ACKS SRD

I’ve already posted this on G+ and then I realized that this was clearly the most important place to post it. I’m working on the SRD for ACKS, it will be hosted on the AUTARCH site (at least thats the plan) and will be hyperlinked. Essentially I’m just stripping out the Auran Empire and genericising everything. I’m going to add some boilerplate for third parties to stick in their products to explain how to convert to/from the ACKS AC system and such. If any of you are Publishers I’d really like to hear what you’d like to see in an SRD to give ACKS some third party love.

I think the Morale values are the other thing that gets converted amongst the various systems, I don’t have it on hand though.

And this comment on the ACKS Google+ thing was what I was thinking of:

I believe the numbers answer is simply to subtract 8 from the D&D morale numbers. This gives you a range from -6 (2-8) to +4 (12-8).

complements of a Jason Smith.

I am however unaware of how many other OSR-style morale scores there are.

It’s B/X Morale -7.

Hey! That’s me! Neat!

I don’t have B/X, just Labyrinth Lord, whose morale scores run from 2 to 12.

Does BX go 1 to 11?

Jason Smith is right and I’m wrong. It’s B/X ML - 8. DOH

Good stuff. I’m dead tree all the way, but this is awesome for those who’ve joined the 21st century.

I’m very fired up that this happening! Stay in touch over email and let me know whenever you need support.

Will do, I’m still on the initial run through to clear out all the Auran Empire bits, then I’ll go from there. I’ll probably start poking around for help when I start sticking it into the website as I’m no drupal ninja.

Just working through the Proficiencies and I came to “Black Lore of Zahar” would it be better to remove it entirely, or change it to something else like “Necromantic Lore”?

I’ve been going with Black Lore / Necromantic Lore so far, in my settings. Maybe “Black Lore” is less confusing and easier to connect?

We usually call it just Black Lore in our group.

Black Lore it is!

That’d line up with Grey Lore out of the PC and I’m sure a White Lore will be forthcoming at some point.

Is there a list of Place Names, Deity names, etc that are not Open Content? After having skimmed page by page I think a simple find and remove/replace will be easier. Then I can proof that and be good to go.

Geography: Aurëpos, Ammas Aurë, Comean Sea, Lake Laman, Jutting Mountains, Meniri Mountains, Achaean Mountains, Drakonir Mountains, Zaqāru Mountains

Countries: Auran Empire, Tirenea, Celdorea, Corcano, Krysea, Nicea, Somirea, Kemesh, Argollë, Jutland, Rorn, Keita, Munde, Kushtu, Skysos, Syrnasos, Zahar, Thrassia, Azen Khador

Nationalities: Auran, Argollëan, Besherab, Celdorean, Corcanoan, Jutlandic, Kemshi, Kushtu, Krysean, Nicean, Opelenean, Rornish, Skysos, Somirean, Syrnasan

Cities: Aura, Alakyrum, Arganos, Cyfaraun, Kavala, Korinthos, Istakahr, Ithos, Ivorium, Pireus, Pyrgos, Telpir, Thrassia, Trikala, Zahar, Zidium

Languages: Auran, Zaharan

Races: Nobiran, Zaharan, Thrassian

Gods: Ammonar, Calefa, Ianna, Istreus, Mityara, Naurivus, Türas; Iskara, Sakkara, Dirgion, Kaleth, Bel, Galmorm, Nasga, Ravanor, Nargund, Ornaron, Lammala, Telith, Winged Sun

Characters: Audarius Tarkaun, Baal the Terrible, Azendor, Valerian Bellësareus, Marcus, Quintus, Viktir

I don’t even know how many of those show up in the rules.

Great, I’m in the process of converting it to an Ansi text file to make it a little easier to use text-file processing tools on it (and I may also use a versioning system so the community can help clean up my own mistakes) then i’ll use that master to create the web based version when thats ready. I might also hack that text file up and serve it hyperlinked on my own gopherspace, because I’m just that nerdy. So this will help. it’s been a bit slower going than I’d have expected (who knew I’d have this little time whilst job-hunting in front of a computer) but I’m about halfway through. I’ll get everything done on the core book first, then work on the companion.

Ok, so I dumped the SRD to a text file, did a grep based on the word list above and am in the process of removing the IP. When it comes to city names used in examples such as “943 EXAMPLE: Marcus is in Arganos, a city of…” what would people rather see? I could just make up names.

I’d go with ancient real-world place names… Ancient Greek, Roman, Middle-Eastern, etc. Like Arsuf, Athens, Damascus, Troy, Tyre.

+1 on Rhynn’s idea.

Using ancient real-world names for places, people and gods would remove the IP issues but should readily suggest exactly what the item in question is - i.e., most GMs would know that Zeus was a god, Athens a city, etc.