Sooooooo....
About this "Dark Lord" business. Did autarch really agree to include a picture of Vox Day murdering "social justice warriors" in their new kickstarter? This is how you're promoting the product?
Vox Day organized the campaign to support the book because he is a fan of the heroic fantasy genre. His publishing company, Castalia House, is focused on the heroic and pulp niche, and Appendix N recommended ACKS as the best rpg for that genre. A large number of backers have arrived from Castalia.
I am happy to play fantasy role-playing games with people of any political persuasion and do not discriminate against any one who loves what I love. My own politics are libertarian but if the American Communist party wanted to organize a campaign to support ACKS I am sure I could make room for them.
I also know this apolitical attitude is unfashionable today but it is a core principle for me. If it was not, then ACKS would not exist. When I launched ACKS, I was immediately criticized for choosing a misogynist name - “king” being gendered; and for using offensive terms like “beastmen” and not “beastfolk”; for using humanoids at all, because it’s racist; for suggesting that women of most races are typically noncombatants; and for creating a game that glorified military conquest bt the strong, and more. Doubtless the Red Sonja inspired class in Heroic Fantasy Handbook will also displease some, who either don’t like women warriors or don’t like sexy women warriors. Mentioning my name on Rpg.net still sparks upset.
In light of such criticisms, I am exceptionally grateful to the backers who do like my game, however “problematic” some people find it.
I apologize for the lengthy response but I felt a clear statement was warranted.
Is this true? I didn't see that in the original blog post that somebody linked, but maybe I skimmed over it since it seemed to be mostly just reposting things from the kickstarter.
I will admit I had never heard of Vox Day before this whole dark lord business. His blog... is not for me even a little bit, but I've never believed that your politics should determine what kinds of games/art/music you are allowed to enjoy. I assumed the dark lord would be just that: a dark lord, the kind you would use to build characters like Sauron from LotR or Thulsa Doom from Conan or Soulcatcher from The Black Company. What you are describing sounds... not just in poor taste but frankly "off theme".
If you have any specific links that would be helpful.
I reread his original post, among a bunch of generic lines about illustrations depicting the dark lord, one includes something about faceless minions devouring SJWs. I don't know what an SJW is supposed to look like as part of a fantasy illustration so I think the answer to that will heavily inform how I feel about this, not that my approval or disapproval in any way has bearing on what these other backers may choose to do with their money.
All images in the book will be appropriate to a heroic fantasy context in the implied setting. It's perfectly fine for characters to be drawn to resemble their backers (many many people request that) but there shan't be anything from 21st century America in any of our illustrations.
The dark lord character class is going to be an eldritch caster with bonuses to deploy followers and henchmen - what in MMO terms would be called a "pet class". I have wanted to create an ACKS pet class for a while and am excited about the challenge.
(just saw Alex's response)
Alex, for what it is worth: I actually really appreciate your a-political approach to content production. I know elsewhere I have alluded to being fairly liberal, but I never felt like that impeded me from enjoying your game despite criticisms from "my camp" (an absurd notion to me anyway because all I ever seem to see is intra-liberalism spats). On the other hand, it's gotten harder and harder for me to enjoy FATE because their desperation to inject politics into every layer of their operation increasingly came at the cost of actually making fun and interesting game products.
I'll also say I find criticism of your game system misguided and, frankly, to be missing the point. These sound suspiciously similar to criticism of another game I have expressed my enjoyment for, Europa Universalis 4, where people say it "glorifies colonialism" because it portrays it at all, and also presumes that playing the role of a colonizing power is akin to justifying it in the modern era. By the same token, I can play a game like ACKs where violence can be used to solve problems, conquest is considered an acceptable form of power acquisition, slavery in different forms is allowed, and entire species were created by dark magic to be inherently evil strictly for the convenience of having something to be thoughtlessly violent about. At no point would I wish to live in such a world in real life, nor would I ever assume that the sensibilities that emerge from such a world are appropriate to carry out into the real world. I can read A Song of Ice and Fire and enjoy myself while knowing I'd never want to live in Westeros. I can have a blast playing Diablo 3 knowing I don't actually want to live in Sanctuary under constant threat from the Dark Lord of Terror.
All of these forms of entertainment make stylistic choices to entertain without being tacit endorsement. They create a cohesive world built off of a series of underyling assumptions. So much of ACKs is driven off of imagining a Roman empire with access to magic. Even your decision to perpetuate the sexual dimorphism of beastmen first described in early D&D comes with backfilled justification of their creation by Zaharans as disposable shock troops. It's hard for me to imagine (although obviously you said you experienced it) taking that state of affairs and extrapolating that's how you think genders work in the modern era.
Alright, so now that I've puffed you up a fair bit, let me re-iterate my slight concern: All of these things that people say you do that are misogynstic are products of underyling assumptions that you put thought into, not mere reductivism. This Vox Day guy wouldn't even be a blip on my radar except for this part about "A full-page illustration of the Vile Faceless Minions devouring SJWs.". Like you said, you would make space for the American Communist party if they came to play your game, but if they pledged at a level that allowed them to get an art illustration that was just the sickle & hammer, you would balk because that breaks the theme of your product you're making. Even as you grapple with the idea of "pulp" art and sensibilities that many people consider reductive, mysoginistic, or racist, you might allow a request for an homage to an old piece that people today call "problematic" but you might not be ok with a piece that was just a song-of-the-south-esque caricature. That's the difference that I see between the work you've done so far which has been accused of political/mysognistic/racist/etc. motivations and this one particular request of Mr. VoxDay's. (I feel Alex adequately addressed this in his 2nd reply)
Ultimately though, there are lots of people who came into the comments to pledge for the dark lord. Maybe this is something they're excited for and they see it as something appropriate to put into a fantasy game product. I've never been a fan of that level of divisiveness, I think you can do new things with art and portrayal that doesn't actively exclude people. To illustrate through example: a card game I play called Netrunner has a very diverse array of characters and portrayals that I don't feel excluded from as a white guy. By contrast, the PbtA game "Monsterhearts" is so vociferous about their attempt to portray "queer teenage" life that it never felt not just like a game that wasn't meant for me, but one that never would. I think it would be possible to satisfy VoxDay's art request in a way that he and his coterie could look at those vile faceless minions going to town and think "heh, take that, SJWs" while someone not in on the joke/backstory would not interpret it as actively hostile towards them. (same as last strikethrough)
(just saw Alex's OTHER reply)
Alex, I also love pet classes, and I appreciate your re-assurance very very much. I assumed this VoxDay guy was just spinning a yarn on this end. Knowing your intents on the review process has me feeling releived.
I know you have been a long time supporter and I appreciate it!
I do not think you need be concerned. ACKS will remain what it always has been, firmly rooted in Late Antiquity and fantasy. There are wars between races in ACKS, but they are Zaharans v. Thrassians, Elves v. Orcs, and so on. There is nationalism but its Auran nationalism, Kemeshi nationalism, etc.
There's not going to be anything related to contemporary politics in the book. The art will be drawn by the same artist who draws all of our art. As far as t-shirts we only license the right to use the art in our books, and don't license the right to do merchandise based on the art, and I informed Castalia House that they'd have to work that out separately with the artist if he was open to it, much as anyone could. (If there is demand for ACKS t-shirts though certainly I'm open to it!)
There are certainly horrible and offensive things in ACKS (slavery, necrophilia, etc.) but they are horrible in the game world.
Let me know if you have any other questions.
I’m actually glad it will be a pet class because I’ve been working on an elven beastmaster class and am curious to see what you come up with! (Probably will not be directly applicable, since my beastmaster design includes ‘one strong pet’ instead of ‘many minions’, but still likely to help me out.)
As far as the politics, yeah, I don’t agree with his (Vox Day’s) politics or the way he goes about it, and it did make me somewhat uncomfortable when I found out the whole thing, but I would also be disappointed in Alex/Autarch if they refused to take someone’s money because of their political beliefs. I trust in your ability to keep the actual book apolitical, and worst case, if I really hate it, I can just remove that page from my book 
[quote="Aryxymaraki"] I'm actually glad it will be a pet class because I've been working on an elven beastmaster class and am curious to see what you come up with! (Probably will not be directly applicable, since my beastmaster design includes 'one strong pet' instead of 'many minions', but still likely to help me out.) As far as the politics, yeah, I don't agree with his (Vox Day's) politics or the way he goes about it, and it did make me somewhat uncomfortable when I found out the whole thing, but I would also be disappointed in Alex/Autarch if they refused to take someone's money because of their political beliefs. I trust in your ability to keep the actual book apolitical, and worst case, if I really hate it, I can just remove that page from my book :p [/quote]
I'm tentatively in the same place. Honestly, I'm still a bit uncomfortable supporting anything that Beale claims to be influencing, because of his past toxicity. On the balancing side, Autarch has done well with their past products, so I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt that Ted's just trying to rile up his Puppies without really being able to back up his bluster.
Thanks for sharing your feedback, Aryxmaraki & Dark.
I was genuinely more concerned that people would take offense over some of the artwork being Frazetta-style than about the image of the evil overlord. When I think of heroic and barbarian fantasy I think of ACE Conan covers, but some people seem to dislike that style immensely. I'd be happy for to solicit opinion in that regard, while we're on the topic of such matters.
I thought we already had a perfectly serviceable pet class, in Core no less: Bard d:
I think I’m on the same page as most posters in this thread so far: somewhat concerned about potential fallout if there’s a twitstorm, but cautiously optimistic in Alex.
I’m very much in favor of Frazetta-style art, though I’m not familiar with the Conan covers specifically. Loincloths and helmets for everyone! Big cats! Piles of the slain! Honestly the prospect of Frazettesque art in Heroic is the most excited I’ve been about art in an RPG since Iron Heroes.
I would have imagined the people that have beef with the Frazetta illustrations have self selected themselves out by now, given original ACKs's cover... and some of the art from Sinister Stone of Sakkara (what sicko requested that one piece of art anyway? :-P). Also I think many people who dislike Frazetta do so from a perspective of being unable to separate the art from the artist, since Frazetta was somewhat vocally conservative.
While there are going to be some people who are going to be annoyed with it no matter what, I truly think when most people complain about pulp or fantasy art, it's from a standpoint of samey-ness. Tons of praise gets heaped on Pathfinder for the depictions of their iconic classes, even though the sorcerer, Seoni, wears a physics defying robe, because there are counterpoints like Seelah, the Paladin.
I think you'd be doing a disservice to your pair of books if you didn't at least try some Frazetta inspired art, maybe even the bulk of it, but I think as long as it's not 100% a "we love frazetta" fest, any would-be critics hopefully won't find their way to our corners of the internet. Of course, if somebody mentions the books in big purple, people will come out of the woodwork, but after seeing the way they bring out the venom for anyone even remotely affiliated with Zak S, I'm not sure that's as relevant as it might have been in the past.
Ary & The Dark, thanks for chiming in. I'm glad to see the ACKs forum regulars are on a similar wavelength, including the "live & let live" philosophy when it comes to enjoying games.
The only time I’ve ever had a problem with Frazetta-inspired art is when it was loosely inspired and crossed the line into ‘Dude, this is porn.’
I doubt that will be an issue here.
I would like to see some variety, since I feel like there’s a variety of possible Heroic Fantasy-esque styles to have art in, but my opinion is basically the same as Jard’s, I’d be perfectly happy to see anywhere from ‘some’ to ‘most’ of the art be Frazetta-inspired.
I'm about a million miles from being any kind of fan of Vox Day, but so far the design and artistic choices in all of Autarch's published material have been reliably devoted to a pure simulationist gaming agenda, and so I'll give this one the the benefit of the doubt. I'm not expecting that we're going to see Anita Sarkeesian statted out for a dynamic lair encounter or anything like that.
I do admit that, as the faculty mentor of a game club at a dinky little evangelical Christian college in Bible Belt Texas, it would probably be better if the art in my rule books wasn't too excessively cheesecake. I don't want to be in any more trouble with my dean than necessary. (True story: At our last game night, I found two fresh copies of the classic Jack Chick "Dark Dungeons" tract in the hall outside the room. Ah, 80s nostalgia!)
I'm also hoping that since the book is sort of an averaging of Tolkien and S&S, that a least a few piece of art have that old-style Tolkien feel, like the cover to James Spahn's Hero's Journey. I'd kill for an entire RPG rule book illustrated in the style of this old Pauline Byrnes map of Middle Earth.
[quote="Aryxymaraki"] The only time I've ever had a problem with Frazetta-inspired art is when it was loosely inspired and crossed the line into 'Dude, this is porn.' I doubt that will be an issue here. I would like to see some variety, since I feel like there's a variety of possible Heroic Fantasy-esque styles to have art in, but my opinion is basically the same as Jard's, I'd be perfectly happy to see anywhere from 'some' to 'most' of the art be Frazetta-inspired. [/quote]
As is often the case, Ary's said pretty much what I'm thinking. I'd like to avoid the nonsensical stuff (chainmail bikinis? The only thing that simulates is chafing), but Frazetta was a fairly equal-opportunity offender (he did almost as much beefcake as cheesecake).
(A)D&D also has a bit of a tradition of hilariously-dressed cover art, like the (male) fighter in the collected G1-G2-G3 with plate armor and hot pants, or the two mostly nude characters (one of each gender) on the cover of A4. Heck, pretty much anything Erol Otus did has something bizarre on it. Honorary mention goes to Jeff Dee's love of chainmail shorts for male characters. And not modern knee-length shorts, those were 1980s NBA short-shorts.
Personally, I'm a fan of Holloway, Elmore, Brom, and Dixon, though I know those styles don't necessarily match the themes aimed at in these books, nor with each other. They're simply the ones who stand out to me among the history of TSR/WotC gaming art.
I prefer to keep real-life politics and the ever-nauseating American Culture Wars out of my gaming. The fact that I am a politically-active moderate left-libertarian with old-school labor-movement views (unpopular in today's "leftist" circles) does not necessary translate into game content - usually, the gaming stuff I write has little in common with my real-life politics. Games and game settings have their own internal dynamics and inner logic which rarely abide by the views of modern politics (be that Left or Right). Gaming groups in my experience are also very diverse politically; in my BCK/D&D 5E group, for example, we have an old-school left-libertarian (me), a right-libertarian, a center-left person, a vegan leftist, and a person who is probably a right-wing Israeli nationalist but does not talk politics. We rarely discuss real-world politics in-game, however, as they are boring (in comparison to the game) and detract from everyone's fun. It's much more enjoyable, after all, to discuss ways to overthrow Nabu Ram the evil Sorcerer King with spellcraft and swords - and enthrone a Lizardman Gladiator in his stead - than to have an argument about whether Netanyahu is the best prime minister Israel ever had, an evil fascist, or just an embezzling hedonist with a sweet tooth.
Now, on to more enjoyable stuff - BCK needs muscles. The big, absurdly muscled barbarian is a central archetype in BCK's genre. He needs to be smashing the delicate sorcerous apparatus of a frail, inbred Sorcerer or the diabolical machines of an alien. This is the "Barbarian Subgenre" in a nutshell - brawn, brain, and guts trump sorcery and super-science.
Chainmail bikini? It's OK once or twice as it's a genre staple, but don't overdo it as this is a very tired trope. Plus it misses the opportunity to show all sorts of cool outlandish armor or clothing.
Just DON'T put BOOBS on my female lizardmen :-D . D&D 4E (IIRC) put boobs on dragonborn, who are essentially reptiles, forgetting that not every humanoid in the game world has to be a humanoid mammal, and it was visually annoying and quite boring. Lizardmen are "humanoid" LIZARDS. They lay eggs and do not lactate. Their young can eat fish and fruit right out of the egg.
Chainmail bikini? It's OK once or twice as it's a genre staple, but don't overdo it as this is a very tired trope. Plus it misses the opportunity to show all sorts of cool outlandish armor or clothing.
Just DON'T put BOOBS on my female lizardmen :-D . D&D 4E (IIRC) put boobs on dragonborn, who are essentially reptiles, forgetting that not every humanoid in the game world has to be a humanoid mammal, and it was visually annoying and quite boring. Lizardmen are "humanoid" LIZARDS. They lay eggs and do not lactate. Their young can eat fish and fruit right out of the egg.
Thanks for the feedback, again, everyone.
Omer, obviously when lizard-women are illustrated with breasts, it's because they got breast implants. ;)
The WotC Reptile Breast Plastic Surgery Clinic(TM)!
Two comments:
A lot of criticsim that purports to be a-political is actually taking a very active political stance. Thoughtful critics will reflect on this before they write/speak.
I love Frazetta and it would be fair to expect some cheesecake in a project like this. I have a strong preference for badass women in active poses. Most of Frazetta is great in this regard. His worst imitators seem always drawn to his poorest examples here.
I have full faith that Alex will keep things focused on the awesomeness of ACKS and the fantastic mechanics he and this community continually create for the benefit of the game and those who play it.
I have no intention to invest in a game that uses its writing, game mechanics, or art, to demean, marginalize, intimidate, or mock real world people in the 21st Century, regardless of their affiliations or their deeply held beliefs (whatever they may be). Save it for pig-faced orcs, kobolds, and halflings. I haven't seen this pop up in any Autarch writing or art up to this point, and I have no reason to believe it will in future products, including the two exceptional books currently being Kickstarted.