Aces and Eights FULL PDF finally...

[Treebore]

available!

Fellow Aces and Eights fans, Kenzer has finally put up a PDF of the FULL rule book, errata, nice price point, AND some extra's!

http://www.kenzerco.com/product_info.php?cPath=25_29_47&products_id=752

We've had the players guide, now we have the PDF version of the third printing, errata included, as well as some additional material that is free elsewhere, all in one PDF, and a pretty decent price point too ($24.99) versus the print retail of nearly $60!


Personally this RPG caught me by surprise, I love the Western genre but never had a RPG get me as enthusiastic about playing it as I was about reading it and watching the movies.

Looking at this, I initially thought there was no way this would finally do the trick for me. This rule book is BIG, with lots of "advanced rules", and detailed character generation, etc...

Then I realized there were 6 pages in here that had all the rules you needed to play, with literal 5 minute basic character generation included. I then saw the you tube videos about the shot clocks and decided those didn't look too hard at all, so gave it a try and this RPG quickly became one of my all time favorites!

So if the price point of the gorgeous hard cover has been turning you away, maybe now this $25 PDF will do the trick for you!

We have had great adventures! Cattle drives with water shortages, indians, difficult farmers, "appropriation" happy soldiers, small to huge groups of bandits, small to large packs of starving wolves, gun fights, brawls, gun fights on trains, gun fights from horse back, ambushes, bushwacks, and a whole lot more!

So those of us who already know how awesome this is, we now have not only the rules, but the alternate history, and more, and for those of you have been interested, but not interested in the price, I hope this finally gives you the chance to try this out!

Between the shot clocks, the simple rules, with modular "advanced" rules to add or remove as you wish, hopefully you will come to enjoy this RPG as much as I have over the last couple of years.

Feel free to ask me any questions, I have been running a weekly to bi weekly game for over a year now. I'll even share my rules tweaks and why I made them if you wish.

 

[scourger]

Aces & 8s is a gorgeous book (first printing) with a fantastic setting. The rules didn't captivate me, but the quick-start version looked OK. I dream of running a Western game in the A&8s world with Deadlands Reloaded Savage Worlds rules (minus some of the zany elements) and an old Boot Hill module for the adventure.

 

[Treebore]

Aces & 8s is a gorgeous book (first printing) with a fantastic setting. The rules didn't captivate me, but the quick-start version looked OK. I dream of running a Western game in the A&8s world with Deadlands Reloaded Savage Worlds rules (minus some of the zany elements) and an old Boot Hill module for the adventure.

I considered using Deadlands and Boot Hill material, but I just went all out Aces and Eights and haven't looked back.

They have some great supplements for it as well. I highly recommend the Judas Crossing and Shootist Guide, especially if you want to treat your horses like NPC's, which I strongly recommend, and both of the Rustlers and Townsfolk have been highly useful to me.

There are only two things that bug me, and both are because I ended up running long term characters. One is how to award BP's (XP's), because sooner or later a character out grows the default premise, so you have to adapt.

The other is how fast skills can go up to Master level, but I fixed that by adapting some Hackmaster Basic rules.

Again, neither should be a problem if you don't have long lived characters, or a game longer than 10 to 15 sessions, but if you go beyond either you will see why I changed things.

 

[jlac]

$25 for a pdf is too expensive for me. I understand the price of the full-color hardcover, obviously. But it's a pdf now. Color pixels and black pixels cost the same (they came free with my monitor), so those costly print runs are a thing of the past. Still, looks like a fun game...I'd like to try it some time. How would you compare the complexity of A&8 to a game like the d20 srd?

 

[Treebore]

$25 for a pdf is too expensive for me. I understand the price of the full-color hardcover, obviously. But it's a pdf now. Color pixels and black pixels cost the same (they came free with my monitor), so those costly print runs are a thing of the past. Still, looks like a fun game...I'd like to try it some time. How would you compare the complexity of A&8 to a game like the d20 srd?

Well, obviously I disagree on the PDF price, they are selling it for over 50% off, and they did put many man hours over a couple of years into making it, but...

As for the complexity, you have 2 choices with this, you can stick to the basic rules that comprise all of 6 or 7 pages, or you can add on the additional advanced rules if and when you want them.

So you can have this game be pretty darn simple up to as complex as you can possibly want it. I tend to the simple side, but I do use the detailed PC generation rules, and I use the advanced rules when I think a particular encounter would benefit from them, and then go back to basics right after.

It really is "modular" in that regard. You can switch back and forth between basic and advanced as you see fit.

Of course the basic plays faster, and the only things in advanced that really do slow down game play is if you want to use the Advanced Chase rules or the full blown Brawling rules, which are fun in their own right, but do take a lot of extra time, especially brawling, because you have to count out poker chips, and get everything set up, but it has been worth it every time we did it.

 

[scourger]

I like KenzerCo as the publisher of Knights of the Dinner Table. I have every issue. But their games don't grab me. Kingdoms of Kalamar was a cool setting, and I liked the d20 version. Otherwise, their games tend toward complexities and styles that I don't enjoy. The art work for HackMaster was pretty funny, though.

Getting back to A&8s, it has the same undesirable features--for me. Doesn't make it a bad game, just not my cup of tea for rules. The setting is inspired, though; the alternate history of Deadlands without all the supernatural weirdness. I find in more modern games that a little bit of that stuff goes a long way, so it doesn't need to be at the core of the setting for me.

 

[Treebore]

I like KenzerCo as the publisher of Knights of the Dinner Table. I have every issue. But their games don't grab me. Kingdoms of Kalamar was a cool setting, and I liked the d20 version. Otherwise, their games tend toward complexities and styles that I don't enjoy. The art work for HackMaster was pretty funny, though.

Getting back to A&8s, it has the same undesirable features--for me. Doesn't make it a bad game, just not my cup of tea for rules. The setting is inspired, though; the alternate history of Deadlands without all the supernatural weirdness. I find in more modern games that a little bit of that stuff goes a long way, so it doesn't need to be at the core of the setting for me.

Yeah, if they didn't have the 6 page "basic" rules in this I would not have ended up becoming a fan either. I like Kalamar, a lot, but I was not a fan of the old Hackmaster or KotDT, and I don't think I am going to remain a fan of the new HM either. I'm waiting to see if in the final version they have a true "basic" version like in Aces and Eights. If they don't I won't be staying with HM either.

I like more complex rules for short lived games, but the longer I run or play in a game, the simpler I want it to be.

I like their alternate history too. I've really appreciated being freed up from real history.

 

[Retreater]

I bought the rulebook a few years ago at a used bookstore. I flipped through it and was terrified of the rules. I hid it in my garage in a storage box. At the time I thought it was amongst the most convoluted systems I had ever seen. I wasn't even aware there was a quick play system.

I may have to dig it out of storage.

Retreater

 

[Treebore]

I bought the rulebook a few years ago at a used bookstore. I flipped through it and was terrified of the rules. I hid it in my garage in a storage box. At the time I thought it was amongst the most convoluted systems I had ever seen. I wasn't even aware there was a quick play system.

I may have to dig it out of storage.

Retreater

Yep. I think, off the top of my head, it is pages 6 to 13 that contain all the basic character creation and game play rules. Everything else is optional, outside of the weapon and equipment pages. Plus be sure to read over the two towns written up for it.

The rules on awarding BP, Reputation, and Fame can be a bit painstaking, especially at first, but you can always just "wing" those. 5 to 10 BP and reputation per session, and 3 to 5 Fame per session are good ranges to work with. If you even use Reputation and Fame. As deadly as Aces and Eights is I strongly suggest you use some kind of system, like Fate/Luck, to help keep the PC's alive through deadly gun fights.

 

[Mark Plemmons]

Feel free to ask me any questions, I have been running a weekly to bi weekly game for over a year now. I'll even share my rules tweaks and why I made them if you wish.

I'm glad you liked the PDF! You should feel free to share your rules tweaks over on our A&8s discussion forums as well, if you haven't already.