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I assumed this was just working as intended, but I could be wrong!

I return!

...we're on an island now?

First magic item I receive? Seamen Cloak, coincedence?

[EfU 101]

This fantastic post from the old forums was brought to my attention, so I wanted to repost it here. Enjoy!

Why Character Die: The True Story

After having seen and heard of events leading to some very crappy character deaths in and on quests I have spiced and run, as well as those of other DMs I am composing this post to help players perhaps play a bit more, hmm…smartly. As I had DMd pen and paper games my players always came up with novel solutions to problems befitting their character and stats (most of the time), and I look for the same thing here. Here are some of the many mistakes that get people killed beyond what I term the computer gamers mentality. This mentality is pervasive and driven by the single player campaigns in which hack and slash solves problems and you always have plenty of consumables beforehand. In a DM driven setting, this may not always be the case.

EfU 101: short and sweet, carry invis potions and consumables (ie buffs. Blur, barkskins, etc.) USE THEM. They are not given out to look pretty in your inventory slots until you think you have to PvP. On the quests I spice and run I only rarely see people use potions they have bought and brought themselves to get through it, and have gotten tells from players to the effect of “Dude that was too hard, and you didn’t give us any potions up front.” (see computer gamer mentality). Buffs. Use them. Use them wisely. And for goodness sakes don’t go on wickedly tough quests woefully unprepared. If the quest giver says that it’s a goblin fort or a great ancient evil, your character would probably think twice before leaving without the right healing, buffs, etc. (or not, as I have seen a lot of 8Int 8Wis Dwarves and Half-Orcs running around of late.)

Think! : If I am running a plot or even just a simple spice the things I throw at you generally have a reason for being there at that particular point. Too many times I have set up a larger force of creatures across a narrow causeway only to watch in morbid amusement as the fighters rush to the other side of said narrow causeway, get surrounded, and get pounded. The narrow causeway was there for a reason. The doorway is there for a reason. The things we give you were placed for a reason. You do have to think and apply what is there though, or you may very well die.

Also, think about alternative solutions to a problem other than what is normally done. (see computer gamer mentality definition again if you have forgotten what it is). If a DM is on the quest, pop him a message on the DM channel asking if you can persuade those goblins out of slaving you off, or serve the master for a certain mission to not be killed, or anything really. Be creative, but also be realistic. If you are caught and in jail, persuading a guard to let you out with a bribe in full view of two other NPC guards likely won’t work. Other things might, but that won’t. If your plan sucks by the way, I am more than willing to let you try if you are willing to suffer the consequences of a sucky plan.

Look around : I don’t know how many players have fallen to this. Scorch marks on the ground are there for a reason. That portal labeled with “Deadly Scorching Hot portal to the Elemental Realm of Fire which is emanating pulses of skin blasting heat” likely will not do well being touched. An obelisk that has lightning dancing down it likely doesn’t want to get touched either. I mean, go ahead and do it, but be prepared to get the end of that lightning bolt or consumed in pure elemental hell fire when you do. Often there are clues as to what has or may happen in the future around you if you so choose to look for them.

Just because it’s there doesn’t mean you have to do it.: This is another one that gets a lot of players, the additional portal, or even a portal in the middle of the street that opens up mysteriously and is labeled “mysterious portal”. If you go, please do not complain when and if you die/get enslaved in some strange wizards experiments and then need to be saved by everyone else in the city. You were, after all, the one who jumped into a “mysterious portal” that happened to be in the middle of the street and not there a few minutes ago. It almost is like telling a four year old not to touch something. The minute you turn around they are not only touching said thing, they are full on in love caressing it.

When faced with overwhelming odds: I like this one. Infact, I love it. When I was a player in my PnP group I had a great DM. He set us up big time, and we swallowed the bait hook line and sinker and got led into a trap. There we are, following a guide we did not know and who approached our group at the table with just the thing we neededâ€"when out from behind the trees pop up bandits with ready crossbows. Ten of them, four of us, and us in the middle of the crossfire with weapons sheathed. What did I do after the ‘guide’ told us to drop our sword belts and weapons and go to our knees? I died. (Mainly because I opted to run for it, and got three crossbow bolts in the back at once.) What did the rest of the group do? They did what they were told in the face of overwhelming odds (we were level one characters) and went on the with adventure. Ooops. My bad. *went off to re roll a new character*

Have fun, and play smart. Really. I don’t want to see characters with the 8Int 8Wis coming up with masterful plans and such (note: will deduct XP for not playing stats, and will reward when you do) but even then, some of these things should go into the self preservation category of the brain everyone has.

I'll be running a good old-fashioned dungeon crawl on Sunday! PCs will probably die frequently and in ways that aren't guaranteed to be satisfying.

It's also a perma-death event!

Feel free to roll up alts or bring characters that aren't particularly your "favorite" :D

(21) Tells and text marked with // should be kept to a minimum and is always considered OOC.

I've been seeing and receiving reports of an excess of tells and OOC text lately, particularly with players telling other players how to play their class "more effectively", meta-humor jokes about the game, discussions about post-DM quest/event XP awards, and honestly a lot more than I'm willing to list out.

I wanted to remind people that this is discouraged to the point where there's actually a rule against it.

In addition, if someone requests that you stop, the only appropriate response is to stop or apologize and then stop. To do otherwise is discourteous to your fellow players!

So Gwendolen finally died, but she had a crazy amount of stuff happen to her beforehand. So much, in fact, that it would take forever to put it all down! So enjoy a few poorly formatted screenshots!

Gwen's first day in Sanctuary:


I was rooting for Gwensenia the whole time, obviously:




One time she had an Aspirant that she gave to Necromancers:


I started thanking people individually, and then I realized that Gwen harassed nearly the entire server at some point or other, so I'll just say "THANK YOU TO EVERYBODY"

See you next time!

I'd like to take this opportunity to tell you all that I've joined the EFU DM team! I guess they'll let anyone in these days!

I'm looking forward to getting to interact with everyone in a completely different way than before!

It's time for a self-serving suggestion!

When I polymorph into big bad monsters like Trolls and Umberhulks, the Chosen(and similar monsters) laugh at my pitiful attempts to harm them.

I'm not sure how easy it'd be to do, but it'd be cool if there was a way to either...

a) make it so SF/GSF Transmutation gave you forms that counted as having +1 weapons.

b) make a tool that you can buffs into that will apply when you transform.

c) make it so you can cast buffs on yourself unarmed, and then when you transform, they continue to apply.

I'll understand if none of these are feasible or would be too much of a PITA to script, but it'd be cool to see!

TheShadow turns 16 today. Everyone wish our youngest player a happy birthday!

This is super minor, but I just realized today that she tells newbies to speak to ASSOCIATE Jacob Dobbins instead of Auxiliary Jacob Dobbins.

Spellguard Associates... as if!

I love the little explorable tunnels and such, but I haven't really noticed any in the Machine. I wasn't sure if I should post this suggestion, because for all I know, they're everywhere but require a high Search to find or something!

I'd love to see more of them, though! I could see this change improving Machine antics quite a bit at the moment.

- We'd have roaming adventurers and scrappers going for them, so the SG and Aux could harass people for not having Machine Exploration Licenses.

- Sojourners who are so high level that they can't benefit as much from questing would be hunting them down, so we'd be more likely to have Sojourner/Agent + Aux random encounters

- I've heard that some people consider the Machine to be a supply drain with little in the way of rewards. I'd love to turn that opinion around and make it easier to drag people on Machine trips!

Every other bell I've rung, people send me OOC courtesy tells, so I know that they must be getting some indicator that I'm the one pushing it.( or pulling the chain, or whatever ;) )

The SG bell doesn't have anything like, but I'm not sure if that's intentional or not. If it's not too much trouble, I'd love to get that feature on our bell too!

My first PC of EFUR was a resounding success! I had a great time learning the new chapter and meeting tons of awesome people, both new(to me!) and old! Since a lot of my screenshots are spoilerish to different players and DMs, I'll just stick to what everyone clearly wants to see: Delia + Abala 4 eva








Again, a heartfelt thank you to all the players and DMs that interacted with. It was a blast!

I obtained an item called Ancient Drow War Helm, and it doesn't mention being a set item, but when we tried wearing it, it gave the set item error message and removed itself. I have a screenshot of the item if necessary!

I was leaving the Lonely Rock(that name might not be exactly correct) area by boat and chose The Blue Mushroom.

When I went below decks, the transition put me in a bedroom with a specific key door instead of in the hallway, but the area's still called "Dark Lake-Sailing-Below Decks"

I figure it'll be as easy as waiting for a DM to log in to teleport me out of here, but if the transition always does this, then it's a bug!