Q: What do I need to play Undiscovered?
For a group of people to play Undiscovered, at least one group member must have the Core Rulebook, which contains information on how to create an play an adventurer, rules for the Adventure Guide (awarding experience, etc.), a world setting, and a list of animals and monsters. All other group members do not require the complete rules. We have taken this into consideration and have printed a second volume entitled the Player's Codex. This book provides only the information you need to create and play an adventurer.
If additional material is desired, join our free membership program to download anything else you are interested in using: maps, optional rules, new skills, NPCs, mini-adventures, etc.
You also need a set of polyhedron dice (d4, d6, d8, 2d10, and d12), a pencil, and a character sheet.
Q: Where can I get a character sheet for Undiscovered?
Character sheets are provided in the back of both the Player's Codex and the Core Rulebook. They are provided for your use and can be photocopied as often as you like.
Character sheets have also been provided in our free, Undiscovered Membership program. You can download the sheets (as pdf files) and print them out at your leisure.
Q: Where can I get copies of maps for the World of Arkas?
Maps are being continuously created and loaded onto our membership program. We supply each map in two formats: jpeg and CC2 (Campaign Cartographer 2). They can be downloaded and printed out at your leisure.
Q: When looking over the character examples in the book, my Attack Rating calculations do not come out the same. Is something missing?
People often overlook the fact that when skilled in two or more weapons, a character can increase his/her AR using half the AR score of the extra weapons. This rule is stated on page 46.
Q: Is there any easy way to generate an NPC?
We will be creating a set of Quick Generation rules to help people quickly create NPCs without all the detail used to create an adventuring character. These rules will be provided in our membership program once they become available.
We have also created a small program that will randomly generate NPCs. This program (our Adversary Generator) is available in the AG section of our membership program.
Q: Is there a quicker way to generate an adventuring character?
In our membership program, there is a character generation program free for anybody to download. The program runs on your browser and can be used to quickly and easily generate a 1st level character.
Q: Being a new game, your monster and magic sections are a bit light. Is there any plan to add additional monsters and magic to the game?
These are all being worked on, along with optional rules, pre-generated NPCs, maps, history, and mini-adventures. As each item is created, it will be placed in our membership program. Keep checking back in our membership program for updates, because not all information will remain there. Posted information is free to download, but will be eventually taken down and prepared for future publications.
There are already several optional rules, new spells, and new monsters available in our house e-zine, Undiscovered Quests & Adventures.
Q: Why are there limits on the number of permanent magical items a character can use?
The way magic functions in our world, permanent magical items carry part of the essence of its creator. When using such an item, you have to be able to control that essence. With several permanent magical items in your possession, this becomes extremely difficult, thus the limitations. These limitations are based on your Charm attribute score. There are no limits, however, on the number of temporary and charged magical items you can use.
Q: How does combat work? Is it realistic?
The rules provided in the rulebook call for simple combat. It is round based, with each round divided into 24 initiative segments. Character initiatives are based on Dexterity and the weapon or spell used. Armour is used to simply increase a characters Defence Rating, making them harder to hit. Successful hits deal the damage provided by the weapon (plus Strength bonuses if applicable) or spell.
There are also rules stating what can and cannot be done in a combat round, such as how far you can move and still make an attack, how far can you move if you give up your attacks, what kind of penalty is applied to spell casting when moving too far, etc.
In Undiscovered Quests & Adventures Issue #1, we have also provided optional rules for those who prefer more realistic results. Our optional rules allow armour to absorb the impact of blows, rather than simply increasing your Defence Rating. Some blows will also cause damage to the armour, reducing the amount of damage it can absorb for future attacks. Certain skills in the game (armour smithing and leather working) will also allow you to repair your armour, after it has been damaged.
Q: Is it possible to use the World of Arkas with other games, or use Undiscovered in a different World?
There are a few ways this can be done. To use the World of Arkas with another game, simply take the basic geography of the land and run the game as usual. If you want to incorporate world history into your game, you can use the gods of our world and modify them to match the gods of the game you are using. To run Undiscovered in a different world, it is easier to bring our pantheon into the world also. If you want to use the gods of the world setting, however, simply adjust them to match the way we have set up our own pantheon, granting certain types of miracles based on their spheres of influence.