Most Valuable Threads

archon · June 3, 2014, 6:22pm

Hello, everyone! Over the years various threads have cropped up here, in House Rules, and in Ask the Autarchs. I was wondering if you might help me list out the most valuable threads in this forum post, for use in compiling an FAQ/Addendum/sticky thread.

Aryxymaraki · June 3, 2014, 6:40pm

Here’s the list I keep around for reference.

http://autarch.co/forums/ask-autarchs/lair-treasures

http://autarch.co/forums/ask-autarchs/magical-item-prices

http://autarch.co/forums/ask-autarchs/silvered-weapons

http://autarch.co/forums/ask-autarchs/how-do-you-handle-extracting-incapacitated-combatants-engagement

http://www.autarch.co/forums/ask-autarchs/non-movement-movement

http://autarch.co/forums/ask-autarchs/against-1-or-robin-hood-rule

http://autarch.co/forums/ask-autarchs/mercantile-ventures-selling-goods

http://autarch.co/forums/ask-autarchs/plague-effects-domains

http://autarch.co/forums/ask-autarchs/can-familiars-have-familiars

http://autarch.co/forums/ask-autarchs/are-declared-actions-visible

http://autarch.co/forums/ask-autarchs/securing-domains

http://autarch.co/forums/ask-autarchs/domains-wilderness-hexes-wandering-monsters

http://autarch.co/forums/ask-autarchs/lichdom-and-spellcasting

http://www.autarch.co/comment/6770#comment-6770

http://autarch.co/forums/house-rules/splitting-hit-dice-mass-and-fighting-ability

http://autarch.co/forums/ask-autarchs/2-handed-weapon-vs-2-handed-wield

http://www.autarch.co/comment/10345#comment-10345

http://www.autarch.co/comment/8478#comment-8478

http://autarch.co/comment/9221#comment-9221

http://autarch.co/comment/14305#comment-14305

http://autarch.co/forums/ask-autarchs/bracers-armor-how-much

http://www.autarch.co/forums/general-discussion/mercantile-investments

http://autarch.co/forum/cost-roads-0

http://autarch.co/forums/general-discussion/acks-regional-map-generator

http://autarch.co/forums/general-discussion/spell-categories-exercise

http://autarch.co/comment/12931#comment-12931

Boomishtendency · June 3, 2014, 7:49pm

A sample of the rule calls that I have found helpful in my understanding of the system.

http://www.autarch.co/forums/development-and-playtest/acks-domains-war-playtest/army-scaling

https://github.com/jedavis-rpg/ackstools

http://www.autarch.co/forums/general-discussion/gearing-try-acks-again-have-misc-questions

http://www.autarch.co/forums/ask-autarchs/normal-men-and-mercenaries

http://www.autarch.co/forums/house-rules/mercenaries-antiquity

http://www.autarch.co/forums/ask-autarchs/training-times-manual-arms

http://www.autarch.co/forums/ask-autarchs/reaction-rolls-modifiers-and-stacking

http://www.autarch.co/comment/8478

http://www.autarch.co/forums/ask-autarchs/modifiers-attributes-over-18

http://www.autarch.co/forums/ask-autarchs/commissioning-question

http://www.autarch.co/forums/general-discussion/worldbuilding-modelling-places-which-are-built-completely-different

http://www.autarch.co/forums/general-discussion/how-do-i-load-out-large-sailing-ship

http://www.autarch.co/forums/house-rules/divine-favor-city-state-gods

http://www.autarch.co/forums/ask-autarchs/monster-transformation-questions

http://www.autarch.co/forums/general-discussion/flat-thief-abilities

http://www.autarch.co/forums/ask-autarchs/crafting-proficiency-questions

http://www.autarch.co/forum/animals-henchmen-0

http://www.autarch.co/forums/house-rules/dynamic-lairs-0

Stainless · June 4, 2014, 9:51am

http://www.autarch.co/forum/any-tips-converting-adventures-0

archon · June 4, 2014, 1:12pm

Wow. These are really good threads.

koewn · June 4, 2014, 2:47pm

ACKS Blogs should be a page:
http://www.autarch.co/forums/general-discussion/acks-bloggersunite

And Custom Classes:
http://www.autarch.co/forums/house-rules/list-custom-classes

I’ve got ~70ish bookmarked, I need to go through and cull the outdated ones (there’s a handful that were deprecated by D@W’s release)

omer · June 4, 2014, 3:36pm

More useful ACKS material (threads and blogs):

http://www.autarch.co/forums/ask-autarchs/dinosaur-hit-dice

http://www.necropraxis.com/2012/02/21/acks-setting-part-2-zoom/

http://wanderinggamist.blogspot.co.il/2012/11/how-does-anyone-survive-in-acksworld.html

jedavis · June 4, 2014, 5:04pm

For what it’s worth, How Does Anyone Survive… was misinformed by my failure to interpret the wilderness encounter rules correctly. I had another post, semi-recently, recanting of that particular error, with a link to the thread here clarifying the ambiguity; will post after work.

jedavis · June 4, 2014, 11:56pm

So http://wanderinggamist.blogspot.com/2014/05/acks-postmortem-eleventy-one-wilderness.html is the post where I correct my errors from How Does Anyone…, and http://www.autarch.co/comment/12407#comment-12407 is the forum post where Alex clarifies random encounter frequency in civilized and borderland areas.

Alex also commented favorably on http://wanderinggamist.blogspot.com/2013/01/conquest-vs-resource-extraction-and.html ; in some sense this was half a manifesto on how not to DM ACKS for 3.x players.

I’ve found http://www.autarch.co/comment/8478#comment-8478 critically useful for hex-stocking (a popular thread - I think it appears in both Aryx’s and Boomish’s lists as well; the magic item prices thread has been very useful as well).

I’m rather enamoured with Cameron’s method at http://autarch.co/comment/9893#comment-9893 , though I have yet to put it into practice. The whole Grim Fist thread chain was inspiring reading too; maybe not informative of rules, but a gloriously readable example of using the system correctly for many levels.

CharlesDM · June 5, 2014, 11:55pm

Sadly, for the purposes of this thread, I don’t keep useful links but instead extract the useful text into files on my PC. Such extracts from Alex I keep within an “Autarch” folder.

One such very enlightening (to me) extract, “Adventuring Proficiency”, was not from the Autarch forums. I don’t remember where I stumbled on it.

Adventuring Proficiency

The idea behind the Adventuring proficiency was to make sure that every character in ACKS could perform the tasks that were common in B/X D&D without needing a proficiency to do them; in other words, to avoid a “skill tax”.

These activities are scattered throughout the rules:

Adventuring for 5 turns out of 6
Bashing down doors on 18+ on d20
Hearing noises on 18+ on d20
Spotting secret doors on 18+ on d20
Noticing traps on 18+ on d20
Avoiding getting lost in wilderness and sea at the chances listed on the Terrain Navigation tables
Foraging in the wilderness on 18+ on d20
8 ) Hunting in the wilderness on 14+ on d20
Riding on a mount for long distances without being hurt
Fishing at sea on 14+ on d20
Evading opponents in the wilderness at the chances listed on the Wilderness Evasion table
Igniting burning oil without hurting oneself on a 2+ on d20
Self-treatment of wounds sufficient to heal 1d3 hp/day

ACKS does not assume that the average person in the game world is capable of all of the above. The young peasant boy without Adventuring proficiency who’s never left his village probably won’t notice traps, will almost certainly get lost, doesn’t know how to forage in the wild, can’t ride, and doesn’t know first aid.

The titles of the other “Alex sez” extracts are:

Advanced Reaction Rolls
Alchemy
Beastman Custom Classes
Bracing against charge
Cheap Keeps
Dwarven Brewing Clarification
Gods of the Auran Empire
Healing Proficiency Clarifications
Hex Size
Land Surveying
Making Magical Arrows
Normal Men and Mercenaries
Overrun
Potions versus Scrolls
Spell Points
Two-handed
Weapons and fighting styles

A search of these forums would likely turn up the original link, or I could post my extracted text as requested.

susan_brindle · June 8, 2014, 9:31pm

This isn’t the longest thread, but it’s a question that comes up fairly often. http://www.autarch.co/forum/hireling-15-minimum-0

koewn · June 22, 2014, 11:44am

Bless my new computer that can open 75+ new tabs at once without spontaneously combusting. May or may not be a few duplicates, I have a habit of re-bookmarking certain replies, I think I culled them all.

New mechanics for spellcasters:

Mechanics of exploration and hex management:
http://www.autarch.co/forums/ask-autarchs/searching-wilderness-hexes#new
http://www.autarch.co/comment/8478#comment-8478
http://www.autarch.co/forums/general-discussion/sandboxing-there-must-be-and-easier-way
http://www.autarch.co/forums/ask-autarchs/wetlands#new
http://www.autarch.co/forums/general-discussion/travel-trouble-weather-hexcrawl-encounter-system
http://autarch.co/comment/9893#comment-9893

Tools, spreadsheets:
http://www.autarch.co/forums/general-discussion/mercantile-ventures-market-creation-tables-made-easy
http://www.autarch.co/forums/general-discussion/hex-grid-overlay-google-earth
http://www.autarch.co/forum/lets-make-spreadsheets-0
http://autarch.co/forums/development-and-playtest/acks-domains-war-playtest/recruiting-spreadsheet-tool
http://autarch.co/forums/general-discussion/my-acks-toolkit
http://autarch.co/forums/general-discussion/acks-tools#new

Interesting flavor and such:
http://www.autarch.co/forums/ask-autarchs/temples-restore-life-limb
http://www.autarch.co/forums/ask-autarchs/domain-council
http://www.autarch.co/forums/general-discussion/one-thing-i-dont-acks
http://autarch.co/forums/house-rules/hr-monsters-creatures-under-crimson-sun#new

mjcullen77 · June 23, 2014, 7:51pm

So much awesome… so little time!