Messages

One of my favorite bards, like.

He had a great run, and a unique style as a bard and mischief-maker that really brought a lot of flavor to the village.

He was cowardly and scummy, but still had a conscience beneath it that showed now and again. Good job.

Fantastic character, it was fun watching his story unfold even from afar. And great to see how someone could try so hard to be heroic to Mistlocke, and ended up being so totally reviled by nature PCs.

I've never had to abandon it before. But the spawns 'are' extraordinarily difficult compared to what you face in the Granary or the Farm. Although there are fewer of them, they hit for an extraordinary amount of damage, AND can eat through Blur - potions of which are typically a nice "Oh shit!" button for lower-end quests. That alone ups the difficulty a significant amount.

Ended up using a lot of supplies to get by with a fairly well balanced party with a wizard and some buffed warriors. Its a really nice and atmospheric quest, and I think its a shame its not ran more often in lieu of easier tasks.

[both parties]

I agree 100% with sylverdragon. If you decide to be a merciless  badass you should face the consequences of people maybe wanting to  murder you quickly and quietly without the courtesy of initiating a  duel. if you're robbing someone or decide to join a mob in lynching the local necromancer you should show some courtesy.

One of the better PVPs I've been involved with was being stalked by a werewolf at 5th level. We fought, and the werewolf won, but it wasn't a straight up fight where we buffed and went at it. She snapped at me, I hit her and she ran away, I yelled at her to shoo and she snarled back, I magic-missiled her and she charged back in to knock me down.

Instead of being a random gank it turned out to be a fun encounter hopefully for both parties: (1) my PC lived and had a story to tell; (2) hers gained some notoriety. The reason this was successful is because both parties took the time to introduce some rp into the fight and went at a slower pace; and neither took advantage of the fact the other stopped to speak.

For this to work it needs to be mutual. If the wizard chooses to summon some scrubs then stands back to cackle maniacally, the fighter could choose to hammer away at the summons and shout back some insults, rather than charging in to power attack/knockdown because the wizard isn't rattling off hold person straight after.

With the exception of heavily buffed fighters I really don't think anyone else has time to hammer out emotes like that in pvp. Some characters rely a lot more heavily on ambushes and quickly decimating an opponent than others, and a back and forth like that is much more to their detriment because they want to FINISH IT. Now granted, a single word out of them might be nice. But its not always appropriate depending on what the goal of the pvp is. If you're trying to assassinate someone you really 'don't' want to be speaking.

When I first read the thread I thought it was an obituary for Echr's unborn children.

Sorry to say I didn't see too much of Eck. Archaeology looks like probably the coolest thing you can do on such a fleshed out setting like EFU.

Fantastic PC, and always a pleasure to roleplay with. I really commend you on keeping things interesting and eventful without resorting to mass murder or being a secret Cyricist all along! (Not that there's anything wrong with either, but it was refreshing.) Although Jacqueline did have something of a darker subtext to her at times that always intrigued me.

Waiting for your next!

A fairy came into town recently with about 15 PCs present. It demanded everyone offer it tribute, and they did, and it even cast Confusion on them and made them attack eachother. Only one person attacked the fairy, and the PCs present defended the creature, and the attack was not made because it was some freak.

This example shows how a significant portion of PCs respond to winged magical creatures. Then again this was a DM possessed fey, not a PC fey, so naturally people will treat it differently because of that fact alone. Sad but true.

The PCs were lead to believe it was at the head of a large hunt. And people defended it because they didn't want the Prince to get mad and enslave the village. It also seems more probable that a town of peasants would supplicate themselves to magical creatures rather than hack them to bits.

I think character altering experiences are a positive thing. Id expect a seasoned adventurer to come across a few extra appendages in his career. And if they're unwanted? Trying to reverse the transformation makes for a fine story, too. However, if the change makes the character completely unplayable I think its just wasted potential if you can't so anything but wander the forest without a DM presence, or turned into a non-speaking animal unable to do ANYTHING - especially if there's resistance to restoring the PC.

Yes, yes, its a scary and grim world.

Perhaps place it a at random location throughout the ruins to encourage people to keep on poking around? More scripting, I know its not easy, but it might make it less about who can get there the fastest and more about luck?

Beat me to it.

I really enjoy this change. Great incentive to go out and try things, and even if you do die you'll at least get some permanent experience to make the next death less painful.

Awesome job!

Fun and very ambiguous villain.

Still, I can't believe he killed his baby daddy.

Or it might just show that they aren't taking the dangers of the island seriously enough.

____


Since you edited. 9+ already get increased penalties. Your graphs show this.

Maybe a poor example as those are very preventable hazards. But sometimes you do just get unlucky from a flurry of critical strikes, crashing at an inopportune moment, latency, and whatever else.

The penalty, 33%, is always the same. I'm suggesting a different percentage be deducted per bracket as opposed to bending an expontential curve to a linear progression. If I am understanding correctly the goal isn't so much to make 7-8 difficult to reach as it is 9-10.

[My point: Death Penalties are not designed to enforce certain behaviors, they are designed to keep the average of the server nearest a certain point which the DMs consider to be the best ranges. Raising the average levels in this way has HUGE impacts on class balance.Therefore, the issue is not that players lose a lot on death, but that players see the only true way to advance is through leveling up.]

My point: Death Penalties are not designed to enforce certain behaviors, they are designed to keep the average of the server nearest a certain point which the DMs consider to be the best ranges. Raising the average levels in this way has HUGE impacts on class balance.

Therefore, the issue is not that players lose a lot on death, but that players see the only true way to advance is through leveling up.

First I'd like to say I agree that in part the death system is to keep the average level in the 6-8 range. It seems an ideal place for the server, and there's a very delicate mechanical balance surrounding it. I acknowledge that.

But I otherwise disagree with you. Every aspect of a game is in some way related to behavior modification. You lose a lot on death so you try not to die, which is vital to maintaining the integrity of a Horror-Survival setting. It makes heroes heroic, and cowards live to tell the story. And I don't think the issue is that people aren't looking for other ways to advance their PCs. Everyone whose been on EFU at least a few months certainly understands that advancement can come in the form of friends and allies, political standing, and ferreting out lost lore and secrets. EFU is a story-telling server and no one would be here if they didn't have some desire to take part and watch it unfold.

But if dropping from 8 to 6 is really that soul-crushing and discouraging, if a random assassin vine or leopard causes someone to drop a character, it might warrant tweaking. Even if it has no bearing on the story people do derive enjoyment from seeing their PCs gain new abilities, spells, and equipment. Perhaps an increased penalty for 9+ characters?