A PD Tour of Xendrik

[KGWiking]

In February I started a static group called the Fab Five. This was a Permadeath group of five players - three of which had never played Permadeath style before.

The goal was simple - to experience the content of the game quest by quest in a sequential order - and to use restrictive rules regarding gear to optimize the need for the characters to develop strengths. The group would not use vendors, AH or Broker. We also were not going to "grind" the game to farm XP and to amass favor by running the same quest on N H E. We wanted to "Tour the game".

The group has changed a great deal. Only two of the five remain. One player had to leave due to real life issues, another decided that DDO in general was not for him, and one toon met their end. So the group had to reform. The one player who died rerolled and caught up with other guild members to an approximation of where his original had been. The group also welcomed guest stars - fellow guildies of about the same level who needed or wished to run the quest that was on the agenda. Some times we'd have the core of the three with no guest stars, and at other times we'd have up to six in a group.

Alas, the member whose toon had died - well the alt died also, and so another had to hastily get to where the group was and join the group. The group which started as a one night a week group has at times met four to five times in a week and now meets two nights per week on a regular basis.

At this point the two original members - and for the most part the third consistent member have run every quest in the game up through level 7 -mostly on normal but some on hard or elite excluding Taming the Flames (where we had a KIA) and The Pit - the lack of feather fall makes us ponder this quest seriously. We've managed to run these quests in a pretty much sequential order and we have ground the game to dust. Each night we basically know we'll be doing something different and this has kept the group moving. Our play style has developed into one where we communicate particularly well. We don't use spoilers and since we do evey quest -there is always a surpirse in most nights.

This method of "touring Xendrik" has gotten the two original members to Lvl 8 and we typically group with those who are close in level. We also wait sometimes to level to keep the content level appropriate. Now that we are mostly working on Lvl 8 quests - we took level eight - as we wanted the game to be a challenge - and not simply bash through the quests for meaningless XP.

This touring of Xendrik has also become something I have tried to incorporate into our guild. Certainly if you wish to run quests on every setting every single time - that is fine as it is your dime and time. However, when that is done the content of the game beyond the introductory quests are approached by characters which are three to four levels above the setting. How much of a challenge is it to run Splinterskull at Lvl 7 - the whole quest or to run Stromvold's mine - as we did last night with two 7's and three 6's - at lvl 12. There are now "three" similar tour groups running through Xendrik with three or four players as the core members and welcoming any guest stars who happen to wish to join for as ever long as they wish. The original group runs on Sunday and Monday. A second group runs on Tuesday and Thursday, and a third runs on Wednesday and Saturday. These groups are all within our guild - Valhalla Permadeath Guild - and you must be guilded to join the tour. The core of each "tour group" are in the Lvl 6 to 7 range - so we encourage fairly flexible grouping. It was pretty cool to see a Lvl 4 taking on Minotaurs and such in Gwylan's after joining our guild only the day before with the older hands.

Do we run some quests more than once, sure, if the group wants to do so, or if there is a tasty end reward possibility, but basically just enjoying all that this game has to offer is really quite fun, and I welcome any who wish to experience this with us - or who may be so inspired to do so in their own guild or with their own group of friends to make a tour.

If you wish to join one of our PD tours from the very start, you can do so. Within our guild I will promote and advertise such a venture and encourage all to join in!

A new tour group from level one is planned soon for Saturday mornings by one of our guild members.

Contact any member of Valhalla Permadeath Guild for information about our guild and about the tours. Not all partcipate as this doesn't meet their schedules or their needs, but at the very least they will point you in the right direction.

Good Luck and Good Hunting

KG Wiking

[VKhaun]

http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=193559