Since I stumbled across a blog post on the 'Bio Break' blog I have become fascinated with the idea of permadeath play in Dungeons & Dragons Online.
The idea is exactly what it sounds like: you play DDO as if it were a Roguelike - when you die you delete your toon. Before hearing about this I was not intending on playing much DDO, but since then I have become obsessed with the game, and have started a character with the intent of joining a PD guild as soon as I have a good handle on the game. (For example, The Sublime on Thelanis has my full attention.)
Alleged benefits of permadeath play are a much more measured approach to the game, more strategic play, and a mature community to work within. Gaining higher levels also takes on more meaning, and the journey becomes way more important than the end game destination.
Has anyone on these forums played DDO in this manner? Does it interest anyone else? Am I just loony?
(I don't want to overtly flog my own site, but I've gushed in more detail than I want to inflict on forum readers here.)
That actually sounds like an awesome idea. I have a question though. Do you ever recall from maps? Say you're in a dungeon and you're about to die. Do you force yourself to try and finish the dungeon, do you require that you only exit by making your way back to an exit, or do you allow yourself to recall?
Each PD guild has different rules. If you have to recall out of a dungeon for whatever reason, usually the rule is that you have to reset the dungeon. No going out for more arrows or pots or forgotten gear.
There seems to be a PD guild on each server, though I forget which one is on Khyber.
I'd be up for trying out some PD. I even started a Fighter on some other server(mostly to "farm" Turbine Points to get Drow unlocked) and may present him to a PD guild.
Actually, joining a PD guild could actually HELP you get a good handle, since odds are, you'll be rerolling far more often and having more opportunities to try different things in similar situations.
Steam: duckilama Battletag: DuckiLama#1806
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YOU'RE Karthis??
I followed you religiously till you stopped playing WoW. You had some of the best gear lists and theory posts in the community.
I'd do a permadeath static. It does help if you already know the dungeons very well before you perma-death because DDO is a sadistic DM. There are many dungeons which, if you didn't already have some prior knowledge about, you'd end up dying in from surprises you could not possibly have predicted regardless of how careful you played.
I think every PD ruleset I've seen agrees that the following are allowed:
Cleric raises from a cleric in the original party that started the dungeon, whether cast from spell or scroll.
Broker-bought gear.
Key decisions in terms of a rule set are:
Are recalls allowed or not.
Are resurrection shrines allowed, limited, or not.
Are "Rescue Parties" allowed or not - calling another permadeath player in to raise.
Is commodity magic allowed, limited, or not (store bought potions, scrolls, and wands)
Is auction House use allowed
Must all gold be looted or can you send gold from another character
Are "red-shirt" hirelings allowed ("Go pull that switch, Flower.")
I'd personally dig a very restricted loot rule set with unlimited res shrine use. With the way optional XP is now, you'd still get some levelling done even if you didn't finish the quest.
Here's a list of the PD guilds from Mortal Voyage's site: DDO permadeath guilds. the one on Khyber is named "The Core HC".
I admit that I've heard this as well, however aside from a brief stint in beta I have zero game knowledge. I'm still at the point where I'm learning what the stats are, let alone any complex group mechanics. That said, DDO outside of PD play doesn't interest me nearly as much......
The re-rolling is something I'm a little leery of; how dry do the intro zones get after doing them a few times? I've been through the starter town three times and its alright, but how does that hold out over the long run? (I have noticed that replays are more fun than games like WoW when you're grinding to level an alt.)
Well, I'd be interested in a PD static as well, so that makes three people so far here. If something gets off the ground we could either make our own ruleset (you covered all of the major rule variations I've read on the various guild sites - except heirloom items and how to loot a dead toon) or else choose to join an existing PD guild. I'd do either, really.
I'm pretty sure that most existing guilds don't use the res shrines, and instead insist on a cleric res or a scroll.
Rawr! Thanks for the kind words! I've reinvented myself as a general gaming blogger now.
PS3 - EvolvedTurnip | 3DS - 4854-6554-5149 | BNet - Karthis#1522 | Steam
I'm interested in something like this, just because it seems like a good way to get a group of people to slow the hell down and take their time with the content and approach it from a more pnp perspective. I can't stand doing the dungeons with people who rush through, especially when I've never been there before. "Uh, where is everyone? Oh ok I found you. Oh, everything's dead already. Hey, what's over here? Oh, nevermind, we're going to hop over the ceiling beams to get to a goody? OK, I didn't even know that was there...." bleah.
Not sure I like the rules some of them have about only ever doing elite difficulty and never redoing any previously completed quest - won't you run out of quests to even attempt before long (assuming you live...)?
Unfortunately, I have limited play time and during my play time I may need to go afk at any time if my young-uns get out of bed and need help with something. So I may not be a good match for a group, but could consider it if there's room and folks are laid back enough to wait on occasion.
Khoram's Workshop
I'd also be interested in doing some PD (or some variant thereof) DDO. The gentlemen who is playing permadeath Far Cry 2 has piqued my interest in playing "with consequences" and I think it would give some very interesting context to the MMO.
And I'm okay with unfairly sadistic dungeons too. Sometimes that's how life is.
Steam: scoopsy
Once I get my graphics card back, I'm game too.
Fear the flames...
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Even if you just do normal difficulty and never repeat a quest, you will find there is way more than enough content to get to level 10--which is the original end-game. After that you will need to begin repeating things (Although PD will probably die off in the sub-10 world).
That.
I only played a little bit of beta so I'm a complete DDO noob, but I'd consider getting behind a effort such as this. I can be a little flaky at times due to spousal & parenting duties.
So, If everyone would be willing to put up with a complete noob who could flake out at a moments notice then I'd like to get involved.
Island of Kesmai (the original MMORPG) was very much close to permadeath. And its an idea I've tossed about a few times in the past in terms of MMORPG's. Even EQ at best was really just the fear of possibly losing all your stuff rather than permanently "dieing" IoK basically had a 3 death rule.. once you had your 3rd death your character was so crippled in terms of stat loss that your only real option was to ancestor one of your items and start over with a new character.
Aint nothing new about the world order..it's been playing since the day they put George Washington on a quarter
Delivering Truth while the 10% deliver lies.
Well by my count, we have at least 7-8 people interested in this - should we make it official and get together a time to start playing?
I would take the mantle up myself, but I'm fairly noob at DDO. I don't know, for instance, what the maximum number of people you can have in a party at once is.
However, THIS MUST HAPPEN.
Steam: scoopsy
Six in party, although if we had 8 people it could shake down as 2 groups of 4 doing the same run.
Any number could work, we'd just have a time and place to meet then divide up groups and go hit content.
I place Wednesday or Thursday nights on the table, anytime after 8:00 central time.
Well, after a crazy end to my week I went and joined The Sublime (Thelanis server) last night and was around to watch Duckilama bite the dust. =) My PD character there is named 'Perril' (for now).
If GWJ is going to run some PD groups on another server I'd be happy to create another character wherever the consensus location is.... although neither Wednesday or Thursday are typically ideal for me. The good thing about PD play is that, at least at first, low level characters should always be able to find a place in the group so if I fall a little behind I'm not terribly worried.
PS3 - EvolvedTurnip | 3DS - 4854-6554-5149 | BNet - Karthis#1522 | Steam
The day isn't as much of a problem as the time. I have two little ones who need to be put to bed, so anytime after 9:30 mountain (10:30 central) should work for me. If we'd be looking at getting late nights, Friday/Saturday nights are preferred.
Anyone wants to do this? I tried running around several servers last night asking if anyone knows anyone that can invite me to a Permadeath guild. Can't find anyone at all.
Go for the eyes boo! Go for the eye!
@ahmadfarhan:
Check out The Sublime on Thelanis: Guild rules
If you like the rules they play by, roll up a character on the server and send a tell to someone who is online (/who, sort by guild); many members have invite privs, and they're extremely open.
PS3 - EvolvedTurnip | 3DS - 4854-6554-5149 | BNet - Karthis#1522 | Steam
I've never even played DDO but the idea of permadeath in D&D just seems right to me. I went ahead and downloaded the game but I haven't even played it yet. From everything I know there's very few places I could solo in this game and even that can only be done with certain builds. Is this still the case? If so I may be interested in hooking up with a permadeath group.
Steam ID
Well I think you can solo up to a point, and that point is much father out than it was at launch, but you will eventually need/want to group just to make it less painful and because it is much more enjoyable that way. Plus there are many quests at higher levels that I don't believe you can solo at all. But for the first several levels, you can choose Solo level for many quests, and even Normal scales based on your party size I believe. My cleric/fighter hasn't had any problems soloing any quests up through level 3, but that's a pretty small sample of the game obviously. If you're doing permadeath, then I would think you'd want to be in a PD guild and grouped up
That guild on Thelonis, Sublime, is looking good. How many GWJers are in it now?
Khoram's Workshop
The DDO manual gives you a idea of the "soloability" of a race/class so I think it's possible but as expected would make things tougher. I also checked out the permadeath guild AndrewA mentioned and they allow soloing, so it's not unheard of.
Now the bad news... I got all excited to play and went start up and first had to download a ton(metric) of updates so that delayed me a night. Then last night I get into the server screen, choose Thelanis and start... loading screen... crash. Some connection error warning message. I tried all the other servers to no avail. Then I googled it and changed some firewall settings but that didn't work either. So finally I decided to redownload the installer and try again. Long story short, 2 hours of downloading + repairing install and... crash. I might completely uninstall and try again tonight. Now I remember why I started playing console games.
I'm not sure what the problem is, I played beta fine... if I can't figure this out I may have to opt out of the fun
I had the exact same problem between playing in the beta in Aug and playing after the re-launch in Sept. I eventually uninstalled and restarted the entire download. It took awhile, but at least it worked.
Khoram's Workshop
At least there is hope then... I just hate downloading gig after gig night after night.
I made a Rogue on Khyber that I am playing Permadeath style. I've gotten her out of Korthos and into the Harbor of Stormreach. Level 2.5. I'm still in the "Easy" phase of questing, but I should be getting to the much harder parts soon.
Are you playing permadeath by yourself, or are you in a PD guild, Tkyl?
Khoram's Workshop
Right now, by myself.
intriguing...
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