A review of EverQua?I mean
EVERQUEST THE ROLEPLAYING GAME:
PLAYER?S HANDBOOK!
By Elton Robb
Introduction
Ah, EverQuest, sometimes known by some
as EverCrack because of it?s supposed addictive qualities. I affectionately
call it EverQuack. This review is on the
EverQuest Roleplaying Game Player?s Handbook. Please note that I
don?t play EverQuest, but I picked the game up because I was frustrated that
the Monster Manual II was going to be released in October. So this review
isn?t coming from someone who is an EverQuest add?I mean player. I?m a pen
and paper Game Designer and it?s coming from my own skewed point of view.
Base
System
EverQuest the Roleplaying Game?s
Base system is, surprisingly enough, the increasingly popular D20 System?
by Wizards of the Coast. Thus it has a familiar feel to it. Interestingly
enough, the game breaks the STL. The familiar picture of the D20 red box
is not anywhere on the cover. However, there is a polyhedron of twenty sides
with a big ?20? stamped on it. I really don?t know if this passes for the
D20 logo. Other than that, the game changes the D20 System? to fit the EverQuest
Online Roleplaying Game by Sony. Fortunately, some things in this
book are declared to be open content.
However, the
most important statement on the book is on the back of the book, but it mostly
applies to Gamers. I?ll just quote it here: ?100% compatible with 3
rd Edition Fantasy role-playing rules! This mammoth volume provides
everything you need to create your own adventures in the World of Norrath
or introduce the best of EverQuest into your existing game.?
Of course,
future products are stated for release: of note is the Game Master Guide
and the Monsters of Norrath. But the average D&D gaming group
truly doesn?t need these to successfully adventure in the World of Norrath.
All you really need in a copy of this Player?s Handbook, the Dungeon
Master?s Guide, and the Monster Manual to play. Let?s take a
quick look inside the game book anyway to find out what kind of ?Fluff? and
?Crunchy Bits? are in the game.
The First Page
. . . . Is important. Not only this
gives the credits, but at the bottom of the page is the most important information
to anybody. This contains the Copyright information. Notice that it appropriately
credits Sony Computer Entertainment America, Inc. As the owner of the EverQuest
IP. I mention this because there are wierdos out there that will break Sony?s
copyright publish their own stuff on the Internet. Please don?t do this,
I don?t care what you think of Sony?s game, but don?t break their copyright.
Sony provided the IP as a service to the gamers who aren?t addicted to their
online MMPORG.
Introduction and the World of Norrath
I decided to mention this together,
since there is really little to mention. The first thing about the introduction
is that it provides the usual Introduction to Roleplaying games for players
of EverQuest who haven?t played a pencil and paper, ?WORLDS OF YOUR IMAGINATION?
roleplaying game before. It also provides most of the fluff, the World of
Norrath section gives you a brief history and the explanation of the geography
of Norrath. Note that the Maps on the inside covers aren?t that good.
And so, with a spread of the breathtaking
Original Everquest game cover, we have . . .
BOOK ONE: CREATING A CHARACTER
Chapter
One: Abilities
I don?t know if this chapter violates
the OGL, but it gives a discourse on how to generate abilities using a score
of 8 and 27 ability points that can be added to increase your infant character?s
ability scores. You pay point for point until you reach a value of 16. After
that you pay 2 points for point up to 18.
The chapter
also describes how each ability: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence,
Wisdom, and Charisma; affects your character. It also gives a basic discourse
on how you can convert your favorite EverQuest character to play as a pencil
and paper character.
Chapter
2: Races
The following races from EverQuest are
detailed:
? Barbarians, precursors of your standard human.
? The Dark Elves, elves corrupted by a deity who the
Spider Queen would have as her Prince Consort.
? Dwarves, your basic hill dwarf fare.
? Erudites, chocolate skinned, and skinny, people
descended from humans who make sorcery a day-to-day practice.
? Gnomes, your basic pain in the behind race.
? Half-Elf, people who have a human and elf parent.
? Halfling, one word: hobbits.
? High Elf, your basic elf type.
? Humans, you should know who these are.
? Iksar, the Lizard Folk of EverQuest.
? Ogres, ugly giants who rival the size of some Sauropods.
? Trolls, really ugly giants who have an evil streak.
? The Vah Shir, a race that is like the Kajiit from
the Elder Scrolls series by Bethesda Softworks.
? Finally, the Wood Elf. Which are, of course, the
most primitive of the elves.
The only real change is that Low Light
vision is considered Infravision, and only the Dark Elves get Ultravision,
which is Darkvision.
Chapter
Three: Classes
All the classes can be used in an existing
D&D game. Some of them makes Enchanters, Evokers, and Necromancers in
classic 3rd Edition D&D seem like children. Here is the breakdown
of what you get, with an iconic character and his or her description to illustrate
the class. Oh yeah, levels top out at 30.
? Bard: An
entertainer on par with the classic Bard. The only difference is that the
Bard uses song magic than traditional arcane spells. A good replacement
for the usual bard.
? The Beast Lord:
The beast lord is somewhat like the traditional Beastmaster. The beast lord
combines the Warrior class abilities with Shamanistic spell casting abilities.
? Cleric:
Your basic, devote ordained clergyman. If you are thinking of using this
class as is, it?s not like the Cleric of D&D as I think it?s pretty 1
st Edition. However, it can be improved if you import the Domains
from the Player?s Handbook.
? Druid: A
divine spellcaster of nature, based off of the Northern European animist
priest.
? Enchanter:
The first of the Arcane spell casting classes. The Enchanter combines spells
of enchantment and illusion, a combination of the Enchanter and Illusionist
specialist wizards. It?s a full class and it makes those two specialist
wizards look very small and uninteresting.
? Magician:
This arcane spell casting class is based on the Magician profession found
in the Rolemaster Fantasy Roleplaying core rule book. They specialize
in conjurations and summoning as well, but the class might as well blow the
Conjuror specialist out of the water.
? Monk: The
unarmed combat expert. Only difference is, your monk character doesn?t achieve
the physical and spiritual perfection of a D&D Monk when he or she reaches
20th level.
? Necromancer:
This is it baby! All those people who were disappointed with the Necromancer
Specialist wizard will find that this class is somewhat of a boon. The Necromancer
specializes in magic dealing with Life and Death and consorts with the Undead
at low levels. If you don?t have a copy of Necromancy: Beyond the Grave
by Mongoose Publishing, you might want to give the EverQuest Roleplaying
Game a gander before you decide if you want to buy it.
? Paladin:
The basic divine warrior of light and justice. And the one class that seems
to have a reputation of Self Righteousness among many gamers.
? Ranger:
A woodsman type, combines the fighting prowess of the Warrior with the spellcasting
abilities of a Druid. I didn?t get a good look at this class, but it looks
to be an improvement over the usual D&D ranger.
? Rogue: this
is basically like the rogue class in D&D 3E, so there is little difference
between the two. Although you do get some very special abilities.
? Shadow Knight:
The Blackguard, the anti-paladin, the death knight . . . The Shadow Knight
combines the spellcasting strength of a Necromancer with the fighting knowledge
of the Warrior class. See it as based on the Death Knight from Heroes
of Might and Magic III.
? Shaman:
A divine priest based on the Shamanistic tradition of many cultures, mainly
the Native American tribes of North America.
? Warrior:
The fighter class basically. Although not exactly like the fighter, the
warrior represents the basic fighter type using a variety of weapons.
? Wizard:
The fourth Arcane spellcasting class. This class generalizes in the schools
of Abjuration, Evocation, Divination, Conjuration, and Alteration. Actually,
the spells the wizard uses are much more damaging than a Magician?s. Personally,
I liked the D&D version of the Wizard best. What makes this class really
shine is the new spell casting system that mirrors the on line game?s spell
casting system. I think.
Chapter
Four: Skills
This chapter describes the skills used
in the game. Some of them you know already. Rather than regurgitate the
entire list of skills, I?ll give the name of the skills that are totally
new.
? Alcohol Tolerance:
this skill allows your character (not you the player) to hold his liquor.
? Channeling:
A basic skill to fuel a spell caster?s spell with Arcane or Divine power.
? Play [your favorite
type of] Instruments: four skills which allows the bard to perform
his music. There are four types of instruments on Norrath?Brass instruments,
percussion instruments, string instruments, and wind instruments. These
are exclusive to bards.
? Safe Fall:
A skill that allows you to survive a fall of great distances.
? Taunt: Geeze,
I didn?t know teasing or bullying was a science.
? Trade Skill:
Something new to add to the class of skills that include Profession and Craft.
Trade skill just means that your character knows a useful trade but isn?t
professional at doing it.
? Undead Empathy:
You love the dead so much that you either keep them at bay, or win their
alliance.
Chapter
Five: Feats
Most of the feats that are in the
Player?s Handbook are reprinted. Except all feats have been reclassified
into three types: Combat Feats, General Feats, and Mystic Feats. And there
are new feats as well.
Combat Feats
include those that relate to actions taken in combat situations. They represent
what your character can do during those situations. General Feats
are those miscellaneous feats that relate to abilities that don?t conform
to combat or magic. Mystic Feats include those feats from the
Player?s Handbook that relate to spell casting. Metamagic Feats
are the metamagic feats from the Player?s Handbook.
Chapter
Six: Description
Alignment classification has changed
here. Remember Law and Chaos? Well, in EverQuest, it?s isn?t Law
and Chaos anymore. It?s Order and Discord. The nine alignments, and their
D&D equivalents, include: Neutral, Discordant Neutral (Chaotic Neutral),
Orderly Neutral (Lawful Neutral), Neutral Good, Neutral Evil, Orderly Evil
(Lawful Evil), Discordant Evil (Chaotic Evil), Orderly Good (Lawful Good),
and Discordant Good (Chaotic Good).
The next section
deals with religion. I can?t give you the details, but the religions of Norrath
includes the worship of some sixteen gods and the religion of Agnosticism.
That?s to accommodate those who don?t believe in anything, or those that
believe in something but seems too far away. Or those that believe that
something created the world and then left it alone to its own devices.
Chapter Seven: Equipment
Nothing really new in this chapter.
But each weapon, goods, and armor is illustrated in big beautiful technicolor.
The only weapons not listed are the fantasy weapons in the Player?s Handbook.
And now, with the full color illustration
of the Ruins of Kunark, we have . . .
BOOK TWO: SONGS AND SPELLS
Chapter
Eight: Using Magic
This chapter describes the Song Magic,
Divine Magic, and Arcane Magic of EverQuest. The most important changes
from the Core Rules of D20 is that everyone uses books. Bards use song books,
clerics and divine magic users use prayer books, and the arcane magic users
use grimoires. To add new spells, the spell caster must translate the song,
the prayer, or spell into notation that he understands and then he can write
in into his book.
The other change
from the Core Rules is how magic is powered. A spell user uses a pool of
mana to power her spells, whether it is arcane powered or divinely gifted.
I can?t give all the details, but the math for figuring your spell user?s
mana is basically your ability bonus x2 multiplied by the caster level.
Otherwise, the rules for spellcasting are the same as in the Core Rules.
Chapter
Nine: Bard Songs
This Chapter describes the song magic
that Norrath?s bards use. Not only that, but the bard?s Battle Song has
been transformed into a magical song called Chant of Battle. Also some useful
songs for the usual D&D bard include: Selo?s Accelerando, which increases
the base speed of it?s targets, and the Song of Midnight, which causes fear
and augments the base speed of fleeing opponents. It?s this chapter that
makes the EverQuest bard so much better to play than the D&D bard.
Chapter
Ten: Spells
This describes the all the spells that
the traditional spell casters of Norrath uses. Each spell casting class
has it?s own list. So this means that you can augment certain schools of
traditional wizardry with them. With the Shaman and Druid Spells, you can
increase your Druid?s spell repertoire. With the Cleric spells, you can
increase the spells a traditional D&D cleric uses. And of course you
have to add the Enchanter, Magician, Necromancer, and Wizard spells to the
Arcane Spell List although you have to assign them to their proper schools.
What is more, all spells and magic songs have 15 levels. Although the high
level spells are susposed to be epic, you learn them like any other spell.
And now with the spread illustration
of the Scars of Vellious we have . . .
BOOK THREE: PLAYING THE GAME
This book only contains one chapter,
chapter Eleven: Adventuring. The chapter just includes just about every
rule governing adventuring in the Player?s Handbook, but they are described
more simply and the intelligence of the chapter is brought down a notch.
D20 Uses
So, can you use EverQuest in
a regular D&D game? Yes you can, in fact the game?s classes and races
can be dropped into anybody?s campaign world. According to the first page,
the racial stats and classes are considered Open Game Content. This means
game designers and publishers can work with them, if you tell either Sword
and Sorcery or Sony Computer Entertainment America that you would like to
use them as a courtesy.
The spells of EverQua?I mean
EverQuest however, are not Open Game Content, they are Product Identity.
Which is a total bummer, but like the back cover says you can introduce
the best of EverQuest into your existing game. And the spells and
magic songs comprise some of the best. Because it is a huge book containing
about 400 pages (the final pages are full of ads) and weighing in at about
five American Pounds, I have to give it a Substance of Meaty. As to the
full color art, however, it impressed me so I have to give it a Style rating
of Meaty as well.
?
Elton Robb
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