I’m pleased to announce that Autarch will be releasing a new supplement for the Adventurer Conqueror King System this summer!
Many of you have praised the game’s focus on realistic economics and support for a wide variety of spreadsheets in play. Now we’re taking that to a new level: The ACKS Economist’s Companion will open up the game’s accounting and finance systems the way Player’s Companion opened up its class and spellcrafting systems.
Rather than being crowdfunded, The Economist’s Companion is being developed with funding from the Ayn Rand Institute in order to accurately model free markets in a stateless environment. New mechanics for property privatization, industrialization, capital accumulation, and division of labor will be included, along with a system for modifying domain growth rates based on whether the PCs apply free market principles. A new experience point system will ensure adventurers are only rewarded for using violence in response to initiation of force or fraud, with alternative schemes for advancement from opening up new markets and transforming monsters into consumers. Seventeen new Venturer sub-classes will also be offered, including Retaliatory Pirate, Industrialist, Transportation Magnate, Inventor, and Realm Financier.
The first adventure scenario using the Economist’s Companion, Ammonar Shrugged, will follow this winter.
Will it have alternate advancement schemes for Classical, Keynesian, Neo-Keynesian, Stockholm, Ricardian, Neo-Ricardian, Lausanne, and Austrian financial adventures?
There are -three- books that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The second, of course, involves orcs.
The third, the ACKS Economic Companion, involves orcs deregulating the banking industry. Dwarves reside deep in their vaults, insisting labor is the superior to capital. Elves are largely ignored for using lembas as a fiat currency, allowing them to manufacture money at will from their tree-trunk bakeries.
Much like the Wizard of Oz was an allegory for the silver standard, The Hobbit is actually about Keynesians (Bilbo’s dwarven companions) trying to put an end to a liquidity trap, only to encounter fierce resistance of a dragon representing Hayak, who knows such a sudden influx of gold will only create an artificial bubble that will make the resulting crash that much more devastating.
Strictly speaking, Monday is any bad day. Any day without a new announcement is a bad day. Ergo, the announcement will only come when it does not come.