True Sorcery is still my all-time favorite magic system. Steep learning curve, but once you knew what you were doing with it, it’s amazing. I tended to build pseudospells; basically functions with inputs for range, number of targets, etc, and then fill in those values to generate DCs in play. This was a nice mid-point on the fast-vs-versatile curve. The stand-alone version didn’t include a corruption mechanic; did the version in the BCCS have one?
I’d checked while writing the post, both True Sorcery and BCCS had “Taint”, it was mostly physical effects on the caster with WIS penalties and various saves when in tainted places.
Gaining it was mostly based on what you did with the spell, IIRC.
ACKS Heroic Fantasy Companion - 10
Auran Empire Campaign Setting -10
Guns of War -5
Lairs & Encounters - 8
Secrets of the Undercity - 7
Sinister Secrets of Sakkara -7
Lairs & Encounters 8
Secrets of the Undercity 7
Secrets of Sakkara 7
Auran Empire Campaign Setting 7
ACKS Heroic Fantasy Companion 5
Guns of War 3
Lairs and Encounters: 10, I absolutely need this for hexcrawls
Guns of War: 6, rising to 10 if it also integrated some naval combat rules (which is mostly what I’d want to do with cannons)
Heroic Fantasy: 7, might get a hardcover
Setting specific products: 4 (I’d probably grab just the pdfs)
ACKS Heroic Fantasy Companion (9) – Variant rulesets for variant settings are potentially of great interest, but I’d like to see discussion of the impact of these options on a game, what emergent features might be seen and how game balance is affected. More spells are always welcome for variety – Academically, I’d like to see a spreadsheet or something that tells us how they’re constructed.
Auran Empire Setting (9) – Whilst I’m likely to buy anything you guys put out, sad fanboy that I am, I’m less interested in this except as a toolkit of ideas to steal and adapt.
Guns of War (9) – I’d actually like to see some discussion of the implications of guns and artillery, and not just rules for things that go bang. How it might impact the magical paradigm, does it enhance it? Does it reduce the need for people to train for years to become wizards? Is there a rise in magical artifice in terms of guns and cannon? Does it force wand prices down, or up, and so on.
Plus optional changes for follower recruitment and 9th level – could fighters acquire musketeers instead of ‘just fighters’, for example.
What is gunpowder? Options for how this might change in a magical world, and so on.
Perhaps classes built around the idea of guns – the Musketeer, the Duellist, the Rifledwarf. The Goblin Sapper and the Halfling Cannoneer.
In particular I’d like to see these rules presented in a way that integrates completely with the existing rules and don’t just lay on top without taking account of potential integration points (eg. Fighter followers)
Lairs & Encounters (9) – Various things on your list are already on the forums. It’d be nice to see them officially in print. Re: Mini-Lairs, I’d love to see the work that SimonF and others taken and used (with their permission) for this – but I’d like to see more than one mini-lair per monster. Perhaps 1 that is fleshed out, but with 3 or 4 others that are just a few words of description. Also, adventure hooks would be good.
Secrets of the Undercity (8) – I think the shadow of Dwimmermount may fall on this one. Personally I’d rather see 10 x 20 room dungeons (all mapped by Dyson because he’s awesome, or perhaps Matt Jackson who is also really good).
Sinister Secrets of Sakkara (8) – I don’t know why I’m less enthused about dungeons that your other potential products. That said – if you took an approach that took advantage of modern technology then I think I’d bump this up to a 9, or even 10 (Secrets of the Undercity too). I’d like to see maps that are easily importable into Roll20 with tokens for npcs etc… Pdfs that are well hyperlinked, referenced and take as much advantage of the features of modern pdfs as possible. Handouts and play sheets that make running a game either over hangout or face to face as streamlined and easy as possible. Basically, we don’t live in the paper and pencil world of OD&D anymore, so don’t limit yourselves to that paradigm.
I’ve read a number of articles and forum posts in the OSR that decry the popularity of Tolkein as the death of the sandbox, and I would wager that’s where a lot of the ambivalence is coming from. I suspect that for some folks, after decades of campaigns trying to emulate the STORY of the lord of the rings (the main characters are destined to complete their quests with little deviation) a good number of people might now be put off by the WORLD, which you are trying to emulate (magic is rare and world-altering).
Late to the party…
ACKS Heroic Fantasy Companion - 9
The problem for me these days is every time I look at something RPG related, I think, “How would I do that in ACKS?” (DAAAAAAMN YOUUUUU, MACRIS!) This would help with that a great deal.
Auran Empire Campaign Setting - 10
I need an additional campaign setting almost as much as I need additional holes drilled in my head. But still…
Guns of War - 8
Both Ravenloft and the Iron Kingdoms use guns, and I’ll try running both with ACKS at one point or another. This book saves me from having to invent rules for black powder weapons from scratch. And even though I rate this an ‘8’ I might Kickstart it, depending on the content.
Lairs & Encounters - 11
Far and away the most useful ACKS project for me in terms of actual gameplay. I’ll be all over it like white on rice.
Secrets of the Undercity - 9
Sinister Secrets of Sakkara - 9
I create almost nothing from scratch these days, and instead steal everything that isn’t nailed down in whatever published material I can get my hands on. But who am I kidding? I have enough adventure material to last me until the heat death of the universe. My interest in these is perhaps largely academic, but I’ll agree with others here that it behooves Autarch to have published modules available for ACKS. It helps new players get started, and gives any and all players insight into how the system can be run.
I could see that. It was the spawning of the infinite number of “here’s a big bad artifact what needs destroying by someone fated to do it” written an infinite number of times (and sometimes twice over (I’m talking to you, David Eddings, as much as your Troll Gods amused me)), and did kind of push the S&S style to the side for a bit of a while.
I’d never had any interest in MERP, mainly not seeing the point in a pre-or-post-LOTR story - there was so much already told through the regular books and the Silmarillion and all the other volumes the estate’s been putting out.
On the other hand, there’s a larger volume of adventures Conan was in, and only one (long one) with, say, Aragorn. Maybe that was the “let’s wrap this campaign up with something epic, guess what this halfling just found” adventure, and there was sandboxing done up in Evendim or down in Enedwaith or what-have-you.
Though I suppose Gandalf really was the main protagonist; using halflings to further his own ends, much like the Dungeon Master from the DND cartoon. 
I guess when I hear Alex talk about a middle-earth-like setting, I sort of understand he doesn’t mean literally Middle Earth (unless there’s the desire for that).
Think of it this way: ACKs enables a much more “realistic” portrayal of medieval and late-antiquity settings that, while inspired by the Roman empire or by the exploits of King Charlemagne or King Arthur, are not actually taking place there… with the exception of the guy doing “Tyche’s Favorites” and the other chap doing a campaign based on “Matter of France”.
Basically, I don’t literally want to play in a setting with gandalf and aragorn. However, if there’s a world where, say, the lands are populated by small smatterings of dwarves displaced from their homeland waiting for one of them to prove their right to rule, that could be interesting without literally being about Thorin Oakenshield.
Right, he’s just aiming at the tropes & themes of the two genres. I’ve been trying to think of a distinct third one, but I keep being able to relate anything I think up to both.
ACKS Heroic Fantasy Companion - 5
Auran Empire Campaign Setting - 10
Guns of War - 10
Lairs & Encounters - 10
Secrets of the Undercity - 10
Sinister Secrets of Sakkara - 10
ACKS Heroic Fantasy Companion - 9 (I love playing in the world of Conan so this would be great. I probably wont start a new campaign for that though and probably would rather pick stuff to include in my current campaign.)
Auran Empire Campaign Setting - 10 (My big ongoing campaign tries to get as close to the implied setting as possible. I am really eager to finally get the full setting!)
Guns of War - 6 (Absolutely not my way of playing but D@W rules are already awesome so adding to them is always interesting. Would rate it higher if it had naval warfare in it)
Lairs & Encounters - 10 (Always useful!)
Secrets of the Undercity - 6 (If it had lots of implied ACKSness (like economy) in it I would rate it higher)
Sinister Secrets of Sakkara - 5 (If it had some help in it how to get an ACKS campaign started I would rate it higher)
In the end I would back all of them on kickstarter because I was very happy with everything Autarch delivered to this day so the rating is more about my interest and less about if I would buy it or not…)
ACKS Heroic Fantasy Companion - 8
Auran Empire Campaign Setting - 10
Guns of War - 5
Lairs & Encounters - 10
Secrets of the Undercity - 5
Sinister Secrets of Sakkara - 5
ACKS Heroic Fantasy Companion - 10
Auran Empire Campaign Setting -10
Guns of War - 5
Lairs & Encounters - 10
Secrets of the Undercity - 10
Sinister Secrets of Sakkara -10
ACKS Heroic Fantasy Companion - 10
Auran Empire Campaign Setting - 5
Guns of War - 0
Lairs & Encounters - 11!!!
Secrets of the Undercity - 5
Sinister Secrets of Sakkara - 0
ACKS Heroic Fantasy Companion - 5
Auran Empire Campaign Setting -8
Guns of War -4
Lairs & Encounters - 3
Secrets of the Undercity - 5
Sinister Secrets of Sakkara -8
Really only after a new campaign setting that I can run in any D&D type gameand some adventures.
ACKS Heroic Fantasy Companion - 10
Auran Empire Campaign Setting - 9
Guns of War - 0
Lairs & Encounters - 5
Secrets of the Undercity - 8
Sinister Secrets of Sakkara - 8
ACKS Heroic Fantasy Companion - 8
Auran Empire Campaign Setting - 6
Guns of War - 10
Lairs & Encounters - 4
Secrets of the Undercity - 8
Sinister Secrets of Sakkara - 7
Detailed economics rules that allow you to adjust the domain system to societies not based on feudal Europe that wasn’t even listed - 10+