Adventurer Conqueror King: RPg Review

Adventurer Conqueror King

This issue is a brief review of the portable document format (PDF) of Adventurer Conqueror King (system). As suggested by the publisher I will be borrowing the much kinder and simpler abbreviation of ACKs. In 2011-2012 ACKs core book was brought to market via a successful Kickstarter campaign which funded just shy of $12k internet bucks. Autarch LLC has completed five successful Kickstarter campaigns since, through 2016 and while the publisher was kind enough to share a treasure trove of ACKs material, the focus of this review is with the ACKs Core book. This RPG and its supplements can be purchased in print as well as PDF at DrivethruRPG. You can also visit the publisher's website at: http://www.autarch.co/ for more information.

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Adventurer Conqueror King is a clone of Dungeons and Dragons and utilizes the open game license (OGL 1.0) of Wizards of the Coast. While not fully a retro-clone, having more advanced features such as proficiencies (likely borrowed from D&D 3e or 4e?) and not entirely neo-clone, with a semi-independent (ascending type) combat system, it’s hard to relate where ACKs fits in the scope of other clones.

About the only reason to compare it as such, is to guess whether the OSR and fantasy gaming consumer is interested, or at least why they might be interested. To the OSR and old school customer base, I would say that this RPG certainly has bits and parts of old school familiarity, which the OGL affords it, but it is also… Perhaps and certainly more so mechanically, it is a bit of a D&D mash.

Not in question, is that the value of this product is the campaign chapter. Adventurer Conqueror King (system) provides an interesting continuation of somewhat subtle idea. The framework of what was started (if I’m remembering this correctly at any rate) by AD&D nearly four decades ago: the push for adventure beyond the dungeon crawl. Otherwise known as Duh! A Campaign! The framework which is found in the Strongholds and Domains section is very well done. Anyone who has ran a D&D campaign knows that with survival comes player character influence (even fame) and while the final idea is that the player characters will build and maintain strongholds and domains, game designers have rarely provided a serviceable framework for this gameable idea. Even if you’re not in the market for an entirely new D&D system, the framework in ACKs can be modified to most systems with a little finesse. Personally, this chapter alone, turns this product into something I'd be happy to have paid money for. And recommend to others, which I do.

Review featured in KoDT #242

In ACKs characters cap out at 14th level. There are the traditional four: fighter, cleric, mage and thief. And some interestingly varied campaign character classes. Campaign classes are the Assassin, and Bard; which are exactly what you imagine them to be, Blade Dancer; human women who serve the god of war, think Amazon Women etc., the Explorer; which is much a ranger, Dwarven Vaultguard, Dwarven Craftpriest, Elvin Spellsword and Elvin Nightblade. All and all a decent mix of magic or advanced fighting/thief capabilities, in regards to demi-human races. No halflings, gnomes or half-elves; thank you, said some people.

Character Alignment is pretty much straight out of OD&D and applies the same way as most retro-clones; Law, Neutrality & Chaos. An interesting choice was to do away with memorization/preparation for spell magic. Casters need only rest themselves for eight hours before being able to restore their spell repertoire. I’ve house ruled this way for most of my fantasy RPGs a long time.

The production value of ACKs, art, tables and layout is respectable. For the PDF of the core book each chapter has a number of hyperlinked pages which you can click and arrive at your chosen destination rather than scrolling through or typing in the page number. This feature is present in the table of contents as well as the index. Both sections have been meticulously detailed and encourage use. The hyperlinked pages are certainly a feature I wish more publishers would take advantage of. One can only hope those publishers are reading this column!   

As I said, Adventurer Conqueror King (system) s is a bit of a D&D mash up. It seems as if the creator borrowed their favorite elements from the different editions of D&D and made an RPG stew of sorts. Some people like stew, while others won’t get near it. The combat system isn’t too difficult to get the gist, but I think most old school gamers would have preferred the standard ascending or descending armor class (AC) system. As I mentioned, the campaign chapter is really well done, expanding the idea of a valuable concept and creating a respectable framework in making it gameable. Keeping with our stew analogy, this is the ingredient that I think most gamers will love.