Command is also very strong.
I'm back in the saddle with this project after taking a couple of days off (my plan is to work on this future ACKSian sandbox in the early days of the week, and to work on the currently on-going campaign in the later days in the week).
Oh, for those who are going through the same thing, I also found a shortcut to have to flip to chapter 7: there's a "Ruler's Personal Domain" column in the Revenue by Realm Type table on p230.
I'm looking to find the place where it says 780 families per hex.
I just remembered that I have the PDF too!
So I could search for 780. (Weird that it took me several days to think of that.)
It's on "Limits of growth" on page 129 in the Campaigns chapter. I'm going to re-read Alex' post with this in mind.
Edit: Oh... OH!!! Here was a missing puzzle piece:
The "Domain" rules in chapter 7 is written with PCs in mind. I understood that and read it quickly, thinking that I'm going to need to make a good cheat sheet for this stuff when the players are gaining levels.
But the "Secrets" chapter is written with this "personal view of a domain" in mind, it's written based completely off of someone who has not only read, but mastered chapter 7.
This sort of stuff is what I think of when I think of ACKS. Others may be drawn to other parts of ACKS but this is what I immediately think of. "D&D Sim City", I've called it when talking to friends.
We are already using another edition of D&D that we are happy with (with some rules, such as attack throws, already imported from ACKS). And now, after a couple of campaigns, I want to try my hand at creating a very detailed hex world.
Edit: OK, to clarify, I mean: No, you absolutely don't need it. ACKS can be a great game without using this part of ACKS, this part of ACKS is 100% optional.
It's just that this part of ACKS is a bit of a selling point
Right. It was intended to show how the system in Chapter 7 works in the framework of an entire campaign and deploys all of the concepts at large scale.
Bobloblah has more than once called ACKS "Talmudic" and I suppose he's right in that regard!
The flipside, then, is that ACKS is hopefully going to serve well as a concise reference once I've grokked it all.
I made the mistake of starting from "OK, I'm going to be the DM, first I better make a world" perspective, quickly rushing through the other chapters (I didn't skip them completely) and then bonking my head against chapter 10 over and over again, not realizing the extent it was dependent on previous chapters. Alex, you and I spoke earlier (years ago) about the lairs stuff, which I would've understood much easier (I did understand after your mail, thank you) if I had been more familiar with the monster chapter.
I was like "Ooooh, 'Secrets'! Nice!"
I'm going through the domain rules making a mind map of it now, so that I can have a complete mental picture of it to bring with me into chapter 10.
I guess I'm going to designate one duchy as elven (Fardre probably) and one as dwarven (Tanstäde probably), and leave Indre as humans. I'm going for a sorta Robin Hood / Astrid Lindgren fantasy of leaves and blossoms and branches
Sometimes I think ACKS would be easier to understand if it was its own system. It's soooo close to D&D that a lot of people gloss over the differences and then suddenly it doesn't make sense!
By the way you should pick up the latest issue of Axioms when it comes up, and the next one - lots of new rules for domains coming in! Nothing you need but lots of fun optional mechanics and expansions.
When I first picked up ACKS I had no experience with D&D. So in my case, that's not the culprit.
And I'm understanding it more now that I do have experience.
What's Axioms? Sounds great!
Autarch runs a Patreon campaign, which you can find here: https://www.patreon.com/Autarch?ty=c
Once a few articles come together, they get published as a magazine called Axioms. Some very cool stuff so far!