ACKS 2 Kickstarter Update

 

The ACKS 2 Kickstarter has reached $292,438 with 12 days to go, surpassing the Old School Essentials: Advanced Fantasy Kickstarter. This feels like it will break 300K by the final days, and congratulations to this team. They are nowhere near Shadowdark, but this is still a fantastic achievement for the game and its fans.

These days, ACKS 2 will look like my serious B/X style game of choice and replace 5E and Pathfinder 1 and 2 for me. I have Dungeon Crawl Classics for gonzo fantasy. For everything else, Cypher System will be it.

I am not buying a thousand dollars of books for a game again. People who still play 5E and these wannabe live-service games will be the ones to blame for the ever-increasing cost of the hobby. Even if someone owns all the books and never gives another penny to Wizards, they will force other people - new players - to buy the game and get into the walled garden. Even if you get your books used, for free, or any other way - you force the people you play with to buy in - and it is selfish to tell yourself, 'Well, at least I am not giving them money' - you are forcing others to do it for you.

The only way out is divestment.

Find other games; there are plenty, and they all have fantastic communities.

Find a game with everything you need in one book - or boxed set, and make that your game.

The more money you spend on a game, and the more you force others to spend, the more part of the problem with the hobby you become. The players are the reason these companies can charge 80 dollars for a book with a monthly cost tied in. Not the company. Don't let it be you.

So congratulations to the ACKS team for a new high water mark in B/X alternatives, and ones that break free of both the OGL and the CC and do something new and independent. ACKS is different; it has no ties to the Wizards licensing schemes. It is B/X breaking free from the broken record we have been in with B/X for the last 10+ years, where people pick a specific version from a moment and try to rewrite it.

2023 was the year we learned depending on Wall Street's charity was unsustainable.

It is time we find games that give us the freedom to say no to them.

Otherwise, we will be a part of the problem. And people can't whine or complain about playing other games, saying, "I don't want to learn anything else" or the lame "won't be able to find a game" - since they will be forcing others to pay up for those in the ivory towers. Also, ignore the rabble-rousers, using silly reasons and politics to keep people in the Wall Street games.

All lies.

All distractions.

Support games that break free of control. Others will likely come up soon, even if you don't like ACKS, you will have great choices (and do right now). Pick one, and join the community early.

Do you want to be a part of why the hobby's costs are increasing?

I can't.