Topics

All -

I'm very sorry to pass on the news that a greatly appreciated former DM and member of our community who went by the name of "PureeOfPelican" (Derek) has passed away recently.

PureeOfPelican (POP) was most active during the EFU:A period of EFU and into EFU:M. He was a big help to us as both a voice of experience, wisdom and also technical knowledge for server admin issues. He pitched in far more than his fair share to pay for server expenses so everyone could enjoy this hobby.  He played some great characters but more than anything else will be remembered by many of us as a cheerful, friendly, and charismatic guy.

Although he hadn't been active in EFU for some time now, I know many of you you will remember him and share in my sorrow to learn of his recent illness.

He will be greatly missed.

There is a condolences board here: here

He will be memorialized as best we can in  the game world of EFU.

While avoiding spoilers, many of you know that in Ring 94 there is a certain group of pillars where different Ringrunning groups have been scratching their names.

Unfortunately in my recent absence I lost notes of the different texts that different groups had sent me to include there, so please post them here (ideally helping me roughly with keeping the correct order).

Feel free to use this thread for future group scratchings also. I certainly don't promise to keep it entirely up to date, but I'll do what I can.

Dear EFU -

As some of you may be aware, a very prominent PC (Errilam) died recently and both the circumstances of the character's life and the manner in which he died seems to have caused some amount of disagreement among members of the community.

There appears to be some sour feelings in the air both about fellow players as well as DM fairness.

I would like to take a moment to make a few sincere observations, please make of them what you will.

These sorts of issues occasionally do blow up in EFU; it is simply the nature of things. We have built a very passionate and endless game of unimaginable complexity and nuance that includes a whole range of rules minutiae as well as more amorphous concepts like PvP Karma. Players spend months of their time portraying characters that can be summarily and unexpectedly ended under circumstances that would cause anyone to get upset. When other characters become powerful and dangerous it is easy to feel like they are being unfairly supported by DMs.

Players are also subject to decisions made by fallible DMs and it is easy to question our judgment.

I have had the whole series of events that led to this and some other recent character deaths explained to me, and it is just really complicated. DMs will occasionally make bad calls but there may be other factors that players are unaware of and I'd simply like to ask players to give us the benefit of the doubt.

What I do promise is that the DM team strive towards impartiality in matters of PvP and really do want everyone to have a good time. We all want to make the right call and try to support each other in doing so; unfortunately sometimes there is no right call and it is easy for DMs to burn out when they feel like they are not being supported. For the health of the server, I really think it is important to be cool with our Dms so they want to continue DM'ing.

I think all of you are intelligent enough to take a moment, reflect on things, and perhaps recognize that with a project like this it is inevitable that sometimes it feels like things aren't fair or the proper kind of behavior isn't being incentivized. It is easy to get sour feelings but a little perspective goes a long way.

If EFU is to survive (as it has for so long), every player needs to deliberately decide that they will proactively work to make the community a more positive place. Make EFU fun for yourself and others, brush aside the occasional sour feelings, and watch as your own sense of enjoyment flourishes and grows.

To players who still feel like they need to express some concerns, feel free to reach out to me personally on Discord. I can definitely handle the heat and, while my presence on EFU is somewhat sporadic, I do welcome players to come to me if they have sincere concerns.

In the meantime, I want to assure you all that some great new & exciting content is being planned and worked on and I am confident that EFU will continue to rock your socks off and provide solid, meaningful entertainment for those of you willing to accept this place as your home.

Like for many of you, life keeps me busy and I can't be around as often as I would like to be - but I really think this place is a special community, I consider so many of you to be real friends, and it makes me feel great that these friendships will continue.

So let's keep it up!

Someone I'm close to gave me two handmade coasters using some EFU art and I really like them. I figure you guys would be interested to see!







Thanks to SquatCommander for the eyeball avatar original design and Dash for the City image!

We are in the process of simplifying and consolidating all OOC information to our new wiki: here.

We recommend checking there first for the most up-to-date mechanical information.

If you are interested in helping in this process, feel free to ask a DM for access to the wiki-goblins discord channel.

This thread is for suggesting items to be added to some of the various ambient loot tables of EFU.

Any ideas are welcome. Also keep in mind you can suggest things like: potential sets, fragment themes, etc.

Need a confirmation that the mysteriously floating island quest in the Plane of Air bug is fixed AND that the variation you get is properly randomized.

Same for the trouble in the mines quest in the Grand Fissure.

This is all new territory for EFU, so I wanted to start up an ooc discussion about how to handle the issue of trying to preserve the special character for Ringrunner PCs in the future without spoiling their experience.

There are two ways to do that, there is the IC ("bad luck" to talk about the deeper Rings), and then there is the OOC (actual rules about all of this).

The first thing I want to say is that so far players have respected most of this, which I really appreciate.

I also want to clarify, that I don't mind if a degree is aid is offered to PCs for Rings 100-95, but that the experience of getting a Key to get past Ring 95 into Ring 94 is intended as quite a major challenge and that you must absolutely not discuss  ooc anything beyond there.

Furthermore, if you decide to talk about it IC, you must alert a DM, so we can make sure bad luck falls upon you.

Players should also be advised that the "bad luck" will go beyond normal levels of what DM does in EFU. We will legitimately bring the pain. And not necessarily the fun kind of pain. If you are violating these kinds of superstitions, it is your responsibility to inform a DM so we can make the game world react to that.

Second I wanted to talk about selling keys.

There is, of course, the obvious fact that NPCs sometimes sell Keys so we don't want to disallow something for PCs that NPCs do. To be honest I actually kind of like the atmosphere of key bartering being a part of the City's economy.

However, we are going to tweak things a bit and make some keys actually "Keystones." "Keystones" will not resemble normal keys but instead be special non-drop items that may not be looted, stolen, or given away without a DM. They seem to IC'ly "bind" to a character's skin  so transferring will be a difficult process. Players should be advised that if they are dropped by a dead NPC, you should not pick up all of them up unless you want to deprive your allies a chance at their own! They will be marked clearly so that this is understood to be the case, but it will be your responsibility to check before picking them up.

Check out this terrific chapter trailer made by EFU player hound:

Link

I'll also take this opportunity to mention that I made an EFU Twitter account: Link

Thanks hound!

... are hopefully now fixed.

This thread will be used to let players know about some of the new features, fixes, mechanical tweaks, and other changes we make as we develop v5.

Post your thoughts about Chapter 5 of EFU, "EFU: City of Rings" in this thread.

I believe a fair, accurate, and candid thread about this subject will be useful to new players checking out the possibility of playing here.

This topic has been moved to EFU Mechanics.

https://www.efupw.com/forums/index.php?topic=691019.0

Chapter 1 - Escape from the Underdark

Chapter 2 - Escaped from the Underdark: Archipelago

Chapter 3 - Escape from Undeath: Mistlocke

Chapter 4 - Escape from Uncertainty: Revelations

And now the story of EFU breaks from its tales of the End & Apocalypse to turn to a different time and place, slumbering sleepers confronting a whole new region of the realms.

A recent surge of travellers through the Rings have descended upon Ring 99.....

[EFU: City of Rings - Mechanical Changelog]

EFU: City of Rings - Mechanical Changelog

• With the addition of the Project Q haks and others, we now have many new tilesets, reskinned tilesets, item models, creature models, new visual effects, and more!                                                                                                                                   
• More than 30 new quests and randomised access to many old ones that have been refreshed and recycled from previous chapters.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             
• Many new exploration areas with new themes.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
• Our crafting system has been revamped and is now back into action. This includes alchemy, herbalism, cooking, and now also tinkering. [TODO: Add link]                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
• Custom spells have been reimplemented along with a few new spells. [TODO: Add link]                                                                                                                                                                                                                   
• There have been some major tweaks to the base game. [TODO: Add link].  Protection from Alignment not longer places a blanket immunity against mind/fear spells of an alignment, but increases fear and mind affecting/fear saves vs. the relevant alignment at the rate of 7 + (caster level/3). Protection from Neutrality has been added.   
• PCs now get a max HP roll on level up.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               
• Custom weapons and custom weapons feats have been fully reimplemented.                                                                                                                                                                                                                               
• Barbarians: Perks overhaul. The former system is no longer in play for them. Now barbarians may get different Furors to enhance their rages. See this link for details. [TODO: Add link]                                                                                                             
• Bards: More than 20 new Bard Songs have been added, most with a new twist on them.                                                                                                                                                                                                                   
• Clerics: The "Relic Guardian" kit is now gone, instead all Clerics now mechanically function as "Relic Guardians" under the same restrictions of primary and secondary domains. Relics can be found of specific new faiths. Portraying a cleric of a canonical god is acceptable but requires finding relevant relics of their portfolio. Failure to adequately support and portray the basis of your faith may result in the relics crumbling or fading away.   [TODO: Add link].                                                                                                               
• New Turn Undead system. Turn Undead effects are now based on the Cleric's domains. See the following link for more details [TODO: Add link]                                                                                                                                                           
• All Domain Power player tools have been merged to Primary Domain Power and Secondary Domain Power.                                                                                                                                                                                                   
• Druids: Many new Wildshapes have been added, and many others have been improved. See the following list for the full list of Wildshapes available (some can be unlocked only with DM permission). [TODO: Add link]                                                                                                                 
• Paladins: Paladins now start as mechanically fallen and must find a shrine in game to submit to a Paladin Code in order to receive full benefits. See this post for more details [TODO: Add link]                                                                                                                                         
• Raise Dead has been disabled for Cleric PCs. Raise Dead is now a "Miracle of the Waters" and when performed by NPCs now costs XP as well from the PCs who wish to raise the dead PC - the cost being the XP death penalty to the PC divided by each of the PCs near the NPC. Respawn deaths should considered as simply having been seriously injured or knocked out.                                   
• Item specific-spell enhancers have been removed. Spell Theme enhancers and modifications have been added in many forms to the world.                                                                                                                                                                 
• New combat styles that PCs may choose in the starting area are available to customize their PCs.                                                                                                                                                                                                                         
• Many new subraces are available through application.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               
• New soundsets for PCs.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               
• New headsets.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         
• Climbing damage is now bludgeoning instead of magical.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               
• Metal Domain power now affects Great Maul as well.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   
• New shape changer AI has been added. 
  
• Massive overhaul of loot tables.

[/li]
[/list]
And many many more fixes, tweaks and features...


Content that has been removed and will return in the future

• Lairs - don't app for them for now.

Welcome to Chapter 5 of EFU, "City of Rings."

EFU5 represents a break from previous chapter story-telling; any events that were described in Chapters 1-4 may be safely considered as irrelevant to your character's backstory or knowledge.

This chapter begins with your character awakening in some distant, enormous City. The precise date is unknown, but your character fell into a slumber sometime around the year Dale Reckoning 1370 to 1375 - prior to most of the events described in chapters 1-4 of EFU. Your character's memory is somewhat patchy and confused but a desire to return to your home is a perfectly appropriate character goal. It is unknown how you have arrived in the City of Rings.

The City of Rings is located on the prime material plane, but seems to be far distant from any recognized realm or country. It is an enormous, violent, disorganized and divided labyrnthine metropolis of many millions. Although there are legends of a King, the City lacks any kind of central governance and most of the City is a lawless place - punctuated by occasional neighborhoods (known as "Wards") where a local peace is kept.

The City is divided into a series of concentric walled Rings, and passage from one to another is often extremely difficult as special keys may be needed or puzzles must be solved. Successfully passing through the many rings of the City (essentially functioning as a giant super-dungeon) is a major achievement for this chapter.  Some Rings of the City are fully urban; others are more similar to decayed ruins, overgrown parks, festering swamps, or even contain small mountains.

The City also seems to be a focal place for Planar Travel and is filled with ever-shifting portals (called "Seams") leading to planar realms of endless variety. Planar Prospecting & Travel is a common feature of the City, however a slow "Planar  Sickness" prevents residents of the City from permanently residing in the planes.

Our module is focused on those areas and neighborhoods adjacent to the Gates of Ring 99. Here you will find three separate neighborhood-hubs: Ticker Square (a cosmopolitan neighborhood ruled by Merchants), the Peerage (a rigidly pro-human neighborhood dominated by self-proclaimed local Nobles and their Houses), and Pauper Ponds (a lawless camp for the desperate, the eccentric, monsters and exiles). The residents of each neighborhood-hub tend to view the others with suspicion and downright hostility.

Development of this chapter represents a huge leap forward for EFU in every conceivable way.

We have built this place for you and hope you enjoy it.

[ash.]

Players -

Congratulations on the conclusion of chapter 4 of EFU, "Escape from Uncertainty: Revelations."

EFU4 has been our longest chapter yet, and - despite some periods of slowness - I think arguably our best and most epic in scale. It's worth taking a moment to reflect on the journey. During the past five years, we've introduced countless new systems, mechanics, and features. We've seen Sanctuary rebuild itself, experience rebellions, wars, all kinds of upheavals, and finally fall. Dozens of epic metaplots have been resolved.

Let's take a moment to remember some portion of your achievements and plot resolutions: the early political scheming of the Council, the Workmill Rebellion, the tragic crusade of Mad Marge, the early cult of the Ascension, the Ark and Tulathek, the efforts of the Society of the Ordered Mind to understand its past and Crystal, the war upon the Dark Lake, the evolution of Lower Sanctuary, the Cult War of Lower, the campaign of the Rot, the Crystal War, the rise of the Exile Collective & Covenant of the Pure, the Bresleyan Mayoralty, the creation of Final Sanctuary, the coming of the Withered Host, the silencing of so many gods, journeys to Ymph, the rise and fall of Mouldercrest, the mystery of Castle Avgardii, the siege of Mutulakt, the Ormulax vs. Magnatz war, the end of the Unseelie infestation, the animation of Etorix, the search for Zyphaem Faussad, the story of the Revenant Court & fate of the Elves, the Quenching of Druviax the Unquenchable and miracle of the Fount, the Dhimani Rebellion and Melinda Bresley revelation, the discovery of the Jewels of Dunwarren, the destruction of Temrariel and ooze flood of the Lowerdark, the burning of the Doom Tree & curing of the Withering, the redemption of Rhiannon Kingsley and destruction of the Elder Brain of Ysinode, the great monster battles of the end, the fall of the Appetite, and at long last the completion of the Dunwarren Machine.

It has certainly been a long and complex journey.

So where are we now?

With the ignition of the Machine, you have kindled a new sun. The birth of this young star has obliterated the world: all of your characters, the Cities of the Dread, the caves of the Underdark, the isle of Ymph, the apocalyptic surface, and even the head of Dendar itself have been consumed by the expanding light and reduced to ash.

Is this the end of EFU?

It is not. However, for the first time, and for obvious reasons, it is impossible to continue the EFU story in a directly linear fashion. Chapter 5 of EFU, "EFU: City of Rings," remains in the EFU universe but takes place in a radically different time, place, and atmosphere.

There is a tremendous amount of information to convey which will be presented formally elsewhere, but I wanted to take a moment to more informally address our player-base to discuss what change you will see in tone and style. In other posts on this thread, I'll talk about some other fundamental game-play changes for EFU.

The Atmosphere

Every chapter of EFU represents a different place but also a very different atmosphere. One might consider that EFU was classic underdark "trapped beneath the world," EFUA was in an atmosphere of fantasy tropical isles of adventure, EFUM was very mysterious mist-hidden hamlet of cursed souls struggling against undeath, and EFUR has been intense post-apocalyptic survivalism with many steampunk elements and (particularly recently) a very "epic" scale.

Some of you would probably like to continue things as they have been in this atmosphere. Roaming an apocalyptic hellscape with factions based out of different lumbering animatronic carriers; scavenging the world for supplies and baublium sounds like it would be fun.

And I am sure it would be, for a few months. But I think after a while some of the luster of our animatronic friends would have worn away, the DM activity would inevitably fade, and the setting would simply be too oppressive, too dark to sustain a happy and healthy playerbase.

Certainly, we will most likely incorporate some of these more "sci-fi"/apocalyptic stylistic elements into the EFU story once again.

However - a new chapter is a big deal, and for a long time the EFU team has been eager to start with something very fresh feeling that is atmospherically highly distinct from where we've been.

Chapter 5 of EFU is not apocalyptic and far less epic in scale. The sun shines upon the City of Rings and your character is more likely to be worried about a giant beetle or lurking bandit than it is about a Dread Mindflayer. Instead of needing to be OOC'ly familiar with more than a decade of the EFU story, it is perfectly acceptable to portray standard characters from somewhere in the realms who simply wishes to find their way home. We have designed a chapter that we hope will be far, far, far more friendly to casual and new players while still rewarding to our most enthusiastic veterans.

Additionally, we have moved away even more from canon Forgotten Realms, retaining it only as a loose background possibility for some players and instead focusing on a whole new region, new possibilities of planar exploration, and even new emphasis on local faiths that operate distinctly from canon FR.

We are still absolutely presenting a setting filled with extreme risk, survivalist elements, faction conflict and intrigue, risk & consequences, mystery and setting secrets, exploration, and confronting grave dangers and true evil - however, after the intensity of the epic ending of EFUR you will doubtless find that the overall atmosphere is far lighter and the scale of dm plots far less epic.

For us, this will be a welcome break. Dealing primarily with plots involving the death of gods and collapse of civilizations has been enjoyable; but ultimately is not what EFU (which, at its heart, is a low level server) is all about.

We have been working on developing this module for years. It is far more elaborate than any other chapter in EFU's history.

Check <here> and <here> for some teasers about some of the amazing new content we've prepared for you.

We hope you guys won't mind the change in tone, share our enthusiasm for starting something refreshingly new, and would like to welcome you lovingly and with extraordinary excitement to....

EFU: The City of Rings

Players -

A few OOC reminders about your conduct as we surge into a new chapter for EFU.

- Please do not spoil anything in an OOC manner. While we will be presenting some degree of setting information on the forums, it is essential that the things you discover in-game not be spread to other players through any OOC method.

- Please keep your OOC speculation and guesses about aspects of the setting out of efu-main and away from other players. You are welcome to tell your ideas to a DM, I personally enjoy it when players do; but it simply is not appropriate to discuss these subjects with other players.

- Remember that, for the first time, the EFU story is not being continued in a direct fashion. We have instead moved to a whole new region and place, filled with all kinds of new setting secrets. Your characters are from the 1370s of canon FR and thus simply do not have knowledge of the events of other EFU chapters that may or may not happen in the future. While we will preserve the library forums for your OOC benefit, we really are starting very fresh and the role-play of your characters should reflect that.

- The v5 module is not a finished product. It has been worked on, in great secrecy, by a tiny  handful of DMs for more than two years but it is far from fully tested, completed, and polished. While we do consider it "ready," we ask for your patience and cooperation as we hurriedly try to deal with bugs and other issues and expand upon the content.

- It is extremely important that players maintain high standards in their play: develop interesting concepts and fairly portray your stats, adhere to the guidelines of Good PvP Karma, be welcoming to new players but also help them adjust to the EFU culture and expectations, do not "rush" to be first the achieve some kind of OOC goal or indulge in a frenzy of power questing but we rather suggest you ease your way into the new setting with patience, understanding, and enthusiasm.

I hope you have all been enjoying.

We're happy to hear any feedback you might want to provide.

The good, the bad, the ugly.


Here is a thread, perhaps, that will be reviewed in the distant future.... like many that came before it.

Players -

As you all know, these are momentous times for EFU. It has been one epic event after another.

Yesterday the forces of Sanctuary attacked one of the biggest all time adversaries of 14 years of EFU. Sanctuary at its best attacked and successfully destroyed Ysinode and even destroyed the Elder Brain of Ysinode.

More than seventy online players participated in one of the most intense battles that I think one could imagine in our ageing platform.

I will be writing a rumor post soon and working on polishing some of the changes that have taken place in our little corner of the Underdark.

During the event, a lot of characters died. There was lag, frustrating crashes, and the general chaos of trying to DM so many players. I am sure there are some disappointed players - however, I and the other DMs really have to toast you for that achievement.

As we said before, we had set up a scenario with no assumption of victory and no guarantee of success. There was no pre-ordained outcome.

But you guys pulled it off.

The Elder Brain of Ysinode is dead - but at a terrible cost. Sanctuary has fallen and from the mythallar deep in the House of Governance comes a steady stream of strange, twisted monsters.... products of Dread Experimentation?

Everyone who has survived recent events has taken to hiding deep in the Dunwarren Machine in the heart of its engine.

We're making a few changes to try to make the next few days fun for you as some big EFU plots rush towards their completion.

First, it's a great time to make a Sanctuary  survivor PC. In addition to all limits on quests being removed, we're going to be increasing the character advancement XP considerably so it should be fairly easy to get up to level 7 or so.

Second, I'm going to be working on stuffing moving more content closer to Enginetown. I wanted to mention, to those unaware, that there is a fairly simple and safe way to walk through the tramtracks to the "Junktown" area that will have more and more low/medium level content to occupy yourselves in between DM events.

Third, we're offering an opportunity to players who died in the Elder Brain Chamber room a chance to portray Sanctuary NPCs. If you died, and if your character was somewhat long-lived, you're welcome to request the chance to play a Sanctuary NPC. These NPCs might be some of the less important ones currently living in Enginetown, or if you have a suggestion from any that were previously placed around Sanctuary (random ones from Lower, or in the streets of Sanctuary, or wherever else). Generally this will not be the important, powerful NPCs but rather the more "flavored" ones.

No application is required. Just PM myself or another DM on Discord and ask if you can portray a NPC. To some extent we will evaluate the decision based off of your achievements with your former character, however don't be offended if (for whatever reason) we ask you to pick another. We'll briefly chat about how the NPC should likely be portrayed.

If approved, just roll up the character with the appropriate name/description and (if needed) we'll remove it from its placed position.

We'll then level you up to roughly where it should be and help with the iconic clothing (if possible).

Once this is done, please make a note here to let everyone know that the NPC has been "claimed" - this will help with organisation purposes.

Players are also welcome to make suggestions in this thread for interesting NPCs other players might be interested to pick up and portray.

Players who died earlier during the big raid yesterday can also reach out to us to request a chance to portray a NPC, but will have generally have second dibs, and we can't guarantee the chance.

Thank you guys for your patience with us during these crazy times!