[Arrows of Indra] The Author's Q&A Thread

[RPGPundit]

Ok, so this is the thread where anyone who wants to can ask me questions about the Arrows of Indra game, and I'll try to answer said questions.

So if you have any questions about the game, fire away!

Please, however, limit posting in this thread to questions about the game, not just general commentary! If you want to comment about something in AoI, please post a new thread!

RPGPundit

[Saplatt]

Forgive me, because I'm new here.

The blurb on the sales site says it it is based on "the original version" of the world's most popular fantasy game system.

Is that a reference to white box, BECMI, 1e or something else entirely?

[RPGPundit]

Forgive me, because I'm new here.

The blurb on the sales site says it it is based on "the original version" of the world's most popular fantasy game system.

Is that a reference to white box, BECMI, 1e or something else entirely?

It just means Old-School in general; however, if we want to get into specifics; AoI is not a clone. Its not a direct copy of any old edition of D&D. Its closest mechanical inspiration would probably be AD&D 1e, in the sense of having race+class (rather than race as class) and a few other details along those lines.

RPGPundit

[Piestrio]

What parts of the game would be most useful in a standard D&D game?

Basically I have little interest in the game premise itself but am always on the lookout for stuff to use in regular D&D, what does AoI offer me?

[Saplatt]

Cool. Thank you!

(I always loved Zelazny's "Lord of Light," and thought an Indian-based campaign would be a blast.)

[estar]

What parts of the game would be most useful in a standard D&D game?

Basically I have little interest in the game premise itself but am always on the lookout for stuff to use in regular D&D, what does AoI offer me?

I found it useful as a source to create characters to represent the Mysterious East of the India variety as opposed to the Orient. The variant magic using classes are still close enough to D&D standards that they don't require a lot of extra work to use but different enough to give encounters with them a distinct feel.

[RPGPundit]

Cool. Thank you!

(I always loved Zelazny's "Lord of Light," and thought an Indian-based campaign would be a blast.)

Please make sure your posts here include a QUESTION. I appreciate the comment, but post that over on the other thread, so that this thread remains a Q&A thread, if you all don't mind.

RPGPundit

[RPGPundit]

What parts of the game would be most useful in a standard D&D game?

Basically I have little interest in the game premise itself but am always on the lookout for stuff to use in regular D&D, what does AoI offer me?

Besides the complete setting, and Estar's awesome maps, let's say you didn't actually want to use the setting itself... you have a huge chapter on magic items (including divine and celestial weapons of immense power, but also all kinds of other indian-themed magic items);  a very big chapter on monsters with a number of new indian-themed monsters that could easily be moved to any other campaign (the Indian undead are particularly cool).  There's also quite a bit of the flavor material you could use: the patala underworld chapter has rules for generating random sections of the Underworld which could easily be adapted for any other campaign; you have a whole code of law, and rules on things like taxes and business which might be useful for some types of campaigns, quite a lot of random tables of all kinds (stuff like Divine Tasks, Exotic Goods, or Royal Attention tables, which might be useful); and finally the skill system (including the magic system) probably has a lot you can rip off for good use.
(when I say "skill system", I don't mean a 3e-style skill system, btw; but rather something a lot more in-tune with OSR-sentiments)

RPGPundit

[fellowhoodlum]

The print version, will it be available on POD or Amazon/online-retailers or publisher-site-only?

(Sorry for the redundant questioning. Posted this before I saw the reply on the other thread.)

[Bedrockbrendan]

The print version, will it be available on POD or Amazon/online-retailers or publisher-site-only?

The print version will be in distribution so a number of websites and local game stores will carry it. Our games frequently appear on Amazon and they are also always available at the Studio 2 Publishing website.

[RPGPundit]

Thanks for answering that one, Brendan!

[Planet Algol]

Could you explain more about the Underworld generation system, perhaps with examples of the procedures, tables and generated results?

[Planet Algol]

Saw a page in Brendan's preview, interesting but seems kind of thin from one page? I'm a maniac for wide & deep random generation procedures though.

[Machpants]

Hey I've got a couple:

In the print version are the maps going to be full sized (as in poster maps) or just a page in the book?
What size is the book letter/A4 or more like digest?
Are the insides colour in the PDF and/or print?

Thanks

[RPGPundit]

Great question! The Patala Underworld is quite detailed; you get information about the overview of all 7 levels of the underworld, and then a detailed system of multiple tables for creating cavern-complexes.  Basically everything you need to generate a section of the megadungeon-like complex on any of its levels.  There are modifications for the specific levels, and encounter tables for each unique level.