Before All Others Crowdfunding Now!

The Kickstarter campaign for Before All Others: The Cyclopedia of Elven Civilization™ has just gone live! Back it now to snag your early bird rewards.

Before All Others is the companion volume to our bestselling sourcebook By This Axe: The Cyclopedia of Dwarven Civilization™ and the latest addition to our line of critically acclaimed ACKS II™ rulebooks. In this 208-page full-color tome you will find the secrets of the high and noble race of elves, compiled, codified, and curated for use in your favorite old-school fantasy role-playing game.

Before All Others is organized into ten chapters:

• Chapter 1, Introduction, details the audience, purpose, and approach for this book.

• Chapter 2, Elven Lore, provides an overview of the ethnicity, physiology, language, and customs of elves. It is narrated from the point of view of a sage in the world of the Auran Empire.

• Chapter 3, Elven Characters, explains how to roll up an elven character, with new rules for appearance, age, equipment, and proficiencies.

• Chapter 4, Elven Classes, offers nine racial classes, including the arborist, courtier, druid, nightblade, ranger, spellsinger, spellsword, warrior, and wizard. Each class includes eight pre-generated templates. Using the templates, you can easily make your spellsinger a bladesinger, your courtier an emissary, or your ranger a falconer.

• Chapter 5, Elven Magic, details a new style of magic, spellsinging, which is more fluid and flexible than traditional spellcasting. Spellsingers can dynamically create spells by weaving together effects, targets, and modifiers.

• Chapter 6, Elven Domains, explains how your elven characters can establish themselves as rulers of fastnesses, with rules for settlements, vassals, garrisons, and more.

• Chapter 7, Elven Forestry, details the methods of forest gardening used by the elves to sustain their civilization without need for conventional grain-based agriculture. It builds on real-world techniques of agroforestry but blends in the tropes of high fantasy to allow your sylvan civilization to be as plausible or fantastical as you desire.

• Chapter 8, Elven Warfare, presents rules for raising and recruiting elven armies, with rosters of troop types that encompass everything from companies of rangers to squadrons of griffon riders and unicorn cavalry.

• Chapter 9, Elven Secrets, is the chapter the elves don't want you to know about. The dark decisions and terrible tales of the corrupt elves of antiquity are revealed, with additional classes and options that explore the hidden side of ageless elvenkind.

• Appendix A, Bestiary of the Wild, offers a catalog of over 30 new monsters based on historical legend. Each monster receives a full-page illustrated description of the creature's game statistics, combat abilities, habitat, reproduction, and spoils. Introduce the banshee, buggane, caitshee, fomorian, and other creatures malevolent and benign to your campaign.

But that's just our foundation. High-tier backers will have an opportunity to add custom spells, rituals, and classes to the book, and the overall crowdfunding campaign success can increase the scope of the book further by unlocking stretch goals, including 3 new monsters and 3 new character classes. If we reach the $80,000 stretch goal, we will add an entire new section -- Appendix B, Gazetteer of the Vale Abandon. This sandbox setting will include an ACKS II regional map with points of interests. With each additional stretch goal milestone from there, Appendix B will expand to include a number of one-page dungeons that detail the various points of interest.

Want to get a sneak preview of Before All Others? We've got a 16-page sample ready for you to download. Check out the sample lore (elven physiology, aesthetics & art, and cuisine), sample class (elven druid), and sample monster (fomorian).

The Cyclopedia of Elven Civilization was written for three groups of gamers:

• Judges (gamemasters) who are creating and running fantasy campaigns using any of the Old School Renaissance (OSR) systems who would like to add more depth, variety, and verisimilitude to their elves. If you’ve thought to yourself, “if only I better understood how elven forests have been subtly molded over centuries into fruitful orchards that yield more calories per acre than wheat fields, I could more easily simulate Mirkwood,” this book is for you.

• Players who are participating in an OSR role-playing game campaign who would like to test out some new character classes and gameplay experiences. If you find yourself saying, “I wonder what it would be like to play an elven arborist who leads a squadron of elk-mounted archers while riding on an animated tree,” then this book is for you, too.

• Gamers who just really love elves. If you greet your co-workers by saying “mae govannen" when you head into the office, if you do Pilates five days per week to maintain a lissome but surprisingly strong build, if you've read The Lord of the Rings in the original Sindarin, if you sold your Manhattan condo to live in a three-story treehouse, if you talk to animals in their native tongue, if you feel simultaneously young at heart yet utterly world weary -- then this book is for you above all!

On the other hand, if you’re a hirsute half-drunken curmudgeon who lives in an overly-decorated hole in the ground, works 80 hours per week, and has a name like “Bolbor Farthammer,” please move along. The precious secrets in this book aren’t for you, and I had to swear a solemn oath before all of the archdruids of the elves that I’d never allow a dwarf to buy this book. (I kid, I kid. Everyone knows that dwarves are superbackers! We actually have a special reward tier for fans of dwarves who want to grab a copy of our dwarf sourcebook, too.)

Before All Others was designed with the Adventurer Conqueror King System Imperial Imprint™ (ACKS II™) in mind. ACKS II is the recently-released new edition of the acclaimed bestselling fantasy role-playing game. The pages of ACKS II offer you everything you need to enjoy epic fantasy campaigns with a sweeping scope. Whether you want to crawl through dungeons, experiment with alchemy, crossbreed monsters, run a merchant emporium, raise an undead legion, or conquer an empire, ACKS II supports your playstyle.

Crowdfunded here on Kickstarter in November 2023, ACKS II raised over $330,000 from almost 2,000 backers. The first printing of ACKS II has sold out, but when you back BAO you'll have the opportunity to order copies of the second printing of ACKS II. Check out the Add-Ons below for details!

However, you don’t have to play ACKS II to make use of The Cyclopedia of Elven Civilization. We know ACKS II only makes up a small (albeit growing) percentage of the fantasy RPG market, and we want to share our love for elves with all of our other lithe and beautiful friends. Therefore, we’ve made great efforts to ensure that Before All Others is easily compatible with other OSR role-playing game systems built on a similar chassis. There's a conversion guide included in the book, so using the Cyclopedia with your game of choice is as easy as killing kobolds with fireballs! (Well, maybe not that easy. But it's easier than killing red dragons with fireballs.)

All of the lore in Before All Others is presented by a point of view character, a sage from the Tower of Knowledge of the Auran Empire named Timoneus Thymatas. All of Chapter 2 is presented in character, and any backstory or setting material in the later chapters is from his point of view, too. While written with our own Auran Empire campaign setting in mind, the elven lore is applicable to most other settings that include traditional elves. Here's a sample of Timoneus's writing.

Using Timoneus as our point of view narrator offered several benefits:

• Since Timoneus is a human writing about elves for a human audience, adopting his viewpoint allows us to focus on what makes elves different and gloss over all those areas where elves are just like humans.

• Since Timoneus is a sage in the world, rather than an omniscient worldbuilder outside of it, his knowledge is incomplete. This allows us to leave some facets of the elves open for interpretation or customization. It also means he can be wrong. The possibility of error allows Judges to simply ignore anything they disagree with.

• Since Timoneus’s writing exists in the world, it makes it possible for his writings to be discovered in the campaign, or given to players as in-character background information.

• Since Timoneus is a cross between a Greek natural philosopher and a Victorian anthropologist, it allows us to bring some humor to the writing. He is simultaneously parochial about his own civilization but over-awed by that of the elves. The elves have their own reasons for allowing him to write about their culture, and Timoneus isn't always smart enough to know when he's publishing propaganda or trodding territory best left unexplored. There's much that's hidden behind the lines for you to explore or disregard as you see fit.

Timoneus was fun to write, and we hope you’ll enjoy his point of view, too.

Like the other books in the ACKS Imperial Imprint product line, Before All Others features a durable PU leather cover, lay-flat sewn bindings, and thick art paper interiors, with full-color art by a team of artists led by Michael Syrigos.

The standard edition of Before All Others has a black cover decorated with gold leaf to match the ACKS Imperial Imprint core books. The limited edition has a green cover decorated with silver leaf, as well as a green satin ribbon marker and silver edge gilding on the pages.

Regardless of which edition you purchase, the Cyclopedia is a high-quality collectible book majestic enough to stand-out on the bookshelf and durable enough to survive the rigors of tabletop action.

New to ACKS II? Be sure to check out the Elven Imperialist reward tier. For $300 (or $275 Early Bird) you can get, not just Before All Others, but the Deluxe Collection of ACKS II, including the Revised Rulebook, Monstrous Manual, Judges Journal, and Judges Screen, plus the PDFs for each.

Love dwarves as much as elves? The Elven Ambassador tier includes a copy of our bestselling sourcebook By This Axe: The Cyclopedia of Dwarven Civilization. It's the companion book to Before All Others, with dwarven classes, automatons, mushroom farming, and more.

Interested in tabletop wargaming? Want to fight the Bitter War between elves and dwarves? The Elven Conqueror Tier adds a copy of Domains at War: Battles, a tabletop wargame that lets you fight grand battles with ACKS characters on epic battlefields using miniatures and battlemaps. D@W:B can handle pitched battles with tens of thousands of troops on each side.

If your focus is just elves, hot elves, dark elves, all elves, all the time, then grab a copy of Before All Others in PDF as an Elven Retainer, get the book in hardcover as an Elven Adventurer or limited edition Elven Lord, or even shape the setting and system of ACKS II by adding your own custom spells, rituals, and classes to the game as an Elven High Lord, King, or High King. The choice is yours!

Despite being the largest print run we've ever manufactured, ACKS II sold out within 3 months of its retail release. These big, beautiful books aren't print-on-demand products we can pop out in small batches. It costs tens of thousands of dollars to commission a second printing of books like the Imperial Imprint.

That's why the Before All Others Kickstarter isn't just crowdfunding the Cyclopedia of Elven Civilization. It's also helping to fund the second printing of ACKS II itself. The second printing of the ACKS Imperial Imprint product line will feature the same durable PU cover, lay-flat sewn bindings, and thick art paper interiors as the first printing, and will be updated to address all known errata. You can add on copies of the ACKS II Revised Rulebook, ACKS II Judges Journal, ACKS II Monstrous Manual, and/or ACKS II Judges Screen to any pledge level. You can also add Domains at War: Battles and By This Axe if you want to add them to your reward tier.

You can also purchase a Cyclopedia Upgrade add-on. This add-on will upgrade your standard edition copy of Before All Others to the limited edition copy. For instance, if you want the Elven Ambassador rewards but you want the limited edition of Before All Others instead of the standard edition, you can choose the Cyclopedia Upgrade.

But what if Before All Others exceeds Treasure Tome? After all, elves are awesome... And a sourcebook this good only comes around once in an eternally-long lifespan. If so, then Autarch will launch The Bitter War...

The Bitter War was a terrible war waged between the dwarves and elves over two thousand years before the founding of the Auran Empire. Largely unknown to Imperial military historians until the publication of Sürcaneus of Cyfaraun's Cyclopedia of Dwarven Civilization, the Bitter War left scars that have never healed - and secrets that have never been revealed.

Given the great size and scale of the Bitter War, it would be impossible to simulate with most RPG systems. But ACKS II is specifically designed to allow players to wage wars like kings. If we reach the Bitter War stretch goals, that's just what we'll do.

If we hit the $150,000 stretch goal, then every High Lord, King, and High King backer, plus a random selection of other backers will be invited to participate in a Bitter War mini-tournament. If we hit the $200,000 stretch goal, every backer will be invited to participate in a Bitter War mega-tournament.

We'll be using the Domains at War: Battles rules to fight the battles out on tabletop - but we don't expect everyone to come to our living room to play with miniatures. That's why we will fight the Bitter War using the upcoming virtual tabletop wargame.

The Domains at War: Battles virtual tabletop wargame was created by Lost Coast Studios and will be commercially released in a future crowdfunding campaign. Before All Others backers will get early access to playtest the digital game as they fight out the Bitter War!

If you can’t wait to get involved, emperor-tier backers in our Patreon have already gotten full access to Domains at War: Battles virtual tabletop and are playtesting it now. It is already live, full-featured, and playable, with online and asynchronous multiplayer, though graphics remain minimalist at this stage.

Before being permitted to develop Before All Others, Autarch was required to submit copies of ACKS II to the Argollëan High College of Art and Leisure for review by elven scholars. Here's what they had to say:

• "Despite its brevity and simplicity, ACKS II is not entirely undeserving of some small measure of praise." - Áedan Ui Étaín

• "Distinctly superior to the average game produced by the human race, and perhaps on par with some of the lesser works of elven gamecraft." - Diarmait the Iridescent

• "If I had children, I am sure they would play this. But such joy has eluded me, as it has eluded so many of our kind, in these sad days of eventide." - High Lady Máel of Aodhan

• "It's utterly inexcusable that the author entitled his game after a dwarven weapon. Brigand Oppressor Warlord System or BOWS would have been a better name. That aside, the game is not otherwise unsuitable as a pastime." - Aífe Dweomerbow

Well... that's high praise by high elven standards. Even grognards are easier to impress. Here's what the OSR community has said about ACKS II:

• "ACKS II is THE greatest innovation in RPGs since the end of TSR. It is an unrivaled masterpiece." - Chubby Funster

• "The greatest version of D&D ever made." - Black Lodge Games

• "If Gary Gygax were alive today, he would be playing ACKS II." - The RPG Sage

• "ACKS II is the natural evolution of AD&D; refined, deeper play built on OSR philosophy that is the logical next step for AD&D players." - Nerdcognito

• "In a market flooded with retroclones, ACKS II stands as a complete and fulfilling gaming experience." - Ryan Howard, Rolling Bones

• “Alex has presented us with the most comprehensive treatment of the source material so far. If you love the OSR, ACKS II is everything you want and more.” - Rick Stump

What about the dwarves? Since Before All Others is the sister sourcebook to By This Axe, you might like to know what they thought of the dwarven cyclopedia. Here's some excerpts from our reviews on DwarfThruRPG:

• "Like Dwarves in RPGs? This is your book. chock full of interesting things about them, their culture, history, economy, vaults, legends, characters, gear and magics! If you're an OSR player of any kind it's usable virtually out the box, if you're a player of other D&D's there's a lot of stuff to plunder anyway. " - Nathan

• "This book is a goldmine." - Sam

• "The lore is a fun read, with a clever sense of humor. The dwarven classes are very evocative and look really fun." - W.D.

• "The best dwarf-focused source book published to date." - Bruno

• "By This Axe pursues the craft of bringing tabletop dwarves to the utmost highest quality. The tome is thorough, concise and extremely evocative of dwarven hero and myth." - Zach

• "An insanely in-depth, intelligent, well-thought-out supplement. Seriously one of the best pieces of fantasy writing I've ever read." - Anonymous Purchaser

For more information on Before All Others and the crowdfunding campaign, head on over to Kickstarter. Unlike elves, these rewards wont’ last forever!