I'm 100% Newb, so take this with a grain of salt if you like, but I think there needs to be a more regular schedule for the Preludes.

I sent Thrawn a PM with some comments, but I'll share them here as well.

It seems the Preludes are spread out. I got interested in this very intriguing PW from the info on the Bioware Wednesday Update. I'm sure many other recent new players were the same.

The concept of a Prelude is a great one. I just missed the siege one because I hadn't yet figure out how to do things yet, so I resigned myself to wait for the next one. I have no idea when that will be, so to be honest I'm getting a bit antsy.

I understand you can only put so much time into those, and there are only so many ideas. So perhaps there can be 1-3 fairly generic Preludes that are run once a week or whatever. That would free up the designers to create and run a new or special Prelude at their leisure.

In a town like Sanctuary, there has to be a few ways that people get there that are fairly common. An underground railroad for slaves, or some Wacky Benefactor that buys slaves and sets them loose because it amuses him, or whatever.

FWIW - I'm sure working on running this world is pretty tough and you can't please anyone or make it perfect. But if you're looking for some input from a Newb, and I bet it's been a LONG time since some of you started online RPGs, it's probably hard to remember what it's like.

Oh yeah, starting over after you spent 15 minutes typing your Bio during character creation kind of sucks. I don't really want to start over, but when all my stuff is deep in a mine that I was lead into by another more experienced player (who also died) it's pretty hard to get in there and get my junk back. I was saving up for a 2 handed sword and now I'm starting over with nothing and can't even do the pie quest.

Completely writing my bio again with a new character, or keeping the one that died with no supplies or money is not a pleasant option. Newbs are going to die sometimes and I think they should get their stuff and money back, at least until they gain a level or two.

Or perhaps I should just be more cautious you say? Touche...but there don't seem to be 1-2 levels of easy quests for new players and finding other newbs that haven't done that quest isn't easy either.

Great World. Don't mean to bitch, but just pointing out that it's pretty tough for a newb to get by without bothering a Vet.

How about a Rally Point for Newbs looking to team up for quests? Don't know if Town Hall or Rock Bottom Inn are supposed to be that, but there don't seem to be many Newbs in there the little bit of time I played last night.

Thanks for any feedback and for your consideration of these thoughts.

Places where people gather are mostly the Town Hall, Rock Bottom Inn or Pissing Crone Inn. Alternatively, you can always make sendings to get people together for a job.

As on preludes, players can take the initiative as well. DM's seem eager to help, and one can always find time to run an idea a player gave them.

Remember, DM's aren't baby-sitters (for most of us), player initiative is highly valued.

Thanks Coldburn. Good ideas.

I'll just keep checking Town Hall, Rock Bottom and the crone I guess.

Spending 30 gp on sending to get people together for a quest that pays 50-100 gold seems kind of silly.

I don't mind taking the initiative as I wondered around Sanctuary for about 5 hours here on my PC and my character accomplished about nothing then was killed by a mole in a mine. I'm not asking a DM to baby-sit me either.

Just throwing out some thoughts from a Newb. I don't mind taking some initiative myself, but I also don't want to waste hours and hours every time I play learning the hard way.

Now if learning the hard way is part of the experience, fine - I can roll with that.

I would like to say that nearly every Vet PC I asked for help was most gracious and that I really appreciated it. Venom, uh....M'lassisslrla (LOL) or something like that, and even Tusk - who lead me to my doom - were great.

Much appreciated!

As far as preludes go, I have yet to be in one (I would assume due to my sudden and often PC changes up to this point) but I can say that I have not found any of my PCs to be lacking without having an in-game prelude to send them into Sanctuary. In fact, I find the flexibility given by completly making up my PCs background somewhat liberating. As for finding other players to quest with, the ever-growing population of this server (coupled with its low levels across the board) is really helpful for getting a nice quest party together. Normally it seems the Rock Bottom has at least one patron 24/7 these days. If you log on during 'off hours' it might be harder to locate people, but the trick is just to stay in town and speak to every PC you can.

If you see Twitch, be sure to say hi- he's a helpful kind of fellow. Welcome to EfU.

Welcome to the server, your comments are appreciated.

Regarding preludes, you (or anyone who's new) are more than welcome to say "I'd like to do a prelude at such and such a time" and we will try to run one for you. Often times we run preludes spontaneously, so don't bother to even include it in the prelude forum. They don't take long to do, the biggest factor is doing them is scheduling issues.

Going out alone in the Underdark can be quite dangerous, and that is probably the biggest cause of newbie deaths that I've observed. The fact of the matter is, there's no way to make the Underdark easily survivable for the level 2 character that runs out the gate and starts looking for spawns to kill.

However, if you find yourself in a situation where you've died out alone, you can check with a polite DM tell inquiring whether someone would be available to move the monsters so you can respawn. Since the DM team loves newbies, if someone is around we will usually help.

Additionally, you can respawn to town and work to purchase a potion of invisibility, or alternatively get help from another character (or group of characters). PCs wearing faction equipment specifically are OOC-asked to extend themselves to new players and work to involve them.

At any rate, I hope you won't give up on our server. There's plenty of fun to be had with some persistence.

How about re-running the Lost Dwarves prelude or the Siege prelude in the next few days?

Would like to RP a dwarven cleric build, and would love for them to get jump-started in a daring adventure.

There seems to be some good interest in dwarf characters...so I'd bet you get a good response....

I'm going to try to make time to run a prelude next weekend that didn't happen last weekend.

As far as the seige or the dwarf prelude. If can let us know a time, and get a few players together, we'll see what we can do. Most preludes that aren't on the prelude board were either arranged by players (and then we just tried to get a DM there at the arranged time), or were preludes made up on the spot, just because a DM happened to see several people in the start area at the same time.

Say you are running a specific prelude at a certain time, where is the "start area"?

Is it in the game? Say, near a specific location you have to be in town to get the quest? Do you create a character in Sanctuary, then go to the Prelude?

Or do you create the character at the beginning of the Prelude, then they end up at Sanctuary?

Thanks...

When we are running a prelude, everyone makes their characters, then waits in the welcome area to be teleported by a DM.

The start area will vary based on the prelude. Some preludes start in a surface village, some start in a jail, some start somewhere else. It all depends.

Is the welcome area that place you start out with all the "read-me" headstones and the two portals that go to Sanctuary or the Underdark?

Just clarifying....

That's the place. The idea is that people shouldn't go to sanctuary or the underdark to start. Both of these areas are to use instead of a prelude.

I made a character for a prelude, then logged off , played with my normal character then came back on.

When I did the prelude character was in sanctuary, even though I'd never entered a portal. Might be nice to have some sort of setting to specify if you're character has actually BEEN into sanctuary via the start portal (or by walking there etc from the d.m prelude itself)