EfU Character Design Talkshow

[Hollow_Mage]

Since so many people here use Discord or twitch or whatever, I think it would be really fun to do a EfU themed Talkshow.


We'd get a few people on mic or webcam, get someone to stream it, take questions, etc.


I thought the first theme could be the Human Fighter since its the most immediately familiar combo and has 100 different ways to play or characterize it.

We would obviously spend plenty of time on Forgotten Realms, EfU, and other lore and details.

I got one other person on board who knows who he is when he sees this. Some of you Vets or DMs, express interest below!

[Kinslayer988]

I will PM you in IRC later

[Hollow_Mage]

After a good chat I've got a couple more notes for this:

1. We should lean towards a discussion about roleplaying and characterization. Specifically, there is a concern about a mechanics-based talkshow giving the wrong impression about EfU, which it absolutely would (if we played it straight). But I think the easiest way to understand things like "roleplaying your attributes" or "observing your religious duties" is to have a specific throwaway concept character to use as an example throughout the process.

The real trick will be keeping the tone and presentation consistent, engaging, and not a dry reflection of nerds on nerds.

2. I'm leaning towards Clerics as the first topic for a few reasons: first, the Alignment/Domains/Deity restrictions on EfU that aren't in Vanilla NWN; second, the number of Clerics that have made major impacts on the server; third, EfU:R is a unique setting at a unique time in the history of Abeir-Toril, and it gives us a chance to directly reference those In Universe events that every player's character would know. (Mystryl, Tyche, Targus, non-responsive deities, etc.)

3. The style is more "Inside the Actor's Studio" as a roundtable; rather than having "guests", we'll just have attendees. We would come in with a barebones skeleton of a concept like "Cleric of Grumbar heeds the call of the Earthlord to lead his flock into the Underdark, escaping the Dread Invasion of the surface, but loses them on the way. He comes to Sanctuary downhearted, swearing to discover the fate of his former followers." Piece by piece we would discuss things like Alignment and Domains, calling up resources like the Realmslore forum. Then finally when we know who the guy is, we'd build him mechanically based on what we have.

[Hound]

I don't like this idea. It is weird and incongruent with EFU's style.

[Hollow_Mage]

Well what sort of format do you think would work better? We kind of have everything in text already. Genuinely curious. I'd rather not do t than do it poorly

[zDark Shadowz]

I don't want to come off as putting down the idea, but it's kind of a bit out there and the immediate reaction to participate in something so suddenly public, to put faces or voices behind the players that play here will remove the anonymity that they likely enjoy.

It's such a small spectrum I'm not quite sure who the target audience would be.

As for the contribution side of this post- fully flesh out a formula for the discussions and everything else would work itself out in natural dialogue I wager.

EFU has many perks and subraces to explore that other servers don't, allowing for some unique customisation for player characters here.

One format could be to have a randomly chosen someone in this group discussion pick a perk or subrace that they've been willing to explore, discuss why they chose it, glossing over the mechanics and focusing on the theme of it.

Developing a backstory that'll fit into the character, each person takes a turn to add something unique, and then discuss what kind of goals this person with such a story would have, and how they'd fit into the setting.

Give him/her/it an appropriate name, description, what would they prefer to wear, any particular attitude quirks based on their history/race/gender <- Not sure how 'politically correct' you'll want to set your standards, exploring these concepts, shunning or avoiding them entirely.

Putting them in the game world, attributes / feats might not quite match up to what is required, but once the character has been built it should be played by the person between episodes, so that when the next one comes round they could share any interesting stories they might have had with their character so far.

Organise a demo toybox version of the show that isn't live-streamed with people that are willing, see how long it takes and work out if it's too long, short, what you would prefer to cut out or add in, ask the people who participated what they thought should or shouldn't have been included, before committing to something serious and consistent.