GURPS-ACKS Conversions: Why?

GURPS-ACKS Conversions: Why?

You probably noticed that lately I’ve been interested in ACKS – Adventurer, Conqueror, King System, and that I’ve even written some conversion notes. I have been asked a question – why am I doing this? Here, I’d like to give an extended answer.

First of all – no, I’m not switching from GURPS to ACKS. However, if back in the day I hadn’t found GURPS, I would’ve switched to ACKS from D&D, that’s for sure. For the most part, GURPS is a complete system – not a dead system, like some like to say – there are books and rules for almost everything. However, there still are some “holes,” such as the lack of GURPS Vehicles Design System and a working GURPS Realm Management.

For the most part, I think that GURPS Mass Combat is fine. It works well for what it was made for, but I prefer a lesser degree of abstraction. Mass combat is a situation where usually only one character matters – the commander, while the rest of the characters just wait and do nothing. Sure, there are the Significant Actions rules, but I feel that they break up the flow of the battle too much and may feel a bit arbitrary. As a player, I do not like arbitrary things. There’s also the issue of inflexibility – while there is a large assortment of combat elements to choose from, even with the various modifiers, many of them may feel the same. A squad of hobgoblin infantry probably will be the same as a squad of bugbear infantry. As for the battle itself, it is abstracted to just choosing a strategy and rolling a Quick Contest of Strategy. You do not feel in control, and there’s no tactical depth. I know that there is the Tactical Mass Combat article, but it still feels very barebones.

It’s easy to complain and whine, but I actually want to find a solution. After all, if you want something done right, do it yourself. Thus, my goals are:

1. Domain management rules for fantasy games that are not too abstract and not too non-abstract.

2. Fantasy mass combat rules that can involve multiple characters, have tactical depth and flexibility of game mechanics, and can be played on a hex grid.

GURPS, being a generic and universal system based on the simulationist paradigm by default has a great advantage – you can adapt books from other systems, and you’ve seen me do it all the time. I adapted so many D&D concepts and found that they work much better in GURPS than in D&D. As I like to say “Every book is a GURPS book.”

ACKS, also being a simulationist system, works surprisingly well with GURPS. In my opinion, this is a sign of quality of both systems. Thus, ACKS books are good GURPS books, if that makes any sense. One of the highlights of ACKS is its verisimilitudinous economics system. Man, I wish the “lol there are dragons and magic, how can it be realistic? xD” crowd didn’t force everyone to use such hard to pronounce words. Both ACKS and GURPS seem to have similar pricing schemes, which can be seen the mostly clearly when you compare the Costs of Living tables. Sure, there are some differences here or there, but 1 gp in ACKS seems to be roughly equivalent to $100 in GURPS.

Why is this important? Because ACKS domain management rules aren’t actually concerned much with the d20 resolution mechanics – it’s all about money, territory, and population. This makes them surprisingly compatible with GURPS – after all, population and territory is not measured in arbitrary units, and even gold pieces can be converted into GURPS dollars. All the mechanics just stay the same. It seems that the only things that need adjustments for GURPS are the following:

    - Skills used and penalties for Land Survey

    - Skills used by the Magistrates

    - Tie GURPS skills to the actions from Ruling the Realm

That’s literally it! And it can be done in ~10 minutes.

However, there’s something I omitted – armies. Even though you could use these domain management rules and use combat elements and prices from GURPS Mass Combat, for better consistency, I would suggest using the mass combat rules from Domains at War: Battles and Domains at War: Campaigns. This way, I cover both of my goals, and preserve internal consistency. I already showed off how ACKS Domains at War: Battles rules work in the most basic way, and even suggested some conversion guidelines to create new combat units based on their GURPS stats. However, the work is not done yet, as there are some other steps to perform:

    - Try out the rules for heroes and magic. Heroes in Domains at War: Battles have two different statlines – a personal statline and a unit statline. I already presented suggestions for how to derive a unit statline from GURPS statistics, but the subject of personal statline should be explored in more detail. The same goes for magic, as magic is something that is hard to get right in mass combat.

    - Adapt rules from Domains at War: Campaigns. While the Battles book gives you a way to resolve battles, the Campaigns book talks about recruiting mercenaries, training and equipping armies, army movement, domain pillaging, and all that sort of stuff. For the most part, the only things to adapt are assigning Market Classes to GURPS settlements and assigning GURPS skills to certain strategic tasks.

And that’s it – both goals will be met, and I (and maybe some of you, if you like this approach) will be able to run GURPS games involving domains and armies without handwaving the mechanics. Isn’t that great?

But why stop there? ACKS books have much more to offer that can be adapted. For example, the Hideouts and Hijinks chapter also can be used almost without any changes, letting you run an assassin’s guild or a thieves’ guild. The butchering rules from the ACKS Monster Manual interact well with the GURPS butchering rules. While GURPS tells you how much meat you get from a carcass, and I have derived values for skin and bone, ACKS can tell you how many valuable feathers you can pluck from a griffon’s plumage. The same can apply to special components that can be used to enchant items. I used some of these guidelines in my Monstrous Compendium. The Mercantile Ventures chapter will let you turn trading and moving passengers and cargo into something more interesting than a Merchant roll. The Market Class rules may be used in GURPS without any changes to determine the availability of goods.

ACKS Judge Journal is a treasure trove not only of rules, but of procedures. ACKS has clearly defined procedures for dungeon exploration, wilderness exploration, urban exploration, and sea voyages. “Clearly defined” doesn’t mean that you have to follow them to the letter, but that they lay out everything that you may want to keep in mind when resolving these situations, and can be used as checklists by the GM. Even though you may want to use GURPS rules, they probably will be compatible with the procedure. For example, I have an unfinished GURPS wilderness exploration procedure based on the one from ACKS that uses GURPS rules. When I finish it, you will know what I mean. Some believe that procedures and sequences make running the game more difficult, but I believe that they do the opposite.

Anyway, the gist of this post is that if you’re playing GURPS, you really should not neglect books written for other systems. Do not be ashamed to adapt rules and concepts from other games if you feel that they would make your game better. Of course, this does require some effort, but GMing isn’t something lazy people do in general.