EQ RPG: It's Your World Now...

[Hawkshere]

There's no mention of the actual mechanics, and only a vague reference to "compatibility". However, my bet is they'll do a Mana Point system for this game. Which is fine by me, as long as I can still convert the spells to slot-based without too much trouble if I want to.

The spell catalog and monster manual alone makes this an interesting product from a D&D perspective.

I hope they rescale the level scheme to be compatible with d20, as EQ's leveling mechanics are one of its design flaws. Plus, as far as I am concerned, a 20th level D&D character is more powerfull individually than a similar 60th level EQ character. On the whole, anyway.

A best-of-both worlds design approach could introduce some very tasty crunchy bits, campaign world aside.

 

[Sonny]

Forgive me if this issue has been raised already...

Does this mean we will be getting a new magic system? EQ uses a mana point system, not a spell-slot system...

You know at first I was inclined to say yes. But, considering they keep saying that it'll be "100% compatible with the 3rd-edition rules of the world's most popular fantasy tabletop roleplaying system" I'd say they'll use the existing D20 magic system.

If they follow the EQ magic system you'll have spells that won't be very compatible with the standard d20 magic unless they supply conversion notes. Same thing with abilities, in EQ there is really only one additional ability score: Agility. Why bother putting that in at all? And levels. Do you really need 60 levels built into the standard system? I really don't think it's needed for most pnp games.

It would seem to make more sense to keep the system closer to pure D20 or D&D or whatever, than to muddy the waters and have to put in conversion info. Just my opinion though.

 

[DwarvenBrew]

Speaking as one of those disenfranchised former EQ players, the thought of going back into that world, in any medium, is not at all enticing. I suspect that this will not be a successful target market and that current players will be more receptive, but I could, of course, be entirely wrong.

I'm not sure that's true for everyone. I left EQ about year ago after being frustrated by the higher level grind (level 30+ on TP, MT and SZ), and I'm actually really interested in this. As I said in my first post, there are quite a few things that could make the EQ setting unique:

1. Evil races control vast amounts of territory, and it's not all underground or way out of the way areas
2. Evil races are "core" PC races
3. The other demi-races (high/wood elves, dwarves, halflings, and OMG gnomes!) aren't hidden away in secret kingdoms, and actually seem to be reasonably prosperous
4. There are classes dedicated to/skewed towards evil (anti-paladin aka Shadowknight, necromancer, for the most part shamen as well).
5. A fairly comprehensive faction system dealing with "foreign" races in cities, and factions between various npc/monster groups (I think that many settings are pitifully underdeveloped when it comes to politics, especially outside of their local area)
6. There are less than 50 gods! Reminds me somewhat of Dragonlance, where there are enough gods to provide ample variety but not so many that you never use 75% of them

I don't know, it will definitely take a lot of fleshing out the details for this to work, but I think that it has definite possibilities, and yes I was completely frustrated with the game when I finaly said enough camping is enough.

 

[Paul_Klein]

I just want to say for one I'm damn excited. I've played EQ for about 2 years (quit about 6 months ago), and got my Half-elf Paladin up to 54th.

As to the question about Freeport... this is a different Freeport. In Norrath, Freeport is one of the two main Human hometowns (the other being Qeynos).

And Befallen is a semi-small dungeon populated to the brim with undead, Necromancers, and the like. In EQ Befallen is reletivly low-level (I'd say 10th-20th).

S&S: Bring it on baby!

 

[Henry]

...In EQ Befallen is relatively low-level (I'd say 10th-20th).

...And it was statements like that (TRUTH!) that drove me nuts about the EQ Computer game. I spent 4 months playing up to a point where I could adventure past the first two "areas" and found nothing more than more hacking and slashing. If it weren't for the fact that I was a Shaman and had the Spirit of Wolf spell, I would have been toast going into some of the areas I DID go into. Even then, I can't count the number of "Naked Dead Body Runs" I did in that game.

For the amusement of fellow EQ'ers, until I learned the spell to reposition my spawning point, I used to use a SoW, run from the Barbarian home city, ACROSS the frozen Plains, INTO the gnoll lair with NO light, OUT the other side, into the northern plains of Qeynos, and trying to find my body based on the last X,Y position I ping'ed. Sometimes, if there were nasty monsters still about, I had to DRAG my body, repeatedly hitting the hotkey I'd programmed for this, until I was long and far away from the threats.

 

[Kichwas]

It's a win-win situation for WW/SSS.


Scenerio 1: They manage to get the EQ audience into table top gaming and buying their books to play. They end up with a larger player base than even DnD has.

Scenerio 2: The EQ audience is lukewarm to table top gaming but d20 fans see it as an excellent book to add to their collections and it turns a pretty penny for them anyway.

Scenerio 3: Both situations come to pass and WW/SSS gains enough clout to actually drive the d20 path of development/fan acceptance rather than following WotC's lead like everybody in d20 does now.

The EQ audience is big. We are a small hobby compared to the pool of computer gamers. So if anything ever did manage to bring a large number of them over to the table it would replace DnD as the lead product for the hobby.

It would take a very hot license to do it; which this is. But it would also take some seriously savy marketing and a very well placed and timed release.

 

[Caliban]

...And it was statements like that (TRUTH!) that drove me nuts about the EQ Computer game. I spent 4 months playing up to a point where I could adventure past the first two "areas" and found nothing more than more hacking and slashing. If it weren't for the fact that I was a Shaman and had the Spirit of Wolf spell, I would have been toast going into some of the areas I DID go into. Even then, I can't count the number of "Naked Dead Body Runs" I did in that game.

For the amusement of fellow EQ'ers, until I learned the spell to reposition my spawning point, I used to use a SoW, run from the Barbarian home city, ACROSS the frozen Plains, INTO the gnoll lair with NO light, OUT the other side, into the northern plains of Qeynos, and trying to find my body based on the last X,Y position I ping'ed. Sometimes, if there were nasty monsters still about, I had to DRAG my body, repeatedly hitting the hotkey I'd programmed for this, until I was long and far away from the threats.

Hehe, as a human monk I did the "Feign Death" conga dance many times while recovering my corpse, and doing corpse retrieval for other people. Drag, drag, drag, MONSTER!, Feign Death, wait, wait, wait, drag, drag, drag, MONSTER!, Feign Death, etc, etc, etc.

Befallen was kind of fun to go to after you hit 30th level. I could go in the bottom level and just bitch slap any monster that looked at me cross-eyed. It was a small pleasure, but fun nevertheless.

 

[Tsyr]

Befallen was kind of fun to go to after you hit 30th level. I could go in the bottom level and just bitch slap any monster that looked at me cross-eyed. It was a small pleasure, but fun nevertheless.

Heh, glad I'm not the only one who did that. Of course, I also had a vengance thing for Befallen, having lost my corpse in there at level 12...

Of course, that was back in the day when minotaur axes were godly for most people, the BBC was uber, and ringmail from the dwarf quest was hard to come by.

 

[kenjib]

I guess it must be partly my low magic/low fantasy bias creeping in that makes the setting not very compelling to me outside of the video game. It all just seemed really hacked together in a haphazard fashion. I suppose that I'm also pretty worn out on it since I played to level 56.

Say, did anyone play on Luclin? I was Mumsley Thunderfoot - fairly notorious for a bit if I might be so bold as to say so...

I did make statements about OGL only products saying I was unsure about them before Ryan chimed in and said that he was surprised there werent more OGL only products. Once he said that, I was a bit less worried about an OGL only product being percieved as doing an "end around" the license. Which is why I dropped a in my earlier response.

The licenses are clearly written to allow OGL only products. I know others will disagree, but I think EQ or another similar high-profile, identifiable property, would be about the only reason to do a OGL only product. Dont tell Faust, since he is hard at work on Earth1066.

Clark

Ah, I see. I never caught that response from Ryan Dancey. That's pretty cool. Did he intend such a thing more for games with different systems, like an OGL GURPS, for example, or was he also okay with people creating D&D knock-offs under the OGL moniker?

This Everquest game is supposed to be "100% compatible," so what if they rewrite the same experience system and character advancement mechanics and sell it - the only difference being the classes, feats, and spells? Is that still okay? If this is okay, is it okay for me to clone all of the rules in the PHB and DMG with different wording and sell it under the name "Catacombs and Creatures," claiming that it is 100% compatible with the 3rd edition of the most popular role playing game? Where do you draw the line?

 

[Heylel Teomim]

eq

I really look forward to this setting being given a real RPG treatment. I've cribbed alot of dungeons from EQ before, because I've continued playing eq well past the rest of my gaming buddies. The higher level dungeons work amazingly well as instant maps for DnD games, and usually require only superficial alteration.

A second benefit is, of course, that almost all of my friends have tried EQ at least once and are familiar with the basics of the world. That can't be said for Greyhawk proper, Forgotten Realms, OA, Scarred Lands, or Wheel of Time. The handful who've never played EQ would finally get to understand what we're talking about when a couple of us start in on war stories from the game.

My biggest concern is how adaptable with DnD it will be. Its apparent that they intend to use EQ classes, but if they use EQ's level design I dunno how that will work out. My guess is the first book will be the EQ specific system, and the following D20 books for monsters and the DM guide will mesh more with DnD. I'm thinking the most likely option is that the DM Guide includes a fairly large section on converting EQ characters over to basic DnD, that would explain the D20 logo on the cover.

Being an EQ wizard, I really would love to see Sunstrike in DnD. Its fun enough blasting the everliving hell out of our guild's rangers when we play around in the arenas, I'd give my right eye to do that to my GM's monstrosities =D

Heylel Teomim

ps. Best Befallen memory for me was when I used to own this thing called an Amulet of Necropotence. Basically it just made you look like a skeleton. I'd go sit in the very bottom of Befallen and make chain rattling noises etc. Newbies would very often think I was an NPC and try to interact with me, and I'd chase them off. God that was fun, hehehe.