ACKS Version?

Hi there!

I’ve been very happy to see the playtest/preview materials so far and the progress being made. I’ve also been very heartened by the roadmap that’s been laid out so far for finishing Dwimmermount. However I do have one question that doesn’t seem to be directly addressed in the roadmap and such. That is the different versions of the book being produced. At the time of the Kickstarter and at the close we all chose whether to get a version built for ACKS or Labyrinth Lord. I chose ACKS (at least or my print version). How is the progress coming on creating the ACKS version of the book? What adjustments are being made to tailer the dungeon and outdoor areas to the ACKS system? How long will those take? (Will se see one version before the other?). Anyway, keep up the good work, I’m just curious about this one aspect which doesn’t seem to have been talked about much in the updates.

I''ve started working on the ACKS version now that we're approaching a critical mass of material to work with, and will set internal deadlines for this in the next update. The things I've got on my plate currently are the sample parties - adding proficiencies, and setting up a spreadsheet that will allow each party to be statted out at levels 1-14 - and Muntburg (calculating the ACKS stats for the town and fortification). I'm also updating the monster spreadsheet so that it can output accurate ACKS statblocks for the monsters in the dungeon.

Folks who are interested in helping with any of these aspects - or just seeing where they're at ahead of time - are invited to drop me an email at tavis@autarch.co,

Awesome! Thanks for the update! I figured you were probably waiting until things were starting to “finalize” but it had just occured to me that I hadn’t heard much about that aspect. Anyway really looking forward to it, and thanks again for keeping us all in the loop!

Here's a question about the ACKS conversion of Rival Adventuring Parties. As James is writing the statblocks with LL in mind, they lack some information that ACKS would provide - most notably attack throws and proficiencies:

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Asceline (Level 1 Neutral Female Thief) AC: 5 HP: 4

STR 10 INT 15 WIS 12 CON 13 DEX 17 CHA 13

Pick Locks: 17% Find/Remove Traps: 14 Pick Pockets: 23% Move Silently: 23% Climb Walls: 87% Hide in Shadows: 13% Hear Noise 1-2

Equipment:  Sword, Dagger, Leather Armor, Backpack, Waterskin, Lantern, 4 Flasks oil, 1 Week Iron Rations, 10' Pole, 50' Rope, Thieves Tools

Personality: Asceline is bold to the point of foolhardiness. Her charisma makes her a natural leader.

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In doing the conversion, I am leaning towards giving the proficiencies as a separate line, while giving the attack throw information as part of an ACKS monster-type statblock (given that rival parties are likely to be killed):

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Asceline  (Level 1 Neutral Female Thief)

AC 4, Move 120' (40'), HP 4, ATK Sword (8+, 1d6) or Dagger (thrown) (8+, 1d4), SV T1, ML 0, XP 10

STR 10 INT 15 WIS 12 CON 13 DEX 17 CHA 13

Pick Locks: 17% Find/Remove Traps: 14 Pick Pockets: 23% Move Silently: 23% Climb Walls: 87% Hide in Shadows: 13% Hear Noise 1-2

Proficiencies: Weapon Finesse, Gambling, Leadership

Equipment: Sword, Dagger, Leather Armor, Backpack, Waterskin, Lantern, 4 Flasks oil, 1 Week Iron Rations, 10' Pole, 50' Rope, Thieves Tools

Personality: Asceline is bold to the point of foolhardiness. Her charisma makes her a natural leader.

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What do y'all think of this approach? (Note that thief abilities have yet to be converted to throws; likewise spell repertoires have yet to be expanded to account for bonus INT).
 
The bold formatting is lost because this is the output of an Excel sheet that can take any XP level for the rival party and provide its statistics at that level. Here's what Asceline will look like when the Five Delvers have 100,000 XP, for example:
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Asceline  (Level 8 Neutral Female Thief)

AC 6, Move 120' (40'), HP 28, ATK Sword (5+, 1d6) or Dagger (thrown) (5+, 1d4), SV T8, ML 0, XP 600

STR 10 INT 15 WIS 12 CON 13 DEX 17 CHA 13

Pick Locks: 17% Find/Remove Traps: 14 Pick Pockets: 23% Move Silently: 23% Climb Walls: 87% Hide in Shadows: 13% Hear Noise 1-2

Proficiencies: Weapon Finesse, Gambling, Leadership, Swashbuckling, Disguise, Cat Burglary

Equipment: Sword, Dagger, Leather Armor, Backpack, Waterskin, Lantern, 4 Flasks oil, 1 Week Iron Rations, 10' Pole, 50' Rope, Thieves Tools

Personality: Asceline is bold to the point of foolhardiness. Her charisma makes her a natural leader.

 

Looks good to me!

Do you think initiative bonuses should be included in the second line?

Definitely I do, particularly as there are multiple factors from different areas of the stat lines that determine the final init bonus such as proficiencies, weapon choice, and dexterity bonuses/penalties.

I’d prefer not to have to do the math at the table.

Very much agreed. I definitely prefer to just have the (fleshed out) number there ready to go. Anything that saves me time as a Judge is something I very much want!