrilege, but I want the "A" part and not the "CK" parts. I'm sure it's all amazing, but I just don't have time for anything that extensive. No desire for mass combat, naval battles, economics, etc.

Hey Macris, any chance of a 30 page "ACKS Lite?"

I would definitely buy an ACKS Lite.

Quote from: Jaeger on January 28, 2025, 05:34:38 PM2: The subtle, but very impactful rules tweaks made to ACKSII. For example; the cleave ability given to various classes in ACKSII, that are not in ACKS1e.

Cleave was in ACKS 1e on page 105.

There is about twice the verbage and some clarifications, such as the continuing of the backstab/ambush bonus, in ACKS2 but it is the same ability.

In this way it is a great example of much of the change: ideas are clarified, questions that have been arisen answered, and information repeated where useful, such as the weapon limitations on number of cleaves is not only in the cleave rules but on the weapons table.

I'll certainly be looking into ACKS2

Quote from: Banjo Destructo on January 29, 2025, 10:30:40 AMI'll certainly be looking into ACKS2

Ditto.

Curse you for making me have to spend more money kek.
I've had my eyes on ACKS2 for a while now, but now I'm quite inclined to get it eventually.