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This fundraiser has met its objective and is now complete.

Thank you all!

Dear players,

As you all know, EFU is provided fully free of charge and with a minimum of effort put into fundraising efforts. All active DMs spend huge amounts of time and effort and trying to attach any kind of dollar value to this effort would be impossible. For these and other reasons we don't usually want to bother you with asking for donations.

However, I would like to mention that one of our most faithful DMs, DangerousDan, needs a new graphics card. He just spent a year of his life as the principle narrative architect of a major plot for EFU, and it may well the hours and hours (and hours) he spent toolsetting areas for the sake of the server played some role in burning out his existing one. Although we don't usually do this, and probably won't very much in the future, a few players have mentioned they'd like a way to help him with this and perhaps others would as well.

So we're going to have a special fundraiser. In order to replace his card Daniel needs around 500 GPB (655$), and players who wish to are welcome to donate through the EFU PayPal howlando@gmail.com and I will then makes sure the funds are passed on to him.

As always, players are also welcome to donate to EFU either directly to our server account through this link: https://www.nfoservers.com/donate.pl?force_recipient=1&recipient=howlando%40gmail.com

Or patreon: Patreon

If you'd like some other method of donating feel free to reach out to me.

Thank you!

Huge congratulations and salutations to all players and active DMs who made the recent war plot such an extraordinary EFU event. What a remarkable and cinematic conclusion. You all deserve all the praise in the world.

Dear players -

For some time now, people have wondered what EFU stands for.

In Chapter 1, it meant "Escape from the Underdark"

In Chapter 2 of EFU:A, it meant "Escaped from the Underdark: Archipelago"

In Chapter 3 of EFU:M, it meant "Escaped from the Underdark: Mistlocke"

In Chapter 4 of EFU:R, it meant "Escape from Uncertainty: Revelations." At this point our acronym game started to get a little odd.

In Chapter 5 of EFU:CoR, It meant "EFU: City of Rings" with perhaps various deranged possibilities for what EFU stood for.

In Chapter 6 EFU: Sands of Intrigue, it means....


"Evolving Fantasy Universe"

That is what we have, and that is (from now on) what it stands for.

You can also just continue to call it EFU if you want. But at least it stands for something now.

In celebration of EFU = Evolving Fantasy Universe, we have updated our website https://www.efupw.com.

As always, ~ music on ~

Happy birthday Daniel, EFU still appreciates you!

Missing you buddy.

Today, October 18th, is once again Halfbrood Appreciation Day.

May he be appreciated for many more!

Out of respect for players we don't like to publicly discuss the details of why players are asked to leave the community, but any member of the EFU community with concerns or questions are welcome to message me on Discord.

"more on providing a sandbox experience where people actually have things to do besides quest and open up merchant stalls, and do intrigue/politics that just go around in circles and have little meaning to them"

EFU flourishes as a combination of action and intrigue, that's always been the case. Action is what keeps people logged in. Intrigue is what builds the memories and stories.

We have a fairly awesome new political system that at least attempts to give players new things to do, but if you have ideas for other systems or things that DMs can actually implement feel free to share. We don't mind criticism.

Rumors spread of the latest diplomatic mission to Il Modo.

Despite a cold welcome and an uneasy start (it is said that the long-winded Legate Gloamingdaith may have inadvertently offended the Modini with his choice of gifting an old Caliphate amulet and a certain lack of clarity regarding his view of Modini sovereignty), it is reported that the troupe of performers - the "Floating Fantasia" - were a popular & appreciated spectacle.

It is also reported that Legate Gloamingdaith and his advisors succeeded in persuading the Modini to dispatch a representative to attend the Kardesler conference.

But at what price? It is whispered - in tones of shock and amazement - that the Ephians agreed to offer a gift of One Hundred Barrels of Well Water in exchange for this attendance.

Such a huge quantity of sacred waters (representing nearly an entire month's worth of discretionary production) being handed over to slimy eel-merchants and strange Sage-worshippers is widely considered to have been a colossal gamble. Many of the faithful of Ephia's Well are particularly angered by the decision and consider it a huge scandal, whereas others urge caution.... after all, desperate times call for desperate measures.

Perhaps the Legate is right and this distant naval power could in some way be persuaded to offer its help against the threat of the Thousand Clans...?

Legate Gloamingdaith,

With some trepidation arrangements have been made for your Fantasia to make a brief performance for our Court at an appropriate time.

There is some possibility of informal discussions subsequent, but I would encourage you to conduct your visit to us with modest expectations and a great deal more humility than previous representatives of your Well.

- Paula of the Court

Alignment is far from an ideal system and certainly is highly imperfect in many ways, but I don't think it need get in the way of complex characterization.

Instead it's useful for very simple things like:
- certain spells and mechanics
- managing the silly factor with certain game-play activities (such as animating the dead) being classified as ~ evil ~ that good guys can oppose
- letting DMs churn more items by having flavorful item properties to use
- etc

Dear Players,

January 23 is Dangerous Dan appreciation day. He is an essential member of our community and a dear friend, and I'd like to take a moment to share some brief thoughts about how he's grown with our community.

Daniel has been a DM for 16 years. He arrived to us in the earliest days of Chapter 1 of EFU, "Escape from the Underdark." The server then was dark, dismal, buggy, and poorly balanced (naturally we've squashed all bugs and balance issues perfectly since then). We were not exactly a "newbie friendly" server, and it is a small and private miracle that the very young Daniel managed to last as much as an hour.

Daniel had absolutely no experience with the NWN platform, and - perhaps wisely - rather than learning a single thing about how the game operated he simply jammed the notoriously bad "Recommended" button for his fighter (Ferius Worn) and just blindly ran at anything red. Yes, dear friends, this PC ended up with WF /Spec longsword despite never once using one (Greatsword only). Rather than scavenge up some half decent half-plate, Ferius Worn found some really bad "Worn Leathers" and decided that they would be perfect for his entire career because leathers are cooler than metal. Let's just say that Ferius Worn met various dismal ends to every random under dark ambient monster that you can imagine.

But the role-play was great, and from his first moments there was promise there. As young and fresh DM myself, I used to follow him along in the client, cloaking my presence but trying to subtly adjust monsters and move them away to try to encourage this promising new player... well, it didn't matter, because Dan loved EFU. Soon Ferius was setting up a stew shop in the slums of Lower Sanctuary and unknowingly hosting a terrible devil cult. The plots and intrigue roared, and Worn's escape quest was one of the most memorable escape-quests of v1.

Dan became a DM around the transition from v1 -> v2 and became an important creative contributor to the project of EFU. He was the primary mind behind the genius idea of "The Order." He developed the early technique of applying stone-skin vfx to barrows pillar placeables and lowering them to make flagstones to decorate Mistlocke as well as developed a huge amount of the overall lore-mythos of Ymph. He wrote some of the best Spellguard directives of v4. When present, his writing and ideas were always a huge influence on the lore and settings of EFU.

However, in v6 he truly took off and achieved a higher form as a DM. Many of v6's most epic and beautiful areas are his work. He's matured from flighty artistic genius ideas-man to passionate ideas-man who builds complete areas and runs amazing events / plots. To the extent that you as players are enjoying v6, Dan deserves this credit...

Daniel is a special soul, and I am grateful for EFU that it allowed me to meet him and that we've had the chance to work together off and on for all these years. Let's all take a moment to wish him happy birthday and thank him for all that he does for us.

I would like this if it worked smoothly and was optional, but as I understand it is a bit clumsy - it wouldn't actually display the VFX if you're typing, but only if you're focused in the chat bar, and also it would show with dm messages / tells / chat commands.

Just as a note to future new players who read this, this thread is still useful but some information is outdated. For example, druids are no longer generally considered as inherently antagonistic.