Coordinating a Fellowship
	Whether you seek powerful magical items, greater experience, a glimpse of strange wonders in perilous places, or some combination of each, you can achieve your goal more easily within a group. However, just as a well-organized group exploits the strengths of its members and bolsters their weaknesses, a chaotic, hastily assembled one tends to get fragmented, engage monsters it is not prepared to fight, waste enchantment spells and healing kits on characters that cannot benefit from them, and generally squander time and energy. Here are some guidelines to help you create an efficient adventuring group. Advantages of a Fellowship Whether you're joining old allies or gathering an ad hoc party from passersby in a dungeon, you'll want to create a fellowship to unify your band. Not only is earned experience automatically divided among all fellowship members but also they can more easily communicate with each other and check each other's vital statistics. There is absolutely no reason not to form a fellowship, because you can create, join, or leave one anytime without cost. Creating a Fellowship The character who creates the fellowship is its leader and can recruit additional members (up to a total of nine, including him or herself), or dismiss current ones as he or she sees fit. Consult with your group to decide who'll lead the fellowship. Your choice may be dictated by the spread of levels among your party, because a leader can only recruit members who are within five levels of him or her, up or down. Therefore, if your party included a first-, sixth-, and 11th-level character, you'd need to appoint the sixth-level character leader to include all three members in your fellowship. When the leader exits the game, the fellowship is automatically disbanded. To create a fellowship, click the Social Systems button (the triangle with the head outlines on it), and then the Fellowship tab. Enter a name for your fellowship, and click the Create Fellowship button. You can name your fellowship anything you like, but most fellowships name themselves after their primary objective: for example, "Kill the Olthoi Queen" or "Direlands Exploration Party." This advertises your mission to all prospective members, and helps current ones keep it in mind. Once you've created a fellowship, the Fellowship tab will display a Members box, below which are the buttons Recruit, Dismiss, and Disband. Select a character in your compass, and click Recruit to add him or her to your party. If you get a message telling you that the person is not accepting fellowship requests, inform him or her to click the "Accept Fellowship Requests" check box on the Fellowship tab. You can also access this option on the Character settings, which you can get to by clicking the Options button (the one with the check marks on it), then the Character tab. However, you'll probably find the Fellowship tab more convenient, because any member can access a list of party members there, and can click any name in the list to view that character's sex, race, class, and player-killer status, in addition to Health, Stamina, and Mana. Each of the primary attributes is listed with its current value, a slash, and the normal value. Follow the Leader You'll notice that your fellowship members appear as green dots on your compass, which makes them easy to keep track of at close range. Appoint one person to guide the others. For simplicity sake, it's often easiest to have the fellowship leader be the one out in front. When you're entering unknown territory, especially in dangerous dungeons, the leader may want to appoint the best runner in the group as a scout, and dispatch that person from time to time to explore ahead and report back. The scout should, of course, be careful not to draw monsters down on the party. If any member of your fellowship gets killed or otherwise separated from the group, click the "Talk to Fellows" option on the Chat menu (located in the lower left corner of the screen). This will send your chat messages to all fellowship members no matter how far apart they are. The leader can then decide how to reunite the group. Note that you can also address your fellowship by typing "@f" and then a comma before a message, like so: @f, Wait, comrades! Prepare for Battle After a scout has reported back on the local monster situation, decide whether your party should proceed. You might try this rough formula for determining the minimum number of characters you'll need to defeat a given monster: # of characters = Level of monster/Average level of characters (+2 if a monster's level exceeds the characters' average level) So if you're traveling with a group of fifth-level characters, you might have characters attack 10th-level monsters four on one, fifth-level monsters three on one, fourth-level monsters one on one, and second-level monsters one on two. However, regardless of the number of people in your party, it's probably best to avoid any monster that is over twice the level of your average character. Once you've agreed to fight the monsters, make sure everyone is at full Health and Stamina and designate healers who'll stay out of combat and support party members. Then create a game plan. If the monsters are not too tightly grouped or if they're located on the other side of a choke point, like a narrow entrance into a room, you might have the scout run ahead and try to draw them to the party one by one. One Zone Staff group, for instance, used this "lure" tactic to defeat a whole roomful of lugians that would have crushed them in a direct assault. If you've decided to join a fight with a group of monsters that's too large and powerful to gang up on properly, don't split your attacks among different monsters. Have everyone concentrate on killing one monster together at a time, starting with magic-using monsters and then working your way through highest- to lowest-level ones. Each character should watch his or her Health and Stamina carefully (check the red and yellow status bars at the top of the View Window). Healers should keep their Fellowship tab open and constantly click through the members list to see who needs help. Melee combatants should use the E key or magnifying-glass icon to examine the creature they're fighting, comparing its stats to theirs to determine whether to flee or not. For instance, a character fighting a lich might disengage if he or she realizes that its Health isn't going down or its Mana has recharged to the point that it can cast another powerful spell. Characters should constantly use the chat to report major wounds, both to alert healers and keep the group aware that they might have to run. Characters who run should try to heal themselves and get back into the fight as soon as possible. A couple of adventurers can often defeat a superior monster by taking turns cycling out of combat, getting healed, and then going back in. Of course, monsters will tend to follow the last character they attacked until he or she is out of range, so you'll need plenty of room to run if you want to try this tactic. Division of Experience Points Experience points earned by a fellowship are divided automatically according to the levels of the party members, but not along a simple ratio among levels. Instead, experience is divided according to the base experience points each character needed to attain his or her present level. For instance, the split for a 4/5/6 fellowship would not be 4/5/6 but would in fact be 5697/10247/17031. This ensures that fellowship members will all approach their next level at roughly the same rate. The experience you earn from a given fellowship member will decrease if you're separated from him or her by more than three kilometers. If you're in a fellowship and get teleported away from it across the continent, you will neither give your fellowship much experience nor receive much from it until you close the distance. However, monsters you kill yourself will give you the same fraction of experience no matter how far you are from your fellowship. Sharing the Spoils The leader should distribute all immediately useful items to the players who can benefit from them most. If a character upgrades his or her equipment from fellowship loot, he or she should turn over old equipment to anyone who can benefit from it. A good leader will keep an eye on this. No one should be hauling around armor or weapons that are superior to those in use. Any loot that can't be used by the fellowship should be converted to pyreals at the end of the adventure and divided evenly among members. The Human Factor Every group has its unique dynamics. Make allowances for the personalities and preferences of your fellow party members and adjust your interactions accordingly. Working effectively as a group to achieve some big goal requires much more organization, strategy, and planning than solo adventuring. It can therefore be a lot more satisfying and meaningful. Good luck on your travels, and may all your fellowships be prosperous!