I am Howlando, AMA

[Pup]

I'm so happy I did not come across this post until it was ripe.  I can't wait for what is coming!

[Howlando]

Who'd win in a fist fight between you and Ed Greenwod?

​I am prepared to find out.

How many times, and how fast, did the Tigereye Mercenaries trade passion for glory?

​Certainly they traded honor for gold...

It's the eye of the tiger
It's the thrill of the fight
Rising up to the challenge of our rival
And the last known survivor
Stalks his prey in the night
And he's watching us all with the eye of the tiger[/I]

Did they lose their grip on the dreams of the past?

​Yes.

[Howlando]

Have any large / meta plots ever shifted in a direction that you never really saw coming? If so, was the cause of the change player driven, based on the feel / feedback of it, or something else?

Yes, certainly. There were various examples in EFU:M. For example, we planned that the volcanic eruption would be used to darken the sky sufficiently that the NIghtrisers could invade Castle Blackhearth and there would be a major battle there. Instead everything changed and the Order marched on H'bala's tower instead.

Or for example one of the steps of Sanq was planned to be a big fight to kill Ojo the Bloodmage, but instead (entirely because of a single PC) things went in a very different direction and the Step was accomplished in a different manner.

Maybe a better example - the War on the Dark Lake, I originally envisioned things going very differently. Either the drow would be victorious and conquer Sapphire Isle and make it a piratical drow port; or instead the Svirfneblin would be victorious and might perhaps start permitting Sanctuary visitors. Instead, because of player actions and decisions... both sides won, and both sides lost and in a manner that was totally unexpected. Actually I think in this example the end result ended up being much less interesting than what was originally planned, so this sort of goes back to a feeling I haves sometimes that "players ruin everything"... but anyway, that's another topic.

What is one large idea for a plot that the DM team had which never really happened?

There is a graveyard of inactive/abandoned plots in one of our forums. But for example, at the end of EFU:M, we were seriously planning having the Darkening on the surface itself. The idea was that there would be a darkening (accomplished in a different manner than Dendar though) and that H'bala/Nightrisers would have this major on-going war that PCs would have to navigate their way through.

Without naming the person, what is the largest donation EFU ever received?

It was one year's costs, around a thousand dollars IIRC.

What is your favorite single class to play? Multiclass?

In terms of pure mechanics: Bard probably, or possibly melee sorc/with summons. I like quirky/unusual multi classes that, while not perfectly optimized or even necessarily that strong, have some kind of associated synergy.

Tower of Mercy is often considered to be the "best" quest, overall, or at least always makes the list. Why do you think that is and, would you ever alter it to fit this chapter?

I think players like randomization + optional tougher final boss. The Distant Shore is the quest that I am most proud of building though.

So much of the Tower of Mercy is based off of being specific to Nebezzdos that I would be reluctant to just tweak it and stuff it into EFU:R inappropriately. But certainly similar styles of quests will come in the future.

[Silvermoon Dervish]

Do you see EFU as becoming a sort of life lesson for you, and players alike?

Can/do we have scripted places that need stone ore?

Do the charity bowls impact anything?

[Howlando]

Do you see EFU as becoming a sort of life lesson for you, and players alike?

Of course, in various ways.

Can/do we have scripted places that need stone ore?

Ugh. Nothing I have any interest in personally.

Do the charity bowls impact anything?

Yes, but inconsistently. When I'm in the mood to build I might check donation bowls and reflect changes if there's a lot of gold in there.

[Pentaxius]

What music do you listen to for EFU inspiration?

Did you have a background in classic Pen and Paper RPG before NWN, if so, tell us a little more. Or more generally, where did you derive your story-weaving creativity from?

Tell about the a scene that made you burst in laughter behind your screen. If you remember, share your most hilarity-ridden moments.

[Damien]

You used to be able to make completely custom summons in efu 1 with trinkets, i.e. Spirit of the goblin god, then summoning themes were introduced, do these custom summons still exist?

At the end of some machine puzzle there is a book which tells you how to create stuff but only if you have about 40 lore, and all of it still requires a dm to develop further. Is that still functioning?

I still don't really understand what happened to the svirf of sanctuary, some become robot things, some became chosen??

Is it true in efu 1 the dms made this gang of hilariously overpowered pcs? Illum had some crazy chainsaw on his gnome

The statues I was referring to earlier were the statue heads. They were everywhere on ymph, was that on purpose?

What was the purpose of those eleven ruins with the super powerful elf spirits? It had a library at the centre

How come no gods were paying attention to barakat? Or ymph in general?

Did nightrisers ever actually die?

What are nightrisers?

The spider tribe of stargazers mentioned something about an entity falling from the stars that I think caused them to go mad, and then also another aberrant entity fell from the stars or something. What exactly were these?

Are there such thing as brownie points for players? To make up for when they die some lame horrible death, gippy loves those kinds of deaths...

There is some devil fountain in a exploitable, does it have a purpose?

There was a frozen village at the top of ymph that required a dm to visit. What was the deal with it?

What was the deal with the mist ogres?

[Nezgul]

Who is your favorite villain in EFU:R?

If you could change the outcome of one particular plot, which one, and how would you change it?

Do you prefer H'bala or Barakat?

[Silvermoon Dervish]

Can Clerics convert people of somewhat different alignment of their deity if the pitch is good enough?

[xXDarkAngleXx]

If Widowshriek threw a dart at you, on a scale from 1 to 10 how much do you think it would hurt (10 being most painful)?

[Howlando]

What music do you listen to for EFU inspiration?

I don't like to music while IG but I do listen to music while building. Sometimes, for example, I listen to mixes from the multi-talented DM Jayde Moon...

Did you have a background in classic Pen and Paper RPG before NWN, if so, tell us a little more. Or more generally, where did you derive your story-weaving creativity from?

I've never played PnP or even a single game of DnD. It would be interesting to try. The best ideas about EFU (particularly these days) tend to come from a collaborative process and are often generated by cooperative brain-storming sessions. But I've always liked reading and was hyper-imaginative as a child (to the point of creating very elaborate fantasy worlds from a young age).

Tell about the a scene that made you burst in laughter behind your screen. If you remember, share your most hilarity-ridden moments.

This is an excellent question that deserves a good response but I need to think about it some more.

You used to be able to make completely custom summons in efu 1 with trinkets, i.e. Spirit of the goblin god, then summoning themes were introduced, do these custom summons still exist?

Sure, DMs can still easily make custom summons if we want to.

At the end of some machine puzzle there is a book which tells you how to create stuff but only if you have about 40 lore, and all of it still requires a dm to develop further. Is that still functioning?

I'm not sure exactly what you're referring to but this is getting close to spoiler territory.

I still don't really understand what happened to the svirf of sanctuary, some become robot things, some became chosen??

This also is maybe getting a bit of a spoiler, since this is kind of a mystery that can be discovered IG. But yes - it is commonly understood (now) that something terrible happened in Dunwarren centuries ago. There was some kind of civil war between one group of svirfneblin totally dedicated towards the construction of the Machine (and who pursued mechanical augmentation) and those who devoted themselves to its destruction (and becoming cultists of the Appetite, eventually being changed into lycanthropes). The descendants of the second group are commonly understood to be the Chosen. The first group seems to be gone; slaughtered by adventurers towards the end of EFU1.

Is it true in efu 1 the dms made this gang of hilariously overpowered pcs? Illum had some crazy chainsaw on his gnome

​I don't really know how to answer this question. What does "hilariously overpowered" mean?

I remember this gnome, and his chainsaw. He was a normal gnome barbarian with high con but otherwise wasn't so great. I don't think he was part of any group concept. He often died. He rhymed 100% of the time which was great. He had a specially scripted svirfneblin chainsaw that used potions for fuel (this was before baublium). Depending on the gold value of the potion for a length of time the chainsaw would glow/make emotes and had extra damage. I am supremely confident that the PC would not be close to the top 1000 most powerful PCs of EFU history. For your benefit I have just now looked up his stats, here they are, judge for yourself:

Chaotic Evil - Gnome
Barbarian (6)
Current XP [TNL]: 16346 [4654]
Age: 57
Gender: Male
Deity: Urdlen
Gold: 3406

Max Hit Points: 108
Strength: 14
Dexterity: 12
Constitution: 21
Intelligence: 8
Wisdom: 8
Charisma: 8

Fortitude Saving Throw: 10
Reflex Saving Throw: 3
Will Saving Throw: 1
Spell Resistance: 0

The chainsaw item acquired by a different PC in EFU:R was superior. I don't remember the stats on the first one but it was definitely not amazing because you had to consume potions to get the big extra damage and because a low AC gnome barbarian is still very vulnerable.

The statues I was referring to earlier were the statue heads. They were everywhere on ymph, was that on purpose?

There are a limited number of placeables in NWN. But certainly Ymph was filled with old crumbled things from the past.

What was the purpose of those eleven ruins with the super powerful elf spirits? It had a library at the centre

These were ilythiiri ruins haunted by ghosts. This is where the ilythiiri elves lived before they were cursed by the Seldarine to become drow and forced to descend into the Underdark where they founded Traensyr. For one thing, it was a connection between the different chapters. It was also where the ilythiiri Way was. There were other purposes also - but basically it was part of the setting with as much purpose as anything else, I'm not sure what's confusing about that!

How come no gods were paying attention to barakat? Or ymph in general?

Generally in EFU we prefer our gods/higher powers to not take a direct role in anything. It's one thing I don't like about the FR and one reason we're moving away from the canonical gods. One might also speculate that the MIST obscured much of what transpired in Ymph from the eyes of the gods.

Did nightrisers ever actually die?

How can they die if they're already dead?

What are nightrisers?

The Undead Guards and Soldiers of Nebezzdos cursed into eternal service? Some unknown element or characteristic of their animation making it so they're vulnerable to sunlight? You played EFU:A/M, I think you know this, if you really want to pursue deeper secrets it can still be done IG.

The spider tribe of stargazers mentioned something about an entity falling from the stars that I think caused them to go mad, and then also another aberrant entity fell from the stars or something. What exactly were these?

Interesting questions but you're a bit mixed up.

Are there such thing as brownie points for players? To make up for when they die some lame horrible death, gippy loves those kinds of deaths...

Yes, but not formalized. If a player accepts a bad situation with good grace I will try to make it so their next concept goes better - an easier approval, or some piece of loot/attention, something. Of course it doesn't always work out.

In general, though, it is true that there are some players who develop an excellent reputation among DMs due to their chilled out nature, consistent performance, and general reliability. What is interesting to me though is that these players are never the ones being accused of being the ones in the "in crowd"/dm-pets... often these guys fly more under the radar, but little do they know that if they were to apply for crazy things they would probably get their concepts approved!

There is some devil fountain in a exploitable, does it have a purpose?

Yes.

There was a frozen village at the top of ymph that required a dm to visit. What was the deal with it?

Yes.

What was the deal with the mist ogres?

Ogres, affected by the mist, subservient to a certain crazy evil Dragon....

[Damien]

What's the most shameful thing you've done?  Within reason of course

What naughtiest have Faussad and his wife been up to? Will they ever find happiness :(

When a pc pisses you off do you make a copy of their pc to beat the shit out of?

Do dms bet chores on pvp duels etc? Ie if x wins you have to fix vradzn loot

Do you think the old dms will ever come back?

If you could add anything to efu right now what would it be and what would you take away?

[Howlando]

There was a frozen village at the top of ymph that required a dm to visit. What was the deal with it?

[/I]The Frozen Village was a little side-plot/story invented by Dangerous Dan that involved one of the Netherese Prisoners messing around too much with weather. There was a small plot related to it but not much really happened with it. [/SIZE][/FONT]
 
 
 

Who is your favorite villain in EFU:R?

[/SIZE][/FONT]
  “Favorite” is difficult. But I quite enjoyed the Mad Marge Miggsley plot early on in the server as a kind of anti-villain. At least when I possessed her, I tried to be mostly pretty fair about the PvP and was genuinely open to her being defeated in pretty much every encounter. And I enjoyed roleplaying her personality and being inventive about her tricks. For example, it was quite amusing to “hijack” a tram with explosives.
 
  He wasn’t particularly complex but I also quite enjoyed the plot related to the raising of Etorix Once More. I suppose I naturally enjoy friendly, gregarious characters who befriend everyone but of course have some quite sinister goal. It was fun to just take Arthur Vlach to the pub to have a drink with people sometimes.
 
  Honorable mention to Thomas Alqvin, one of EFU’s oldest NPCs, whose final true ‘death’ was something that I think was truly well deserved. Poor guy deserves a screen shot with lots of accolades.
 

If you could change the outcome of one particular plot, which one, and how would you change it?

[/SIZE][/FONT]
  Will the playerbase explode if I say that on reflection I think it would have been cooler if the Society Crystal had won their war with the Spellguard? It would have been interesting and certainly different; but maybe not - for one thing, the Spellguard victory was not handled as well as it could have been.
 

Do you prefer H'bala or Barakat?

[/SIZE][/FONT]
  I prefer H’bala. I have a soft spot for her. I think her angle was a fresh take on undeath; I liked her wildness, her craziness, the badass of her escape and her many interesting servitors/schemes/monsters/environment. I have fond memories of the long period where many players sort of ignored her, or didn’t think much about her, but always finding these keystones… never knowing if she would ever be released. And the slow, gradual plots upon plots that finally led to her release. The release event which was very satisfying. The epic scene in which she dueled Razul atop the Transcendent Conclave and sent it broken and damaged, hurtling to the desert.
 
  And then of course the transition shift to EFU:M, and all of a sudden - WITHERING. Her horrible monsters everywhere, her creepy plants, etc. Her excellent servitors: the corrupted Grand Druid, the Agony of the Hunt, and so on. Players discovering lore about her - her past - her agenda - her rivalries - the focus and effort to finally defeat her. The Miracle of the Lake, the March of the Noor, the destruction of the Tower and revelation of the Doom Tree, the final battle in which she was at last staked into a Mushroom. The high fantasy quality of it all was good fun.
 
  Of course I like Barakat also, and he definitely had some moments, but I have to give the nod to H’bala personally.
 
 

Can Clerics convert people of somewhat different alignment of their deity if the pitch is good enough?

[/SIZE][/FONT]
  Sure they can.
 
 

If Widowshriek threw a dart at you, on a scale from 1 to 10 how much do you think it would hurt (10 being most painful)?

[/SIZE][/FONT]
  Please don’t throw a dart at me, Widowshriek, whoever you are.
 
 

What's the most shameful thing you've done? Within reason of course

[/SIZE][/FONT]
  Shameful thing in my life is not relevant to this thread.
 
  Shameful thing in the context of EFU? I remember one of my characters got killed very lamely once in chapter 1 and I REALLY lost my temper and was intensely tempted to switch over to DM client and unleash the wrath of god. In the end I did not but it’s not good to lose your cool. I guess in chapter 1 I was more invested in the game, played nearly as much as I dm’ed, and was generally more engaged/cared more… nowadays I am pretty mellow.
 
  Probably there have been a few other times when I got legitimately angry with players, but thankfully not too often. I’m sure I have made some bad calls as a DM.
 
  I have probably abused my DM powers in minor ways on various occasions but I can't remember doing so in a way that I think is actually shameful.
 
I have made plenty of mistakes, sometimes made bad judgment calls about other people or failed to notice when there was a problem.
 
  I would like to remember something juicy for you but can’t really. Probably another DM will be along to remind me.
 

When a pc pisses you off do you make a copy of their pc to beat the shit out of?

[/SIZE][/FONT]
No, that would be totally pointless and actually require effort. Easier to just complain about the situation with my colleagues in our own ultimate secret backchannel.

It is very rare for me to get annoyed with players/characters though. The only things I can remember annoying me in this way are things like - FD'ing a cool/but weak PC unjustifiably, doing something to make me waste lots of time trying to adjudicate/referee some PvP issue, spoiling server secrets, being ham-fisted about plot developments, allowing OOC snark to enter into IC commentary, failing to respect the magnitude of a particular event, etc....
 
 

What naughtiest have Faussad and his wife been up to? Will they ever find happiness :(

[/SIZE][/FONT]
  Not much for a long time. As for what happens between those two - I have no idea, but maybe some day we’ll find out.
 

Do dms bet chores on pvp duels etc? Ie if x wins you have to fix vradzn loot

[/SIZE][/FONT]
  Not that I can remember, for one thing we don’t really have “chores” - maybe sometimes we make the newest DM pick do something boring and unpleasant. But soon enough they became another lazy veteran DM like the rest of us.
 
  We do sometimes discuss among ourselves who we think will win in interesting PvP though, yes. Running commentary on the match like sports commentators. KreShar, for example, is notorious among DMs for being “tricky” and often having a bag of tricks to rely upon that he can use to even the odds even when outmatched.
 
  I find PvP less interesting in this chapter though because everyone who still plays at this point a lot is pretty good at PvP.
 

Do you think the old dms will ever come back?

[/SIZE][/FONT]
 
  Sometimes an old face pops up, but mostly not I think.
 

If you could add anything to efu right now what would it be and what would you take away?

[/SIZE][/FONT]
  The bad news is that I won’t answer this question, the good news is that over time and as I find more time to help out with EFU you might see!
 

[putrid_plum]

OK I am about to ask the most important question in EFU.  Are there actually 10 gems on the Bilby Quest??

[VanillaPudding]

While I don't want to imagine how many there have been, can you recall any character applications that really stood out to you throughout the chapters?


I know the forums are an annoyance, but would you and the team consider opening up old faction forums for public view just for the sake of nostalgia and entertainment? The Conclave, the Mayor's forum for EFUM, Styigans, or even older things like Tigereyes and such.

I understand that a certain NPC was created by you to represent an ex-girlfriend or something? Can you elaborate, and were there others that you recall making based upon real life people? Based on players?