ACKSII (Review) - Strength Part I.

This may be a few months a year after, but it still feels like riding off of the Mythlands of Erce review of the same...

Starting with what little I've read, and off of the general sense I get from the game.

ACKSII offers a vision of strength.  Its in the name, not just adventurers, but conquerors and kings are set to rise from the ashes of previous kingdoms.  

One of the most memorable aspects of these three books is the setting.  It is omnipresent, which I, for one, do not mind.  My own house rule document, a tenth of the length under the current draft, is bland and flavorless gruel by comparison.  Every inch of the text here paints a clear picture of what the setting is about.  If there was any doubt in reading through ACKS (the first) that it was Rome by a different name, here, the artwork alone conveys that message loud and CLEAR.  Speaking of the artwork, the chapter cover art is the lowest point for me, as I have a personal distaste for the style, though I must admit it very much reminds of the AD&D2e kind of sword and sorcery art.  (I don't know quite what I'm talking about) The interior art is gorgeous, crisp, clean and oozing with ancient Roman paraphernalia.  

ACKSII gives more detail on the fictional cultures present within its setting than Baptism of Fire gives on the real cultures presented within it, though, to be fair, ACKSII is almost four times the size. 

 The core of the system really couldn't be described better than, again, by Mythlands.  In short: "What if we made AD&D, but based it on the B/X line?"

The classes, as I have referenced in a previous post, innovate to include six base classes, one for each ability score (which are slightly different here, but it does not make a real difference), but all of which serve a unique niche within the core of the game, one of my personal game design ideals.

The host of available classes provide many different playstyle options to the players, frankly too many to cover in brief, though I can't judge the number, since my home game has only three fewer classes.

 To choose a singular point from this section to note: the cleave mechanic.  An elegant solution both to the problem of facing multiple enemies and multiple attacks.

To describe two problems I've found in my own game: When faced with many enemies, especially weak enemies, unless you have enough attacks per round the combat either becomes a slog, not difficult, and not particularly dangerous for the characters, but mopping up the enemies becomes tedious.  BUT: if you give the characters too many attacks per round, one-on-one combat goes by in seconds, and not in a fun or engaging way.

The way that the cleave mechanic is implemented in ACKSII fixes both of these problems.  The mechanic in specific: If your character kills an enemy, he may immediately make an attack against another creature in range, and do so a number of times per round as dictated by class and level.  As well, each cleave allows a 5ft step forward, which allows for competent character to potentially wade through hordes of weak enemies.

So good, in fact, I'm considering changing the rules of my own game to match.

 

Proficiencies

The general proficiencies I can only liken to the skills from AD&D 2e, but on overdrive.  Although, I do think they are implemented better than in 2e.

The class proficiencies are more similar to feats from 3e/3.5e, though with less of the skill-tree bull going on.  Frankly, I think the proficiencies in ACKSII deliver better on the promise of feats from 3e than that game did, as these allow and encourage character customization rather than the min/maxxing and powergame nonsense that is found in 3e and even 5e to an extent... a fair extent.

My only criticism here would be that I find the section a bit hard to navigate 

 

Equipment

Mostly going off of the tables here: 

I don't like electrum pieces, or 5gp platinum pieces, but that isn't a real criticism, just a personal preference.  The standard of living table is very useful, as a referee, for gauging the relative expense of different items.  The equipment availability by market class table is a staple of the ACKS brand at this point, and I have not seen its like in any other RPG, from a simulationist point of view, or even verisimilitude really, this just such a cool inclusion to the game.  I should also stress that this table adds an added depth to the flavor of the game's setting.

The equipment list uses a bit more of a simplified system of sword classification, which actually fixes the delineation problem regarding sword types that I have with a lot of other systems.  Under the armor section the arena armor is a fun and very pulp-y addition.

The extensive adventuring equipment list is appreciated here, because this is a game where it is very important, unlike 5e and some OtHeR games which only include it as a legacy mechanic.

A war elephant costs the equivalent of 35,000 chickens, this is neutral.  A light riding horse costs more than either a medium or a heavy riding horse, this seems weird, but lo and behold, it is explained later in the section: Light horses travel fast, but carry less.

 There are more types of poisons here than there are of weapons in 5e.

 There are costs listed for building roads, statues and traps.  Again, not found in any other RPG I know about.

 Rules for hirelings, henchmen and mercenaries.  Hiring, upkeep, morale.  Fairly standard by this point, but still good to have.

The cost of spellcasting services and the availability thereof based on market class entails the ability to get a cure light wounds or similar spell even at the smallest of towns, for 5gp.  Of course, experienced adventurers could probably find better 1st level spells to make use of for only 5gp.

The kind of impression left by just this one section is that, you may not make use of every single entry, but, should you ever need to know the price of constructing a wizard tower, a half-dozen chickens or any number of other expenses heretofore unmentioned, the rules are there for you.  This stands in stark contrast to some games which take the position of "do it yourself."  D&D 6e/5.5e's advice on spell creation is essentially 'feel it out,' the ACKSII Judges' Journal has 30 pages dedicated to the precise creation of spells.  Get stunted on D&D.

 

Speaking of spells, there are 180 divine and 192 arcane spells across six spell levels.  From what I can tell, a lot of these spells seem to be ACKS/ACKSII originals.  I don't have much to say, other than the same criticism I have of the proficiencies section, that it is somewhat difficult to navigate.

 

The Adventures section provides highly-detailed rules for dungeon-delving, wilderness exploration and combat.  The experience system is made up of the standard core of 1 gp = 1 xp, and xp for monsters defeated.  XP can also be gained through campaign activities: constructing strongholds, domain revenue, criminal hijinks, mercantile income, magical research, and divine power.

Something to note is the reserve xp fund, individual to each player, which can be added to during play, counts towards the xp of new characters, and does not deplete.  Permanent progress is always cool to see.

 

Under the Voyages section is a system for naval combat, as well as sailing in general.  The campaigns section has rules for a whole host of activities that can only take place in an extended campaign.  The Armies, Manuevers, and Battles sections detail rules for every aspect of mass combat.  The final non-appendix section is on Sieges.

I'll be honest and say that I have only really skimmed these last six sections, but, for me, it is enough to just say that the rules are there, present and accounted for.

 

Appendices A and C:  Appendix A has the setting, a Rome-analog in the form of the Auran Empire as well as many other European and Mediterranean analogous cultures, with a very useful chart comparing the languages of the setting to their real-world counterparts.

Appendix C is a full set of tables for the effects of death and dying.

 

 This is just an overview, of just one of the books, and already you have everything you need to run any kind of old-school simulationist game.  As well, if for no other reason than personal preference, I think the setting of this game is more well defined and the flavor more clearly present than the setting and flavor of Baptism of Fire.

This is a 5/5 product.  It knows what it is and executes it with aplomb.

 

 The second part of this post is a short note, a bit past due, so I suppose like the rest of the post...

 

 Strength

Every time I hear an off-hand comment about somebody being some kind of modern undesirable, my first thought is no longer "Oh, that's horrible," its, "Are you sure you aren't mistaken?"

The second thought I have comes from a stonetoss comic, boiled down: "Would I also be one of those, according to your definition?"  (It cuts out all the comedy, but the point is salient.)

You say that R.O.B. Barker was a nazi?  The reason I do not give one **** is not for a lack of caring about either the subject or object of your claim, but that I have heard the same, uttered seemingly thousands of times before at other targets, and a damning number of those times it was tacitly false.

At the worst Barker was a coward who supported modernist ideology.  

You simply support a different branch of modernist ideology.

All I see is two communists, one accusing the other of being a communist.

...of which, might I add, has jack all to do with Role-playing games, other than the fact that all of this political bull should be jettisoned from the hobby.  Or any hobby for that matter.

 Be seeing you.