Undiscovered

[Kurgan]

Hey guys,


    Well, Undiscovered got here today. I've given it a basic
    look-over, and my first impression is that it's a hybrid of Powers
    & Perils and Rolemaster. A lot of it does look like they got the
    ideas from P&P, but the formulas are more simplistic. Combat is
    fairly simplistic, and a lot like P&P. You've got an attack value,
    which you add a modifier to. You take that final number, roll
    percentile dice, and then deduct the rolled result from the
    number. For example, you have an attack value of 65, roll a 42,
    and end up with 22. If 22 is higher than the defenders defensive
    value, you hit. Damage is simply a set number of dice based on the
    weapon (like 3d10+3).
       Skills I haven't quite got down yet, but they appear to be a
    semi-ranked affair. Some sort of cross-indexed system of levels
    versus title, like Initiate/lvl 3 or something like that. More on
    that after I've figured it out.
       As promised, no classes or levels. Lots of races, too. Elves
    are called Alfar (where have we heard that before?). Civilized
    humans are the base, with no alterations to stats. Barbarian
    humans, and other races get modifications. They overdid it a bit
    on adding die rolls for height and weight, though. It doesn't do
    much to keep the averages intact. Simple base + percentile. Your
    average human male is 6 feet 200 pounds. Oops. I always skip
    things like that and let the players just choose whatever makes
    them happy.
       The list of weapons, equipment, and armor is fairly short and
    straightforward. Looks like they're leaving it to us to add all
    the unique variations that we hardcore gamers seem to love.
       Magic is covered in three primary areas. Psionics, Miracles,
    and Magic. I'll start off with Magic. First, you use points, I
    think, to "buy" into various Covens of Magic. Each Coven covers a
    different style and focus of Magic. Once you start the game,
    that's it. If you want to learn new spells, you've got to find a
    teacher. Psi & Miracles are different. They get better and you get
    new abilities with new "levels" of skill and experience. Those,
    too, are broken into groupings just like the Covens. Psi is pretty
    much self-explanatory. Miracles, as you may have guessed, are
    based on Divine power. Clerics, channeling, whatever. Heh, they've
    even got a table for flubbed spells. <evil grin> A 00 causes some
    super good looking man or woman to randomly appear, which causes
    everyone to stop doing whatever they were doing and stare. lol
       The main book is a hardcover that costs 35 bucks. The Player's
    Guide is softcover and retails for 25. Actually, the player's
    guide is the same first 276 or so pages of the main book, which
    covers just about everything. The additional material in the
    hardcover is for the ref, and except for a few pages that explain
    how to generate and distribute experience to the players, could be
    ignored. The ref's section is mainly 3 sections. How to give out
    experience; a detailed description of the world the game is set
    in, and a monster manual. If someone were to photocopy the
    experience pages then all anyone would really need was the
    player's guide, if you wanted to simply use your own game world. I
    got my copies off of eBay cheap (like I'd ever pay anything close
    to retail! Hah!), so I'd suggest watching there for it. Otherwise,
    you can check out the website here: http://www.eilfin.com/
       Anyway, the jury's still out, since I've only given it a quick
    look, but I'll do some more reading and give final opinions. The
    company's got more supplements, a couple of freebie downloads,
    adventures, etc. They've also got an e-zine, which is 5.00 an
    issue for a little over 100 pages. I think you can subscribe, but
    I'm not sure. There's a membership area (free signup) with
    additional free material. I've signed up, but it'll be 24 hours
    before I'll get my confirmation and be able to get into it. Oddly
    enough, I can no longer find the listing for the upcoming GM
    screen, which was supposed to contain a cd that had copies of the
    previously released e-zines, along with other material. Strange.
       So, bottom line is that it looks promising, but can't be sure
    yet. I'll keep ya posted.



Best regards,

    Kurgan

    Mailto:Kurgan at Fastmail.fm


 Today's Zen Wisdom:

    Defeat never comes to any man, unless he admits it.