Ringrunning - Redefining the purpose/reward

[Trevor White]

What puts me off is the apparent need for that organised play time and group, which I can't guarantee. Especially because if the group only has 1-2 keys for a Ring, that key holder is required to be on for you to move around in any real way.

What would make it more appealing is if there was a way to teleport to and from a spawn point in the deeper rings. So if you've set a spawn in a Ring, you can go to and from that Ring to the King's Commons, but not to anywhere else.

Speaking from my time exploring EFUA and EFU:M on Rangers, the exploring was fun but I kept longing for a Teleport wizard buddy to let me go back and enjoy the multiplayer aspects of the server, experience server events, etc.

A system to let you teleport to and from your 'base camp' would make the idea of ring running more friendly to a casual player or one without a group.

If you only implemented this after Ring 95, that would be a good way to stop it becoming "convenient fast travel to a questing area". 99-95 stays well travelled, the deeper rings become spotted with base camps. Keys remain important because you can only jump from your base camp ring to the hubs. You can't use it to "fast travel" through the rings, and you can't exploit it to go someplace your PC hasn't seen yet.

What it does let you do is head back to town and trade in strange things you found, or take part in server events.

You could use a combination of a long charge up time for the teleport, and a dose of Plane Sickness for doing it, to stop it being too convenient. It wouldn't be anything that didn't exist already for a L7 Wizard. It would mean you don't need to have a well-leveled wizard taxi service to make the most out of the concept.

[Random_White_Guy]

While ring running is by no means perfect I wanted to weigh in on things.

- Firstly, to your point Egon, the Crossroads does allow a degree of trade in a still hostile, pvp free environment which brings a sense of danger to PCs trying to sell their fancy riches. Part of the trade off of Ring Running is you -do- miss out on the crazy DM events of Ring Ninety Nine. However it's no secret a good crew deep in the rings will catch a bored DM's eye just as much. To me though captaining a crew has felt like leading a multi-weekly campaign of D&D. Most of the time we're doing our own thing and our own stories and our own adventures then DMs come and turn the knob up to 11.

It's a trade off from the classic EFU "Oh shit there's something going on in X area, let's all go see what's up".

But it is still the closest to the D&D experience i've ever had, as someone who has never played PNP or tabletop.

- Secondly while the OOC aspects can certainly be draining it does lend itself like any other PC faction endeavor. Sometimes you wait for your crew, sometimes your crew waits on you, but typically it's such a close knit type of RP if you commit to the "Bit" of ring running that really brings out a fun dynamic to EFU. As someone who often plays criminals who hire feckless mercenaries or mad cultists who have zealous followers it has been sort of out-of-body experience. Not only to have PCs I can rely on but like ICly our stories are so interwoven and connected. By virtue of having to spend so much time together it creates a richness that feels almost on par with all the LOTR memes and etc. Out of all the factions I"ve ran in my time on EFU and all my crazy schemes, there really is such a feeling of having just thrown in hours into the story of myself, and this small group of PCs, that created some really tight bonds and awesome stories.

- As far as the purpose and reward EFU like so many things gives back what you put into it. I can't imagine without all the shelter-in-place stuff going on my ring crew would have been as fun or close knit but I got extremely lucky with a group of PCs who were around in my timezone, near every night if they were able. That has lent itself to such a wonderful experience compared to my previous groups, across numerous timezones, where it was more just "Let's get 9 people to hit the rings". There was no sense of "TOM HAS 2 HOURS THIS WEEK LETS GO GO GO GO GO HOW MANY RINGS CAN WE HIT BEFORE HE CAN ONLY BE AROUND NEXT SATURDAY".

- Ring Running is a new thing for EFU and brings with it a new dynamic. Any scripted quest on EFU has a minimum of 3 players for most ring content that I've seen. I can't say it wouldn't be -easy- by any means to 3 man the Rings but its "Possible". Three high level PCs who are all complimentary classes and have a cool or compelling reason to strike out into the Rings really could have the same experience I've been having.

In fact if I do another ring running Concept I probably would try to do it as three elite Retainers of a single houseHouse, Three Dwarves marching for the Bulwark, A Cleric Paladin on a holy pilgrimage with a hired Scout, or something else of similar of an even balanced small knit group.

At the end of the day Logistics is such a big issue on EFU and Ring Running and in the earlier rings the instinct is there to have a "Max party" for anything.

But that just creates logistical nightmares in my opinion when it comes to ring running.

Seven felt like a real good number for my crew hitting the early rings but after Ring 92 we only had five people, and even as crews have gotten leaner due to IC or OOC challenges and numbers dropped, we've all done some intense rings deep with only 4-5 PCs each.

And anyone will tell you we're far from "Optimized". You just try and find a way to figure out to do what you can with the people you have.

Which in and of itself is kind of a fun reward to be like "Damn, we made it how far doing -what-?"

[Trevor White]

Thanks for the perspective and advice., RwG The ring-running game looks really novel, but the worry for me was "Well I'd get stuck by myself a lot or have to bail on the group".

As you say, it's a different pace, and part of the joy of EfU for me has been often just witnessing the shenanigans that go on on a well populated server. Which is why my current PC is a 0-stealth rogue in an attempt to counter my tendency to go wandering off in pursuit of interesting nonsense.

I might try recruiting a few of my tabletop or larp gaming mates onto EfU for a ring-running "campaign". Just like a regular gaming night but without the need for a guaranteed DM.