Magic Research Table – what does the asterisk mean on levels 0 to 4?
(Asterisk on the MRT)APM: They mean that up until 4th level, spellcasters cannot engage in magic research independently.
James – Ok. Would be useful to include a note letting the reader know that’s what it means.
APM: I’ve added a note in v27.
(Rituals)APM: The mage is expected to put the ritual onto a scroll or into a ring, or something.
I need to make more explicit the fact that casting a ritual spell is IDENTICAL to creating a one-use magic item with the spell in it.
James – Yes. I think that would make every bad thought I have about rituals go away. That this was the way you envisaged rituals working didn’t even occur to be when I read the rules. Definitely something lost in translation there.
APM: I’ve added some additional explanatory text in v27. “When a ritual spell is cast, the spellcaster may choose to have the ritual take effect immediately, or he may store the spell effect on a scroll or as a charge in a ring (like a ring of wishes). Storing the spell effect does not have an additional cost – the act of casting a ritual spell is identical to that of creating a single charge of a magic item with the spell effect.”
(Crossbreeding)APM: It’s left to the Judge to determine whether the new creature remembers its prior existence. I’ve generally ruled that if you crossbreed an intelligent progenitor with an unintelligent creature, the crossbreed retains its memory of its prior self and life.
James – So, you’re going to kill me. There’s a 15% chance that I’ll be dead dead dead, and an 85% chance that I’ll turn into some sort of hybrid monster, and I’ll remember my former life? This is madness 
We’re talking ‘The Fly’ territory here are we? If you add in something to the rules about the intelligent progenitor remembering their former life (at the Judges discretion) then it becomes slightly more appealing, but not much…
APM: To my horror, several players in my ACKS campaign volunteered for this!
(Self-Necromanciation)APM: You complete the ritual and kill yourself as the last part of it.
James – heh. ok. I really think some reference needs to be added to say ‘btw you naughty necromancer, you are able to do this to yourself!’ There’s no hint of that in the rules as they stand.
APM: Fixed! “A spellcaster may transform himself into an intelligent undead using necromancy if desired, by killing himself at the conclusion of the ritual.”
James – I totally agree with the ludicrousness of that, and yes, for the purpose of building a dwarven/elven stronghold near to human lands, then saying ‘needs to be in wilderness’ makes sense. However, in the Dwarf-lands campaign world, or in Elf-world, where those nations aren’t fading, then Dwarf and Elf PCs should be clearly signposted to be able to build in Civilised or Borderlands hexes where those hexes are controlled by their own kin. The rules as written enforce the default campaign world – and don’t get me wrong, that’s fine; it’s your game and gameworld after all, but I do think you could give the demi-humans a little love here
APM: Fixed. “Elves and dwarves may only build in wilderness areas, or civilized or borderlands areas of their race.”
James – Could you tell me how you worked out the cost of Quasqueton? Did you calculate the total square footage and work it out based on each 10’ cube of dungeon? How did you account for the ‘special features’ such as the kitchen, or the room of pools, or the lower cavern level?
APM: I just made them up! The cavern level I assumed was actual natural cavern and therefore free.
Costs of the various trap types listed in Chapter 10 (because any dungeon worth its salt has traps)
Costs for making a Fastness so that it ‘blends with the surrounding area’ (can a Fastness be made of stone? Must it be wood?)
Costs for caverns (pertinent if part of the mages dungeon is natural, and acquired rather than custom built)
Cost for the bridge where Gandalf fights the Balrog (Bridges are generally missing, but I could guess at 500gp/10ft)
Costs for ‘natural’ tunnels that aren’t floored with stone (slightly less than tunnel?)
Cost for massive vaulted chambers with pillars and such (excavation costs + structure of analogous size?)
Cost for stronghold built out of / around the trunk of an ancient giant tree (just use wooden structure costs and calculate per 10ft square of floorspace? No extra engineering required?)
Sorry if I appear to be being anal about this. I do feel strongly that the slant of the stronghold construction rules lean towards castle builders. It requires some interpretation to see beyond that surface layer and be able to visualise how other things can come out of the tables – you’ve shown me that it’s there, but I’m not comfortable with how obvious it is – particularly to new or inexperienced players.
APM: That’s very, very helpful, thank you.
(Rituals)APM: I’ve added some additional explanatory text in v27. “When a ritual spell is cast, the spellcaster may choose to have the ritual take effect immediately, or he may store the spell effect on a scroll or as a charge in a ring (like a ring of wishes). Storing the spell effect does not have an additional cost – the act of casting a ritual spell is identical to that of creating a single charge of a magic item with the spell effect.”
James - Sweet. That clarifies it all nicely.
(Crossbreeding)APM: To my horror, several players in my ACKS campaign volunteered for this!
James - You are kidding me! Players will do anything won’t they… boggle
Realms by Type Table – several of the number progressions in the cells overlap or don’t intersect. For example, Realm Size, Empire and Kingdom both have 115,000 in the ranges. The range for Empire should start at 115,001, perhaps. And, same column, Kingdom and Principality. Kingdom starts at 19,000, Principality ends at 18,500, leaving a gap of 500 square miles. There are about 7 instances of this in the table.
Political Divisions of Realms table – The figures for the number of Baronies and Manors in an Empire and Kingdom may be incorrect. In 3 cases the number 21,600/21,601 is used. In the previous table the number 24,000 is used – the two are not compatible. Which is the correct figure?
EXAMPLE – I have problems with the math used in the example. It’s probably because Alex is using very specific formula for his calculations. However, using ‘obvious’ maths I can’t make things add up. This makes my head hurt and it makes it harder to understand the relationships between the realm levels, and I think it undermines the tables. For example – the vast imperium covers 680 hexes and 5.6million families. This is divided into 5 exarchates each with 1.1 million families and 210 hexes. 680 hexes divided by 5 exarchates is 136 Hexes, not 210, and 5.6/1.1 million leaves 100,000 families left over. Each Exarchate is assumed to be divided into 6 prefectures of 37 hexes. 210/6 is 35 (and 680 / 30 is 22.666, so it’s even further out). The example suggests that all of the subdivisions are of equal size and population (for simplicity, presumably), and I’m not so naive as to think this is realistic except as an artefact of game design, however, the figures simply don’t add up as presented.
Revenue by Realm type table – The number continuum in the ‘Realm population’ column suffers from the same overlap issues.
Revenue by Realm type table – Rulers Personal Domain column is repeated twice.
Page 244.
‘The Revenue by Realm Type table assumes that at each tier of nobility, the nobles have 4-6 vassals of the next tier below them’ – This doesn’t hold for the figures in the tables as far as I can see. The most obvious example of this is the ‘Political Division of Realms’ table. If, per the text, we assume that an Empire can be split into 4-6 vassal kingdoms, and each kingdom split into 4-6 vassal principalities and so on, then none of the figures presented are correct. The kingdom split should be 4-6 instead of 2-5. The Principality split should be 16-36, Duchy split is 64-216, etc… etc… I’m really sorry, but applying ‘common sense’ to the data makes it crumble. Please help me make it make sense!
APM: I’ve gone through your reports here and have made sense of what I did (and did wrong).
As you surmised, the word document presents information created from considerably more complex spreadsheets that generate various realms. The upper end of each bracket was based on the Auran Empire, while the lower end of the bracket was simply assigned to be close to the high point of the next tier.
However, there are two basic problems with this.
- The Auran Empire does not use a standard 4x, 5x, or 6x multipler at each tier. In fact the Auran Empire has 5 exarchs per emperor, 6 prefects per exarch, 6 palatines per prefect, 6 legates per palatine, 5 tribunes per legate, 4 castellans per tribune, and 4 patricians per castellan, giving it a 5/6/6/6/5/4/4 format. I had good reasons for this at the time I created Auran Empire, but it makes it a poor choice to use as an example of a “maximally sized” empire as by my own assumptions a maximally sized empire might be 6x down the line. It also makes the math very hard to follow.
- The left-hand (lower) bracket for each category shouldn’t actually be based on the upper end of the lower tier. It should instead be calculated based on the lower-end for its tier. For instance, if a baron has between 4-6 manors, and a marquis has between 4 and 6 barons, then a marquis should have a minimum of 4x4=16 manors, and a maximum of 6x6=36. My current chart puts the minimum for a marquis at 6, or just 1 over a baron. I had simply tried to “lap” the tiers for simplicity but it ends up being confusing.
So that explains, I think, a substantial amount of the confusion you pointed out. I’ve fixed it now in v27.
The other mistake that was causing confusion was a gross math error on my part. The vast imperium should have been covering 1,130 24-mile hexes. I don’t know where the 680 hexes came from. Here is the correct language:
On the Judge’s campaign map, he has drawn a vast imperium covering 1,130 24-mile hexes. This qualifies it as an “empire”. Using the baseline of 5,000 families per 24-mile hex, he assigns the empire a population of 5.6 million families. Following the Political Divisions of Realms table, he decides the empire is divided into 5 “exarchates” (kingdoms), each controlling 1.1 million families and spanning 226 24-mile hexes (113,000,000 square miles). Beneath the exarchates he chooses to have a total of 30 “prefectures” (principalities), each controlling 183,000 families and spanning 37 24-mile hexes (18,500 square miles). He decides that he will further develop one of these prefectures as the starting region for the adventurers. His regional map should therefore assign the prefecture about 600 6-mile hexes of settled land (approximately 18,500 miles).