EFX next steps

If I wasn't literally in the middle of relocating (seriously; the movers are here packing as we speak) I would have liked to draw out a sketchy first draft map for the EFX setting based on the schematic I posted a couple of days ago. But I don't have free time, nor do I have much in the way of gear. My sketch pad is packed, my drawing pencils and pens are packed. I'll probably do a draft on some scrap printer paper or in a notebook or journal with some of the few pencils that I do have handy, or even with the cheap ballpoint pens that will be in my long-term hotel room where I'll be the next two weeks before moving into a house. My ability to make any progress is going to be quite limited for the better part of a month. Heck, even my computer is going to be packed away shortly; either today or tomorrow, and I won't have access to it for at least two to three weeks. And making blog posts from my phone? I'm not likely to try much there.

What needs to be done immediately?

First, I need to sort out my races. This will be more D&D-like than DFX; it will be less heavily leaning into humans (although they're still common) and will include elves and dwarves, especially in Reynhowe, Valade and Rodach. These races will be more human-like than they are in Tolkien or even D&D, however. No more ridiculously long lives or weird, ethereal attitudes. The elementals of the Conflux as well as the genies of Tower and the efreet of Inferno (and that one nymph from Cove) will all be reflected in EFX as something very similar to genasi from D&D, and they'll be a little bit more exotic, perhaps. HoMM3 has always had elves, dwarves, orcs (well, ogres, but that's splitting hairs) , and goblins from a D&D-like baseline. I can easily do all of those. There are also "elemental people" of various kinds. I'll have genies (air), ifrit (fire), tritons (water) and chthons (earth). They will be "people-like" rather than very monstrous or inhuman. Finally, HoMM3 also had a number of other races that are very faction specific: vampires and liches, demons (but more like D&D tie flings), minotaurs, troglodytes, gnolls and lizardmen. I'll do the first three and drop the rest.

It's interesting to me that in spite of the much higher fantasy vibe of EFX vs. DFX that the race selection is still eerily similar. The more things change, the more they stay the same, I guess.

Second, I think I'm going to do the same evaluation of the classes and magic to attempt to keep the system as similar to DFX as I can. I'm going to eliminate the sanity stuff so that I can make sure magic is a less punitive and more prevalent. I think, although it's a bit more boring, that I'll reduce the penalty for a failed spellcasting roll to 1d6 damage, or something along those lines (maybe 1d4 + spell level is at least a little more interesting.) This will make the system feel the same, yet significantly less dangerous, thus encouraging and explaining a prevalence of magic that DFX will not have.

Third, the spells and magic items probably need a complete overhaul. I'll most likely start with the Microlite74 Standard Edition for both and review and prune their selection. The monster list needs a lighter review; probably just a removal of much of the Lovecraftian monsters and maybe adding some D&D monsters that are similar to HoMM3 monsters.

Wren I'm set up, have my computer back and some free time, I'll create an EFX rules document by modifying the DFX document, and get to work on a draft EFX map.