Axioms Magazine

By Issue

Published Issues

Axioms #1

  • Beyond Arcane and Divine: rules for designing custom magic types for your campaigns
  • The Shades of Magic: Rules for shaded magic, where dark magic can cause corruption of the body and soul
  • Introducing the Wizard: a Mage-like class that utilizes shaded magic
  • The Art of Arcanogenesis: Creating new life forms with magic from scratch
  • Overcasting: Casting spells beyond one’s traditional limits, with a price

Axioms #2

  • A Culture of Battle: History and Social/Economic structures of beastmen
  • Domains of Chaos: Rules and demographics for beastman clanholds, chaotic domains, and tribal warriors.
  • The Weapons and Warriors of Woe: Variant rules for beastmen arms, armor, and leaders.
  • Bred for War: Building custom classes with beastman racial builds.
  • Who Stands Against the Beastmen?: How the Auran Empire defends its borderlands.

Axioms #3

  • Strongholds and Domains: Refined rules for ACKS domains
  • Seperating Land and Lordship: Running domains where the ruler of the land and the owner of the land are distinct entities
  • Senatus Consultum Ultimum: Rules for domains with a senate or other ruling body
  • Wandering Into War: Random encounters at the domain level – wandering beastmen and monsters arriving to pillage or settle
  • Of Coins and Commerce: The underlying economic system of ACKS, and rules for mercantile investments
  • The Economics of Peasant Families: How peasant families generate value
  • Flocks and Herbs And Silver And Gold: How animal husbandry generates value

Axioms #4

  • Pitching Battle!: A revised ruleset for Domains At War: Campaigns battle resolution
  • Aide De Camp: Printable play aids for the above ruleset
  • Elite Troops: Training region or culture specific elite troop types
  • Morituri Te Salutant: Running gladiatoral games, and maintaining a gladiatoral school as a domain type

Axioms #5

  • Hedge Wizardry and Village Wisdom: Cantrips for ACKS.
  • Potions, Lotions, and Other Commotions: Cantrip Items and item creation.
  • Of Mischief and Mountebanks: Two new classes.
    • The Fool: A class relying on charisma and luck
    • The Mountebank: A trickster who can brew quacksalves (potions of dubious effectiveness)
  • A Blight Upon The Earth: Drawing divine power from the land itself.

Axioms #6

  • What’s Your Condition?: A dictionary of various conditions (affecting creatures) in ACKS
  • Well Met! Now Prepare to Die, Handsome: Expanded mechanics for diplomacy, intimidation, and seduction in ACKS
  • Prepare for the Future: A peek into what might happen in an ACKS 2E

Axioms #7

  • Magic Item Research: Calculations of value for each magic item in ACKS, to aid in item creation.
  • Magical Compounds: Enhancing the flexibility of the magic item creation rules by using/distilling common, multi-use compounds from monster parts.
  • Alternate Progressions for the Arcane Values: Reworking the lesser arcane value spell slot progression for better value balance
  • A Grimoire of Spells: Nine new spells of 5th level and higher.

Axioms Special Edition: Campaign Play

  • Campaign Play: Scheduling the resoution of various domain play activities
  • Campaign Activities: Managing various activities – adventuring, growing congregations, ruling domains, magical research, guild hijinks, and mercantile adventures in the framework of a long term campaign.

Axioms #8

  • Make Magical Items Magical Again: Thematic minor effects to indivualize magical items.
  • Put Your Game Face On: Generating PC/NPC appearances based on race and ability scores
  • Stocking the Wilderness: Revamped mechanics for broadening the scope and flavor of wilderness encounters
  • What’s In Its Pockets?: Valuables, trinkets, and oddities found in other people’s pockets.

Axioms #9

  • Creating Custom Fantasy Races: Creating races compatible with the Player’s Companion class building system
  • Hauberks and Hobbits: Armor weights and costs for small and large creatures
  • Folks Fair and Foul: Eight new fey monsters.
  • Noncombatant Characters: Leveling noncombatant, non-adventuring characters – normal men – into higher levels

Axioms #10

  • Grim Heroes: Three new grimdark classes for grimdark worlds:
    • The Flagellant: a zealot fighting fores of Chaos
    • The Revenant: Free willed undead with a singular goal
    • The Sorcerer: A spellcaster steeped in Chaos, with a custom magic type weighted towards summoning and control
  • Terrors of the Night: A pair of new undead creatures inspired by monsters of legend.
  • The Fetid Crypt of Anatu the Defiler: a dark and haunting dungeon in the Auran Empire’s Borderlands

Axioms #11

  • Behind the Veil: A new class – Nobiran Veildancers, a graceful fighter with divine power
  • Temptress of the Temple: Revealing the dark secrets of the Priestesses of Nasga
  • Lore of the Stars: astrology in the Auran Empire
  • Metaphysics of the Cosmos: the cosmogonic secrets of the universe, revealed!

Axioms #12

  • The Art of Thievery: revisiting the rules for thieves and related classes
  • Re-Thinking Thieves, Part I: a mathematical assessment of whether thief skills are balanced
  • Re-Thinking Thieves, Part II: some roguish ideas to tinker with thieves
  • Live by the Fist: presenting a streetfighter that packs a punch
  • The Purse is Mightier than the Curse: with the newly revised venturer, the wizards work for you
  • Hench Wanted: finding and hiring the right henchman for the job at hand

Axioms #13

  • Machinery to the Max: Vastly expanded Automaton rules for Machinists

Axioms #14

  • Codex & Scroll I: Writing, Reading, Buying, and Selling Books
  • Codex & Scroll II: Libraries and Authorities
  • Codex & Scroll III: Spells, Formulae, and Systems

Axioms #15

  • Lords of the Night: The Nosferatu as a racial class.
  • Scion of the Shadows: The Nosferatu Scion class.
  • The Katripol of Eastern Ulruk: A New Race for ACKS and Auran Empire Campaigns, the Katripol, with skill in machines
  • The Magical and the Mechanical: The Katripol Artificier class.

Axioms #16

  • Wounds & Woe: Expanded rules for permanent wounds and tampering with mortality

Axioms #17

  • coming soon!

Axioms #18

  • Integrated Spell Power Guidelines: Integrated tables combining the Player’s Companion and Heroic Fantasy Handbook‘s spell building resources in one place.

Unpublished Articles

These articles are available now on Autarch’s Patreon, and will soon be available as individual issues.

  • ACKS v.01: A look at the set of house rules modifying B/X that birthed the system
  • Savage New Permanent Wound Tables: The five tables are for Bludgeoning, Penetrating, Slashing, Savage, and Fire damage. Each of them is substantially different in narrative description and moderately different in physical effect.
  • Classical Auran: A Primer for English Speakers: After 12 years of philological study, the American Society for Classical Auran Philology (ASCAP) has finally released its first primer on the Classical Auran language.
  • Dynasties in ACKS: Rules for dynasties and inheritance by Frank Skeivoll Romsvig
  • ACKS Encounter Table Generator: Quickly customize wilderness encounters for any area you define
  • ACKS Cohorts: Small-unit definitions for ACKS by Frank Skeivoll Romsvig
  • Calling, Conjuration, and Summoning: Expanded options for summonings and conjurations by Frank Skeivoll Romsvig
  • History and Timeline of the Auran Empire
  • Of Arms and Armor: A deep dive into how ACKS’s treatment of armor and combat compare to real-world research
  • Who’s On Point?: A look into streamlining sneaking and surprise in ACKS 2E
  • The Flow of Combat: A study and overhaul of ACKS’ combat sequence
  • Horsing Around: The economics of horse herds.
  • What is Best in Life? I,II,II: The underlying economics of nomads, such as the Mongol, and how their domains are structured in ACKS
  • Magical Research Revised, I,II,III: An update for Magical Research rules in ACKS, plus updates to the Experimentation rules from ACKS:PC and drawing Arcane Power from the dungeon.

By Content

Characters

  • Axioms #1
    • Introducing the Wizard: a Mage-like class that utilizes shaded magic
  • Axioms #5
    • Of Mischief and Mountebanks: Two new classes.
      • The Fool: A class relying on charisma and luck
      • The Mountebank: A trickster who can brew quacksalves (potions of dubious effectiveness)
  • Axioms #8
    • Put Your Game Face On: Generating PC/NPC appearances based on race and ability scores
  • Axioms #9
    • Noncombatant Characters: Leveling noncombatant, non-adventuring characters – normal men – into higher levels
  • Axioms #10
    • Grim Heroes: Three new grimdark classes for grimdark worlds:
    • The Flagellant: a zealot fighting fores of Chaos
    • The Revenant: Free willed undead with a singular goal
  • Axioms #11
    • Behind the Veil: A new class – Nobiran Veildancers, a graceful fighter with divine power
    • Temptress of the Temple:Revealing the dark secrets of the Priestesses of Nasga
  • Axioms #12
    • Live by the Fist: presenting a streetfighter that packs a punch
    • The Purse is Mightier than the Curse: with the newly revised venturer, the wizards work for you
  • Axioms #13
    • Machinery to the Max: Vastly expanded Automaton rules for Machinists
  • Axioms #15
    • Lords of the Night: The Nosferatu as a racial class.
    • Scion of the Shadows: The Nosferatu Scion class.
    • The Katripol of Eastern Ulruk: A New Race for ACKS and Auran Empire Campaigns, the Katripol, with skill in machines
    • The Magical and the Mechanical: The Katripol Artificier class.

Custom Classes

  • Axioms #1
    • Beyond Arcane and Divine: rules for designing custom magic types for your campaigns
    • The Shades of Magic: Rules for shaded magic, where dark magic can cause corruption of the body and soul
  • Axioms #2
    • Bred for War: Building custom classes with beastman racial builds.
  • Axioms #4
    • Morituri Te Salutant: Running gladiatoral games, and maintaining a gladiatoral school as a domain type
  • Axioms #7
    • Alternate Progressions for the Arcane Values: Reworking the lesser arcane value spell slot progression for better value balance
  • Axioms #9
    • Creating Custom Fantasy Races: Creating races compatible with the Player’s Companion class building system
    • Noncombatant Characters: Leveling noncombatant, non-adventuring characters – normal men – into higher levels

Equipment

  • Axioms #2
    • The Weapons and Warriors of Woe: Variant rules for beastmen arms, armor, and leaders.
    • Hauberks and Hobbits: Armor weights and costs for small and large creatures

Spells And Magic

  • Axioms #1
    • Overcasting: Casting spells beyond one’s traditional limits, with a price
  • Axioms #5
    • Hedge Wizardry and Village Wisdom: Cantrips for ACKS.
  • Axioms #7
    • A Grimoire of Spells: Nine new spells of 5th level and higher.
  • Axioms #14
    • Codex & Scroll I: Writing, Reading, Buying, and Selling Books
    • Codex & Scroll II: Libraries and Authorities
    • Codex & Scroll III: Spells, Formulae, and Systems
  • Axioms #18
    • Integrated Spell Power Guidelines: Integrated tables combining the Player’s Companion and Heroic Fantasy Handbook‘s spell building resources in one place.

Adventures

  • Axioms #6
    • What’s Your Condition?: A dictionary of various conditions (affecting creatures) in ACKS
    • Well Met! Now Prepare to Die, Handsome: Expanded mechanics for diplomacy, intimidation, and seduction in ACKS
  • Axioms #8
    • Put Your Game Face On: Generating PC/NPC appearances based on race and ability scores
    • What’s In Its Pockets?: Valuables, trinkets, and oddities found in other people’s pockets.
  • Axioms #16
    • Wounds & Woe: Expanded rules for permanent wounds and tampering with mortality

Campaigns

  • Axioms Special Edition: Campaign Play
    • Campaign Play: Scheduling the resoution of various domain play activities
    • Campaign Activities: Managing various activities – adventuring, growing congregations, ruling domains, magical research, guild hijinks, and mercantile adventures in the framework of a long term campaign.
  • Axioms #12
    • Hench Wanted: finding and hiring the right henchman for the job at hand

Strongholds And Domains

  • Axioms #3
    • Strongholds and Domains: Refined rules for ACKS domains
    • Seperating Land and Lordship: Running domains where the ruler of the land and the owner of the land are distinct entities
    • Senatus Consultum Ultimum: Rules for domains with a senate or other ruling body
  • Axioms #4
    • Morituri Te Salutant: Running gladiatoral games, and maintaining a gladiatoral school as a domain type

Domains At War

  • Axioms #3
    • Wandering Into War: Random encounters at the domain level – wandering beastmen and monsters arriving to pillage or settle
  • Axioms #4
    • Pitching Battle!: A revised ruleset for Domains At War: Campaigns battle resolution
    • Aide De Camp: Printable play aids for the above ruleset
    • Elite Troops: Training region or culture specific elite troop types

Magic Research

  • Axioms #1
    • The Art of Arcanogenesis: Creating new life forms with magic from scratch
  • Axioms #5
    • Potions, Lotions, and Other Commotions: Cantrip Items and item creation.
    • A Blight Upon The Earth: Drawing divine power from the land itself.
  • Axioms #7
    • Magic Item Research: Calculations of value for each magic item in ACKS, to aid in item creation.
    • Magical Compounds: Enhancing the flexibility of the magic item creation rules by using/distilling common, multi-use compounds from monster parts.
  • Axioms #14
    • Codex & Scroll I: Writing, Reading, Buying, and Selling Books
    • Codex & Scroll II: Libraries and Authorities
    • Codex & Scroll III: Spells, Formulae, and Systems

Monsters

  • Axioms #2
    • The Weapons and Warriors of Woe: Variant rules for beastmen arms, armor, and leaders.
  • Axioms #9
    • Folks Fair and Foul: Eight new fey monsters.
  • Axioms #10
    • Terrors of the Night: A pair of new undead creatures inspired by monsters of legend.

Treasure

  • Axioms #5
    • Potions, Lotions, and Other Commotions: Cantrip Items and item creation.
  • Axioms #8
    • Make Magical Items Magical Again: Thematic minor effects to indivualize magical items.
  • Axioms #14
    • Codex & Scroll I: Writing, Reading, Buying, and Selling Books
    • Codex & Scroll II: Libraries and Authorities
    • Codex & Scroll III: Spells, Formulae, and Systems

The Auran Empire

  • Axioms #2
    • A Culture of Battle: History and Social/Economic structures of beastmen
    • Who Stands Against the Beastmen?: How the Auran Empire defends its borderlands.
  • Axioms #11
    • Lore of the Stars: astrology in the Auran Empire
    • Metaphysics of the Cosmos: the cosmogonic secrets of the universe, revealed!

Secrets

  • Axioms #2
    • Domains of Chaos: Rules and demographics for beastman clanholds, chaotic domains, and tribal warriors.
  • Axioms #3
    • Of Coins and Commerce: The underlying economic system of ACKS, and rules for mercantile investments
    • The Economics of Peasant Families: How peasant families generate value
    • Flocks and Herbs And Silver And Gold: How animal husbandry generates value
  • Axioms #6
    • Prepare for the Future: A peek into what might happen in an ACKS 2E
  • Axioms #8
    • Put Your Game Face On: Generating PC/NPC appearances based on race and ability scores
    • Stocking the Wilderness: Revamped mechanics for broadening the scope and flavor of wilderness encounters
  • Axioms Special Edition: Abstract Play
    • Abstract Dungeons: Running adventures in dungeons without the dungeon – great for groups of henchmen or secondary characters
    • Abstract Wilderness: Running wilderness lair encounters and clearing hexes with an abstracted system
  • Axioms #12
    • The Art of Thievery: revisiting the rules for thieves and related classes
    • Re-Thinking Thieves, Part I: a mathematical assessment of whether thief skills are balanced
    • Re-Thinking Thieves, Part II: some roguish ideas to tinker with thieves

Lairs And Encounters

  • Axioms #10
    • The Fetid Crypt of Anatu the Defiler: a dark and haunting dungeon in the Auran Empire’s Borderlands