Dear readers: You can help save dark fantasy by backing my epic adventure novel Lord of Fate, now funding on Kickstarter.
Video gaming has gotten a lot of attention lately, in large part due to colossal blunders made by industry leaders. It helps that vidya is now the dominant entertainment sector, worth hundreds of billion of dollars worldwide.
Yet woefully overlooked by much of the mainstream amid the clown funeral AAA gaming is holding for itself, we find exciting new developments in the tabletop roleplaying scene. That’s not to say that the megacorp-owned game publishers aren’t getting busy with their own form of self-immolation. But TTRPG enthusiasts seem more willing than their video gamer counterparts to drop the Pop Cult product designed to make them useless consumers.
Take D&D-adjacent movements like the Old School Renaissance and BrOSR, for example. TTRPG players are hungry for a classic play style that’s heavier on the actual game and lighter on the amateur improv theater. And they’re letting their money do the talking.
Consider the Adventurer Conquerer King System by Autarch. Best selling game developer Alexander Macris raised over $300,000 for ACKS II just last year.
Now, Alexander has launched a new live streaming show, appropriately titled ACKS to Grind. His first guest is the inestimable Rick Stump, 45-year gaming veteran and Don’t Split the Party proprietor.
If you’re a game master who wants to learn how to manage a truly massive, long-running campaign, watch and learn:
Full disclosure: Alexander and Rick are friends of the blog who’ve both contributed to my own work in the novel writing field. You can help reconquer tabletop roleplaying and dark fantay, too. Details below:
For a dark fantasy with the savagery of Berserk and the moral roots of Lord of the Rings, get into my thrilling Arkwright Cycle. Book II: Lord of Fate, is live now on Kickstarter.
Get the new book early, and help unlock tantalizing stretch goals like new interior map art and the historic audio adaptation of The Burned Book!
Help reconquer dark fantasy. Back Lord of Fate now!
Thanks for sharing this! I’m looking forward to the arrival of ACKS II and really appreciate Macris’s blog on game design. This should be a nice evening video to settle in with.
It’s a pleasure supporting both of these accomplished gentlemen. Thanks for reading.
I’ve been impressed by Alex’s superhero system ASCENDANT, though I admit I haven’t tried ACKS. As for the OSR, while I have respect for it and the movement it represents, I just haven’t been able to “connect” with it in a meaningful way. I don’t have any nostalgia for 80s or 90s D&D, and the whole thing seems to presume that there is a self-evident “right way” to play D&D that I am completely oblivious to. It’s like spending hours listening to people talk about the best way to acquire X, without ever explaining what X actually is. From what I’ve been able to get out of people, it seems to boil down to thinking that D&D should exclusively be about rummaging around in wizard’s basements trying to get rich, and anything else is Cringe Theatre Kid Nonsense. That simply doesn’t appeal much to me or my playgroup – I enjoy character backstory, world-building, and elaborate plots that weave both of those things into the adventure. I don’t think the OSR has a place for people like me, and I suspect that I’d just be told to go play White Wolf games instead if I asked. Only problem is that A)White Wolf is the wokest of the woke and B)I’ve never felt any appeal toward playing as a Vampire, Werewolf, etc.
The OSR does seem to have a hard cutoff at Gen X. Ironically, the same problem besets fans of Campbellian sci fi.
Interesting that you bring up White Wolf. I’m about to run my weekly World of Darkness game in a few hours. I just stick to the earlier editions and get those used. Omitting the now quaint 90s leftist elements is easy.
Speaking as someone who’s been around the TTRPG scene for over 30 years and has observed the OSR from earliest days, it’s very much tied up with a) the works of Gygax and his era and b) the fantasy of the 70s. If you’re not a late Boomer or Gen X, much of the milieu is going to be foreign ground to you. (Being earliest Gen Y, I had just enough exposure to be aware of what they’re going for, but my heart rests with 2nd Edition and the kind of feel that it and Dragonlance wanted to produce but failed to in many regards. 🙂 )
I’ve played a couple of Powered By The Apocalypse style games. While they have their own flaws, I find that they actually help me get a much punchier, immersive, and fast-paced game going as opposed to the slog that is 5E D&D combat. Rarely does anyone get stonewalled by a bad roll, missing a roll by only a few points allows them to still succeed, but at a harsh price, such as losing their weapon or taking a permanent injury. I find it interesting, at least as a supplement to more classic games.