Blast From The Past: EverQuest Role-Playing Game

Welcome to the world of Norrath, player!

Say hello to Fironia Vie. The 'hot' elf. You'll be seeing her a lot...

One of the first MMORPGs was EverQuest. Based on many elements from Dungeons and Dragons and other fantasy games, it was a wild success and started the MMORPG crazy that is still going strong today.

Since EverQuest was based on RPG elements, and had a fanbase that were role-playing nerds, it was inevitable that an official RPG would be released. The game used the D20 System, which was all the rage in those days, and the Swords and Sorcery system, which wasn't that common.

The world of EverQuest was rich and expansive, full of interesting details and characters. Don't believe me? Just check out the list of races and classes below:

Races:

Human

Dark Elf

High Elf

Wood Elf

Halfling

Barbarian (Nordic/Scottish sub-species of human from the frozen North)

Dwarf

Gnome

Eurdite (Magic user sub-species of human)

Half Elf

Iskar (Lizard people from a far-away continent)

Ogre

Troll

Vah Shir (Cat people. From the moon. No, I'm not making that up.)

Big list, isn't it? Like D&D 2^nd edition, only some races were prevented from taking some classes and they would take experience penalties when the group gained XP. 

... Because they used her in ALL of the advertising...

 

Classes:

Warrior

Shadow Knight (AKA Death Knight/Anti-Paladin)

Paladin

Beastlord (Druid/Fighter mix)

Monk

Ranger

Rogue

Wizard

Magician

Necromancer

Enchanter

Bard

Cleric

Druid

Shaman

The pen-and-paper RPG is almost a complete port of the computer version which causes some... Issues.

So, there's almost every race... And Fironia...

Mana and spell slots: Just like the video game (and many others for that matter), the EQ RPG included mana. While the classes generate a goodly amount of mana, you have to balance the spell level, the mana cost, and the slots you have for spells. You get six spell slots no matter what your level, but you can't have any spell memorized in more than one slot and it takes time to re-add a spell to a slot. For many coming from D&D and the like, this system feels a bit off. In the video game, resting for a few minutes allows you to take a quick break and get something to drink. In a role-playing setting, it's annoying.

Faction: In many MMORPGs, you have a variety of factions you have to deal with. When you decrease faction with groups, you can expect to be attacked on sight when you enter areas they control. This makes sense in a video game, where the monsters and guards seem to magically communicate this to each other. However, in a role-playing game, you don't assume that sort of thing. Sure, NPCs talk to each other and you expect that. But, being instantly attacked when walking in to a city when you're not a member of an evil race just doesn't jive with most players.

Quests: Oh, we all know quests. Every video game has them. Since video games don't have a DM/GM who can control everything and the worlds are much less free-form, it makes sense that you need to provide rewards and motivations to players. In the RPG, they've included many of the common and important quests, but they didn't seem to think out the rewards very much. In the video game, they would give a player a faction reward and an item reward. But, in the RPG, they don't add additional rewards when a group takes up the quest, and the monetary rewards kind of suck. CR 5 quest and 3d10 GP reward? Um, what? That doesn't make a lot of sense when magic items are few and far between and cost tens or thousands to hundreds of thousand of gold.

Magic Items: One of the best things about any fantasy RPG is always the magic items. D&D has thousands of them, varying from the questionable to overpowering, from utilitarian to the humorous, they're always creative and fun to read about. EverQuest is no exception. While the list is limited and many of the items are very expensive, the items are unique to the setting. One thing that I find interesting is that almost every item adds a stat boost (ranging from +1 to +3 to several different stats), a small HP bonus (around +5 on average), and other minor bonuses.

Trade Skills: I'm sure anyone who has played a video game RPG in the last few years is familiar with these kind of skills. Things like fishing, tailoring, brewing, and etc were very popular in EverQuest. The RPG uses them to allow players to create the items they need. Because everyone wants to waste game time with creating items instead of paying for them at ten times the cost...

Order/Disorder: Not going to lie, this is by far my favorite thing in the game. I don't know if it comes from the Swords & Sorcery system or not, but it makes Alignment so much easier to understand. Rather than 'law' and 'chaos' which are more nebulous concepts, Order and Disorder are far more easier to understand.

Delay: In a video game, swinging that Amazing Great Axe Of Asskicking as fast as you can mash the button can unbalance it. But, in a RPG, you already have a better way to balance that Amazing Great Axe Of Asskicking. Unfortunately, they included Delay in the RPG, so you'll have to deal with it effecting your Base Attack Bonus. Thankfully, they also included spells to reduce Delay.

Level Cap: Here's one of the cooler things about the game- The level cap in the Player's Handbook is 30. So, you have a long way to go before you have to worry about trying to track down an Epic Level Handbook for the game.

Its an Iskar... And Fironia...

The setting:

This is why I bought the books. The setting was what always fascinated me when my friend was playing the game religiously. In general, the setting is why I buy a game. I don't care too much about the rules, it's all about the setting for me.

In EverQuest, the world was pretty huge and included a vast amount of races, spread across five continents and a moon. Let's look at each one:

Odus:

The home of the Erudites and former home of the Vah Shir. A small continent, really just a large island. The Erudites are divided by the 'good' ones that practice normal magic, and the 'bad' ones that practice necromancy.

Antonica:

By far the most populous place, with the largest city in the world, Freeport. Antonica is home to humans, Dark Elves, Trolls, Orges, Barbarians, and Halflings. Most adventures take place in the wilds and cities of Antonica.

Faydwer:

Home to the Dwarves, Gnomes, High elves and Wood elves, Faydwer is also home to some of the biggest and nastiest villains in the world. Notably Maysong Mistmoore, who creates vampires, not-driders, and other dark creatures.

Kunark:

The only playable race from this place is the Iskar. The land of Kurank is full or ruins and reptiles. A dry desert that's dangerous to even seasoned adventurers.

Velious:

There's not playable races from here, as it was an expansion in the game that was created to provide a new place for high level adventures. Giants, dragons, and other things inhabit the frozen wastes of Velious, the land itself marked by the Queen of Dragons.

Luclin:

To the moon! In addition to the Vah Shir, there's two groups from ages past that ended up here on the moon. The Shisshar, a snake-man race that challenged the gods (and were wiped out on Norrath), and the remains of the Combine Empire, who are pretty much not-Romans that tried to form a multi-racial empire that was destroyed by the jealousy of one man. Luclin also has an axial tilt of 90 degrees, meaning one side is always day and the other is always night. Now, we all know that would most likely render both of those sides uninhabitable, but, magic, I ain't gotta explain shit.

You'd think, it being that cold and all, she would cover up a bit more. Just a bit.

Now, since the books were written when the game was hugely popular (2002 or so, before the release of World of Warcraft), the core books don't provide a huge amount of detail on the setting. Partly, this was because they assumed that you knew about the world from the game, and also because they created several other books that provided information on the major locations in the game. Places like Freeport, Luclin, Faydwer, and a few others got their own books. Luclin actually got two: setting book and it's own Monster Manual. In addition to these source books, they also released a few adventures. The problem with these adventures is that they're, again, a direct port of the video game. Different sections of the adventure are at different CR and seem to exist in a vacuum. While you could raid the various Planes in the game (Hate, Fear, Air, Underfoot, etc), those were never translated to the RPG. I'm sure they planned on it, but there was the release of WoW as well as EverQuest II. Strangely enough, the original EverQuest is still around and even releasing expansions, but I don't think people are playing in numbers anywhere near they use to be.

I told you! Cat people from the moon! And more Fironia...

So, if you're reading this and you want to maybe pick up hard copies of these books, it's not expensive at all. The Player's Handbook can be found on eBay for as low as $7. There's a seller that puts out all the core books (Player's Handbook, Game Master's Guide, and Monsters of Norrath) for $40. The various source books cost $10, on average, but aren't easy to find. In case you're wondering, I picked up the core books, then bought Freeport, in case I ever ran a game. I recently found a cheap copy of Luclin, because I was always fascinated by that place, and the Faydwer book, so I can run stuff with Castle Mistmoore. If you can't remember the details of the places that aren't covered, you're going to be out of luck trying to find it online. I've been searching around and even the EQ Wiki is seriously lacking in anything beyond the most basic information. 

"Shit! Let's get out of here before it wakes up!"