General Changes, Various EFU-unique systems

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[SIZE="3"]Major EFU Changes:[/SIZE]

Default Bioware parties has been disabled. This may seem strange at first, but almost all players eventually find it improves their enjoyment of the game considerably. Experience is still shared by PCs in the area in which monsters are killed.

Characters start at level 2. Level 5 is very easy to reach, level 7 is very achievable to reach for almost any player, level 10 can be reached for very long term characters, levels 11+ are reached only very rarely and by very influential PCs.

Rolling a 1 is not an auto-failure on saving throws.

Hours are twenty seven real-life minutes long, instead of two. Turns remain unmodified at one minute. Everything that used to be hour-duration is now 5 minutes, unless otherwise modified.

Your character may rest only in an inn room (after having paid the innkeeper), out in the wild with a campfire and bedroll or in special free-rest spots. You may rest once every 20 minutes. Rangers do not require campfires to rest in the wild, barbarians do not require bedrolls to rest in the wild. Resting in places other than an inn requires food. Druids can rest without both.

Divine casters (Clerics & Paladins) require a valid deity selected. Due to the plot happenings, many of the deities have been killed, please refer to here before creating a divine spellcaster.)

Various spell visual effects have been removed/shortened.

Ability stat bonuses from multiple items do not stack. Bonuses from items and spells will stack

Stealth is more effective in some areas (such as dark caves) than it is in brightly lit rooms. A PC that is translucent has been heard only, not spotted (this is default, but bears repeating: although difficult to enforce, we ask that people do not definitively identify characters that have only been "heard").

There are various damage modes (subdual, sparring, blackout and full damage) all accessible through the crafting menu, player tools, or voice command (/c subdual, /c full damage, /c sparring, /c subdual blackout). Blackout mode sends a PC into a special "unconscious" area, you can then grab their unconscious body and take it with you somewhere. Familiars/Companions/Summons should be on the damage mode of their master. Note that summons switch to FD as they are being unsummoned, this is a bug and an unavoidable one so be careful.

Pure rogues, sorcerers, barbarians, bards and fighters may select "Perks" starting at level 5 and then another one at level 8. Note - choose carefully, once selected perks cannot be changed and there will be no confirmation dialogue to ensure you selected the perk you want.

Caltrops will not stack when dropped on top of each other.

AC from Bracers will not work if your character is wearing any form of armor beyond clothing.


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[SIZE="3"]More Information on Various Systems[/SIZE]

EFU has an enormous amount of scripted content that I've become increasingly aware our players sometimes simply don't know about it. This post is an attempt to mention some of the content and be a useful resource for new players.


DM XP

This is pretty self-explanatory. Do interesting things, make Awesome (even without a DM watching), pursue interesting stories, express your creativity, roleplay excellently  and entertain yourself and others... and, eventually, you will be rewarded. To really get into this subject requires perhaps a full post of its own, but it's worth noting DM XP can be rewarded for lots of different things: for example, if you beat a "spiced" quest there will probably be an extra XP award. Merely being present for an important event may also earn you some XP, and very often if I bounce on some players doing some plotting or interesting RP I'll throw everyone some XP.

It's also worth adding, though, that from the perspective of the DM client it is hard to pay attention to every PC and properly reward... sometimes we forget to hand out XP, so don't let it bother you too much. Over the course of a player's lifetime hopefully everything will balance out.

Note that DMs also have the ability to hand out XP that will never be lost from raises or respawns.


Exploration XP

Again, pretty obvious. The first time you go to many areas you will receive XP.


Deliveries

We have some pretty basic delivery quests around. Note that the delivery-receiver NPC will be marked by our system as part of the quest system, which may lead to some confusion.


Combat Quests

We have a lot of these.


Exploration Random Areas

We have more than a hundred of these, easily, and I just added a whole bunch more. I think these are pretty fun - basically, throughout the course of the day different transitions spawn in different areas that either a solitary PC or a group can explore. Some are insanely challenging, some are nothing more than an empty room with a huge pile of loot. They're fun, but sometimes very deadly.


Random Ambients

These are more for flavor I guess, but lots of different little small "things" spawn all around the module also. Strange shrines, or deadly plants... etc.


Cooking/Herbalism/Alchemy

Cooking is a system by which your character can cook - cooking isn't dangerous, so this can be good practice for learning how these systems work.

Herbalism lets you make a lot of useful components and items, but the items generally aren't quite so powerful or dangerous to make as Alchemy.

Alchemy (note: I am referring to a special system, not mundane potion brewing!) is a very dangerous thing, perhaps one of the most dangerous things to do in EFU. Yet the rewards can be truly amazing. For the right kind of player, this can be a complex but satisfying undertaking.

More information on our unique Alchemy/Herbalism system can be found here.


Rare Spawns

There are a variety of rare random monster spawns that can be quite rewarding to kill. Some are "Hero Spawns" (specially named NPCs), others are just very rare...


Banditry/NPC Mugging

In addition to the (dangerous) past-time of mugging PCs, there are also several kinds of NPCs (some rarer than others) that can be "mugged" (attacked). Some even drop special items that can in turn be sold to other NPCs. Of course, this is an IC'ly dangerous if lucrative profession.


Scavenging

There's a lot of areas that can be "scavenged" - particularly with high search, you might find randomly find nice treasure just laying around or in rubble.


Rumors

We have a pretty nice "rumors" system by which we can very easily and dynamically update the rumors that NPCs or placeables mention via our web console. Thus, very often we'll hide lore or plot hints or other things in rumors or placeables. It can be worth speaking with NPCs and reading placeables scattered across the module...


Interaction NPCs

Recently, some NPCs have been added to the module that spawn occasionally and can be interacted with - with the random possibility of getting something very nice.


Merchants

Various merchants with randomly generated stores can spawn occasionally, particularly in some certain areas of the module, but also in outlying areas... including the Underdark and Underwater areas of EFU. Many of these stores sell mundane, flavourful wares... but you might also find amongst them something worthwhile, something to aid your roleplay, collectibles, keys, a bit of lore, or just something sort of interesting or unique.


Joining Associations

Joining an association doesn't require a DM and can be a good way to find some direction for your character, as well as receiving some decent perks.

Hopefully this post has been useful to some of you. I'm sure there are some things I'm forgetting but this at least covers the major scripted things.

We're trying to build a great module but, as always, it is up to the playerbase to make the really great stories. We're giving you the tools, now go out and make the kinds of character and stories that really rock people's socks off!