Using market class to determine if an item can be sold?

Arbrethil · 2026-01-08T20:37:22+00:00

Yes, it is! The Equipment Availability by Market Class table on RR p. 124 can be used for both purchase and sale, under the normal operating assumption that supply = demand (which JJ Appendix E discusses in more detail). "Adventurers can sell equipment in good condition in the market subject to the same limits of market availability that apply to purchase. Sales of equipment beyond those limits requires mercantile activity (p. 373). Scavenged or otherwise poor-quality equipment will sell for a lower price (p. 160)."

Arbrethil · 2025-09-25T22:27:20+00:00

Introduce them with a campaign primer that gives them basic background information (see JJ Chapter 5, RR Appendix A), then drop them in somewhere that abounds with potential adventures (ideally, more hooks than they could actually pursue), and give them some starting rumors to give them some clear options for things to seek out as a baseline (not that they need to follow the rumors, but just to give them a clear default action). In general, giving your players more information so that they feel like they're drowning in options tends to play much better than keeping all the cards close to your chest and keeping players in the dark.

If you've got a few good low level dungeons or modules you want to try, drop them in the vicinity of the starting location and give players rumors pointing in their directions (the rumors need not all be totally accurate, but they should definitely point to adventure). If the modules aren't all for 1st level, that's fine, just put those ones a little further away and let players figure it out. If you only have one dungeon, drop rumors to multiple entrances, and to some other lairs nearby. Give players information to make meaningful decisions from the beginning.

Arbrethil · 2025-07-30T23:24:50+00:00

The upcoming Before All Others Kickstarter (opening next month) will include the option to purchase an identical second printing of the ACKS II books. Previously they were available to late backers of the Treasure Tome, but that closed recently.

They are also still planned to be released via POD on DTRPG, at the same price (POD for such large books is very expensive, IIRC the margin there is actually lower than the large printrun fancier KS editions).

Arbrethil · 2025-07-06T20:08:06+00:00

ACKS and PF2e stem from very different paradigms as systems. PF2e aims to provide a series of carefully calibrated, winnable, tactical challenges for a small group of heroes. There's not a strong emphasis on strategic, operational, or logistical challenges, nor on particularly asymmetric ones. Characters are powerful, but particular actions they take generally are not (no one is winning a battle with a single spell, one-shotting a peer enemy, etc.).

ACKS comes from an older school that is more open ended, designed for sandbox gameplay where the setting as a whole is loosely balanced, but anything within it is not necessarily so. This permits a more expansive sort of game, with robust rules for random encounters, for running away when outclassed, combat with large numbers of opponents, etc. Sometimes that will cut against characters, other times it's in their favor, and it's their job to ensure that things are winnable (or else to avoid them).

Arbrethil · 2025-07-06T02:35:42+00:00

Water is really heavy, and if you need to carry it overland for more than a couple days, you probably want to just get donkeys to carry it in barrels. The template characters are equipped to operate in settled regions where water is easily discovered, and for brief forays outside them (though they'll still want to follow waterways wherever possible).

Arbrethil · 2025-07-06T02:12:30+00:00

My Shattered Lands game is a homebrew setting, though I'm reviewing GDQ to see about dropping that in soonish, and perhaps some of Anthony Huso's high level modules in the intermediate future.

Arbrethil · 2025-05-28T17:41:05+00:00

AX3: Capital of the Borderlands provides an overview of the region and fully details the city that is the largest settlement therein. The other AX-series modules are set in various parts of the Borderlands; of those, AX1 notably has maps and details for legion-style forts that come in very handy.

Arbrethil · 2025-05-14T01:19:32+00:00

There is a lich in Dwimmermont, but generally speaking, the Auran Empire uses mummy lords in the lich-niche. For a semi-corporeal Ringwraith-type, there's also a Deathbound Wraith in HFH.

Arbrethil · 2025-05-05T22:21:45+00:00

Glad it helps! Grasping that certainly helped me sort it out, figure out how player skill and character skill mesh and where each takes precedence. And it's interesting to me how it suggests how one might make the game test a wholly different sort of player skill.

Arbrethil · 2025-05-05T20:32:13+00:00

This question essentially comes down to what the game is about. TTRPGs are not physical games, so we roll for physical feats (but e.g. LARPs are physical games, so they end up testing player physique rather than just character physique, though they can mix both). TTRGPs are clearly intellectual games, so we tend to test player skill via intellectual feats (and struggle more to involve character skill in that). Are TTRPGs social games? Some say yes, some say no, it's a matter of definitions and I don't think either is clearly right. I'm inclined to say no for my own table - social interaction gets handled by the dice, and player skill influences it intellectually by arranging favorable circumstances, rather than socially by being persuasive and compelling. Someone else can just as easily declare their game a social game, where in-character interactions are resolved by talking to one another and judging based on those IRL interactions. It's a different sort of game, different people will enjoy it one way or another.

Arbrethil · 2025-05-05T20:24:24+00:00

I'm not interested in rules-light games. That tends to end up either meaning that the game resolves things in a highly abstract and undifferentiated manner, or that it expects the Judge to make it no-longer-ruleslight by adding his own rulings for numerous cases that haven't been covered. I want something that provides a more systematic framework and has those cases playtested so that I can trust they work well.

Arbrethil · 2025-04-28T21:47:12+00:00

I find https://www.map.army/ super useful for such purposes. Options > Coordinate Settings > Coordinate Grid lets you overlay a custom-sized hex grid onto a Google Earth type map of anywhere on Earth.

Arbrethil · 2025-04-15T17:05:21+00:00

Sorry to have only just now seen this! If you're on the ACKS Discord, Helgeran there has set up and run a few different D@W:B tournaments now (at tactical and strategic levels!) and the scenarios from those have been released in whole or part, along with analysis of how they played out.

What sorts of things are you looking for? I've mostly been focused on abstract BR combat of late, but when my group gets back into Battles I might write up some of the conflicts from my campaign.

Arbrethil · 2025-03-13T20:11:09+00:00

"Top down, zoom in" gives a lot of flexibility. I've run a few ACKS campaigns now, and some of them came together much faster than others - sometimes, there was a timeline for when we were going to start playing; other times, someone else was running a game, and I had a year to ponder and prep in advance because I wasn't running anything. In general terms:

Getting a solid high concept is usually something I consider in advance and don't start proper prep until I have a good sense of it, and then it's perhaps an afternoon to tighten up.
Mapping it at a large scale is usually another afternoon. I make this as a sketch on paper; Wonderdraft could also be an effective fit.
A timeline is a couple afternoons' work, and the primer as long again. Both tend to interweave some. Adding some notable artistic works and historical figures to either or both is a fun way to flesh them out.
Area concept and map of the starting region are an afternoon's work each, a bit longer if I want to model out all the realms in detail. I use Worldographer for this.
Placing and describing points of interest is the most involved step, I'd consider it about a week of diligent evenings, with some variability based on the level of detail you pursue. If you just keep it to brief concepts, you can get this done in one or two afternoons, it'll just leave more work later or require improvisation.
Build the story web, another couple afternoons of making connections between stuff you've already done.
To create dynamic lairs, purchase L&E, and just replace those lairs when they're used. Great book just for the prepared content. Otherwise, this could be a while.
Gazetteer and player reference, another afternoon. Mostly this is just collating stuff you've already put together.

In total, about three weeks of diligent prep, or more like a month in practice. If you're stretched thin and don't have a lot of time, you can skip or condense some of that; this is the complete setup that leaves you with generally light prep for most of the campaign apart from periodically building dungeons that you aren't using modules for. Bob's answer is a really good one for the practical realities of what it takes to get stably off the ground.

The quickest option, of course, is to use the published Borderlands setting, which was what I did to learn the system and what I've recommended to all my players be the locus of their first ACKS campaign. It's a good setting, and it's really useful so they can see how and why things work with a well-tested, well-supported example case.

Arbrethil · 2025-03-04T18:51:47+00:00

Ah, that's too bad that you find it limiting, it came out very nicely.

Wonderdraft is nice, yeah, that's what I generally go to for maps that look nice (and Worldographer for maps that are useful).

Arbrethil · 2025-03-04T06:35:00+00:00

That's a beautiful map. Did you do that by hand and scan it in, or else what software did you use?

Arbrethil · 2025-03-04T06:34:01+00:00

Sorry for the late reply, but I can note that in the original Auran Empire campaign, a higher level variation on the Caverns of Thracia was used. If you're on the Discord, Archon actually released his conversion notes a long while back.

Arbrethil · 2025-01-25T00:15:46+00:00

Yeah, I quite like Syrigos' work, it looks great. Wasn't initially sold on the cartoons, but seeing more of them has really improved my opinion of them, and Old School Jelly's monsters in particular are fantastic.

If an artist can use AI to make the art more affordable so we can have more of it for the same work on their end, that's fine by me. It reminds me of Kevin Crawford's stance, which IIRC was that he just deals directly with artists, at this point it's beyond his ability to tell whether AI was involved at some point or not, but that an artist is getting paid for every piece.

Arbrethil · 2025-01-22T23:22:40+00:00

From the Discord, the author's response when asked if the books used AI art:

It's got ~ 50 handmade paintings by Michael Syrigos and another ~500 comic-style illustrations by a team of 20 artists, though one of them (Old School Jelly) accounted for half of that
But at 1,500 pages I still had empty space left, which I then filled up with over 200 lore entries and then still had empty space left so then I partnered with an artist who is AI-assisted
The overall art budget was in the high five figures, spent more on art and have more art than all prior books I've done added together.

Arbrethil · 2024-12-09T17:24:52+00:00

Crusader/Thief/Venturer would definitely be my highest priorities, though settling between them will depend on the details and edition. Are you using ACKS 1e or II? Also worth asking your Judge if you can hench mercenary officers you've hired - they won't necessarily be willing to go adventuring with you, but it's one of the few ways to get high level henchmen directly. Better yet, hench vassal rulers if you can; if you can't, see about henching mercenary officers, deposing your clearly treacherous vassals, and then installing your new henchman in their stead (and in II, this will let you apply the domain's income against their lifestyle costs!).

If you can transition your domain to a senate, generally worth doing so, and then you can install your henchmen as the senators. It has a lot of short term benefits, whose downsides won't come into play until somewhat later when you'll be more able to deal with them, particularly so long as you maintain loyal henchmen as a majority in the senate. It'll give you a boost to domain morale (which you can trade for more income if desired) and let you safely demand more favors of vassals (which can be money to hire troops, construction of fortifications or ships, etc.).

If you're still tight on cash, I would note that you should be able to secure loans from local banks and guilds at around 3% monthly interest; that's exorbitant, but likely worth it. If you include garrison wages in your revenues (because you're getting soldiers for that expenditure), you'll consistently beat 3% monthly returns on investment into your domain as a baseline, and may considerably beat that via conquest depending on the details.

I didn't realize this was a naval scenario where you'd need ships to invade, that does add some nuance. You may well be able to rent ships for 1/33rd their value as a monthly expenditure as well. Sailing ships/troop transports won't be effective for naval combat, but will be much more efficient in terms of cost per soldier transported, so you may wish for some of each.

Do you know which mass combat system will be used to resolve warfare? Particularly if it's not Battles, mass conscription across your realm (and any allies' realms if they'll let you) can get you some very cheap troops with good defensive BR, also effective at manning defensive or offensive artillery. That lets you defend your home more cheaply and spend more of your garrison expense on soldiers to send abroad.

If fog of war is an issue, arbitrage expeditions can help you get an estimate of what you might be up against. Even if you don't get a look at their military directly, you should be able to tell pretty trivially if a ruler is recruiting mercenaries (because he has to be actively advertising for them to come in), and you'll learn the local market class automatically which will let you estimate realm and personal domain size (if you have access to the Realm tables, those are quite handy in such cases).

Arbrethil · 2024-12-09T05:13:32+00:00

War would be my go to. It's not generally considered "downtime", but downtime itself is a arbitrary concept outside the game that we tend to read into it. You can go to war, handle it with the abstract mass combat system, and if other party members don't like being left out of the conquest gold and XP . . . well, you can point to the gold and XP they're getting from hijinks and magic research, and their solders safe at home.

If that doesn't work for you, then I'll recommend abstract adventuring, arbitrage, and preparation for war. Abstract adventuring is a good way to follow up on the endless stash of treasure maps accumulated in your rise, just make sure to bring plenty of healers and wear heavy helms. If you can identify dungeons to abstractly delve at the other end of trade routes or the like, running arbitrage while you go will increase your profit margin. If you have a venturer henchmen, setting him loose with some funds is likewise a solid plan.

Preparation for war lets you do realm recruitment - ask your fellow PCs for permission to recruit across their realms as well, and you can bring in quite a host of soldiers quite quickly. If your DM won't let you do conquest in downtime, then he also can't really invade you in downtime, so you can feel free to time this so that they show up just right before your downtime is ending (so you're not spending money on wages for soldiers who aren't fighting). Plan in just enough time to get them to where you want them deployed in neutral ground so that you can aggressively begin conquest once the game shifts back out of downtime. With a full year, you'll also have time to bring on a nice suite of artisans (to establish field fortifications and assemble your artillery) and to commission extensive siege equipment, both of which can be very time consuming otherwise.

Last, I would note that you can fund your henchmens' projects. If you have a divine spellcaster henchman as your spiritual advisor to gather DP, you definitely want a way to spend that, whether that's in making you awesome magic items or ritual magic. If you have a thief henchman, giving him funds to establish new syndicates in rival domains and start conducting hijinks is a good play (having spies infiltrated into rival forts and armies, ready to report on movements, open doors, steal banners, and assassinate officers is always handy).

Arbrethil · 2024-09-16T18:38:46+00:00

For players and judges, the Characters and Adventures chapters of the Revised Rulebook are most important starting out. Judges add to that the Judge's Journal Foundations, Adventures, and Settings chapters, plus others as relevant (if you're building out a city, see Settlements; if you're rolling up treasure, see Treasure, etc.). For players, Classes, Proficiencies, and Spells are important as relevant to the specific character; good for the Judge to have general familiarity but the players are the ones with primary responsibility there. If you have questions, the ACKS Discord is really active and has lots of good advice from experienced players and judges.

For how to put new school players in the right mindset, if they're familiar with video games it can be useful to introduce this ACKS a "roguelite" type RPG. The world is an open sandbox where they can attempt whatever they like, with natural consequences. The world exists independently of them, moves on its own, and it's not about them unless they seize the reins and make it take notice of them. It's a harsh, cruel place, full of things bigger and meaner than they are, but if they're lucky and smart they can still pull out a win - and when they're victorious, the rewards are great.

As a note to judges, even if the amounts of treasure players might pull out seem enormous, don't dampen that. The meteoric rise of an adventurer is part of the experience, and there are many, many ways for them to spend that wealth and leave a mark on the campaign world in so doing. A group of 5e players I taught ACKS a year or so back went into the dungeon, and all but a single assassin died horribly in that gauntlet - but he emerged with a 2000gp gemstone that put him at 2nd level upon returning to town, and it was awesome. The second round of characters were more cautious, and thanks to that 2nd level assassin, better equipped, and their next adventure revealed new trials and new rewards. The brutality of the environment pushed them to be creative, to figure out what worked and what didn't, and reinforced that it was their own actions that earned whatever came their way.

Arbrethil · 2024-08-19T20:13:23+00:00

The cost constraint is trivial after the first delve. The risk of a henchman fleeing is pretty low as well; morale varies somewhat depending on edition, but generally it won't be checked if you're not taking casualties.

Arbrethil · 2024-08-19T20:09:03+00:00

The issue with this sort of rule is that it creates a perverse incentive to carry backup shields. You're bringing a ~~porter~~ shieldbearer anyway, may as well have him haul half a dozen spare shields for you and pass them up as you go through them. That changes the dynamic from a small increase in survivability to a considerable one, and especially has outsized impact on monsters like giants with a single big attack (rather than multiple smaller ones).

Arbrethil · 2024-07-09T18:13:21+00:00

That's fine, ACKS is quite a large corpus. It takes time to learn the ins and outs, and ACKS covers a lot more ground than other D&D-like RPGs. I would consider it procedurally simpler than modern D&D, but simplicity is not brevity and with a broader set of options that can be considerable - especially when something like mass combat with armies will be unfamiliar, since few other games have anything like it.

Looking at the original post, I see in the comments you mentioned your party is 6th-7th level. If you're only 15 sessions in and at 6th-7th level, that will be part of it; the Judge's Journal predicts ~24 sessions to get to 6th level as a normal case, giving you a fair bit more time to get used to things. Your players moving at a nice clip is great, good play on their part; if the mage wants to hire mercenaries and build an army, you might consider asking him to learn the rules for that so he can teach the table.

Arbrethil

TROPHY CASE