Yes, all backers of the Before All Others Kickstarter will have the opportunity to have their names included in the credits for the book. Credits are organized by reward tier. (BAO backer names will not appear in the second printing of the ACKS II books, however; we always retain the backer names of the first printing of our books for the lifetime of that book.)

Last updated: September 13, 2025 21:09

Backers at the Elven King or Elven High King reward tier will have an opportunity to include a one-paragraph long point of interest in Appendix B: Gazetteer of the Vale Abandon, if and only if Appendix B is funded. (We believe it will be, but you can never be sure how a crowdfunding campaign will go.)

Below is an example of a point of interest. For more examples, see AX3: Capital of the Borderlands.

COLLAPSED ELVEN KEEP The elves waged campaigns of conquest and re-conquest across Southern Argollë for almost two thousand years. One remnant of these ancient campaigns is this collapsed keep in the center of the Naungollë Forest. The stone fortification’s northeastern corner has collapsed, the walls sunken into the black bog that is slowly engulfing the structure. The northwestern tower and western wall have collapsed in three places, where great trees have grown up, and the main gate is a smashed ruin. Within the ruins of the central tower foundation, dark stairs lead downward into a dungeon, where a tribe of wererats have made their lair. Disguised as ordinary bandits, the wererats have been raiding merchant caravans on the roads between Türos Orn and Luseatum and Türos Augil and Türos Zera. Survivors are carried back to the ruined keep, where they are transformed into wererats to strengthen the clan.

Last updated: September 13, 2025 21:09

Backers at the Elven King and Elven High King reward tier will have an opportunity to work with Autarch to develop a 7th, 8th, or 9th level ritual. Rituals are a type of tremendously powerful magic spell detailed in the ACKS II rules. Rituals require days, weeks, or even months of work to cast and often demand that the spellcaster provide esoteric components or divine power to fuel them. With ritual magic, spellcasters can create armies of the dead, call down cataclysms and plagues, enchant flying fortresses, and so on.

In Before All Others, rulers of elven fastnesses can access ritual magic through the ancient and primordial power of the elven forests. We will work with our high-tier backers to help them craft rituals that integrate with the new elven forestry rules in the book.

Last updated: September 13, 2025 21:09

Backers at the Elven High King reward tier will have an exclusive opportunity to work with Autarch to develop a custom class. We expect most custom classes will be for elves, but we are open to creative ideas for closely related races and monsters. Depending on the nature of the custom class, it will either appear in Chapter 4: Elven Classes or in Chapter 9: Elven Secrets.

In the past, some of the most beloved classes in ACKS have originated in backer requests. Unfortunately, so have some of the most broken! We will endeavor to work closely with backers to make sure that their additions to the book are maximally beloved and minimally broken.

Last updated: September 13, 2025 21:29

Backers at the Elven High Lord reward tier will have an opportunity to work with Autarch to develop an arcane or divine spell of up to 6th spell level. All spells will be designed using the ACKS II custom spell creation system in order to be compliant with the existing rules. Depending on the nature of the spell it will either appear in Chapter 5: Elven Magic or Chapter 9: Elven Secrets.

Last updated: September 13, 2025 21:29

The name bank is simply a list of setting-appropriate names from which we draw on anytime we need to name a hero, villain, ruler, sage, or other NPC in the Auran Empire setting. Not every name that gets submitted into the name bank gets used but we usually do our best to accommodate them, especially when the backer has worked with us to make sure the name fits with the setting and tone of the game. It’s much harder to use “Roonuld Reegahn” than it is to use “Asterius Destrian” in the Auran Empire setting, and so on.

If for some reason instead of offering up the name of an NPC, you’d like to offer up the name of a fastness, fort, forest, hill, mountain, river, book, organization, battle, or other historical or geographical term, we will gladly attempt to accommodate that.

Last updated: September 13, 2025 21:29

You can do as much or as little of the “work” involved as you’d like. Some backers like to submit highly-detailed fully-fleshed out content with all the math worked out and others just send a name and a vague description of an idea.

Ultimately since it’s Autarch’s game and universe, we have to maintain creative control with final say so that we can maintain game balance and setting verisimilitude… But anyone who has worked with Autarch in the past will tell you we really do try to accommodate all of our backer’s ideas. (Cthaylor, we’re looking at you.)

Last updated: September 13, 2025 21:29

All custom content has to be compatible with ACKS II. For instance, classes have to be in alignment with the ACKS II class creation rules; spells have to be built with the ACKS II spellbuilding rules. All content has to be at least plausibly compatible with the ACKS II implied setting of the Auran Empire although we will certainly “stretch” our interpretations of plausibility.

Custom content cannot infringe on other people’s intellectual property, nor can it be defamatory, disparaging, felonious, hateful, or obscene. Our lead designer already has the death sentence on twelve systems and would like to avoid further imperial entanglements.

Last updated: September 13, 2025 21:29

When you submit custom content as a backer reward, you’re granting Autarch full ownership of the rights to it. That way, we can edit, polish, and publish it seamlessly alongside our other material without legal headaches.

Last updated: September 13, 2025 21:29

Great question!

1. The Elven Imperialist reward tier includes the entire ACKS II second printing along with Before All Others. You get all three books in PDF and hardcover. If you’re brand new to ACKS II and want to go “all in”, this is your best option.

2. The Auran Interloper tier includes the ACKS II Revised Rulebook, Monstrous Manual, and Judges Journal in hardcover and PDF. It does NOT include Before All Others nor the Judges Screen. You can add those as add-ons if you want.

3. The Elven Dilettante tier costs $1 and lets you choose whatever add-ons you’d like. You can use that to get some or all of the second printing books as you prefer.

4. Any reward tier can add any or all of the ACKS II second printing books as add-ons.

Last updated: September 16, 2025 11:20