[draft] OOC: New Player's Guide and Walkthrough

[Howlando]

I am able to toolset now and am in the process of making quite a few changes to the module. One of the things I'm looking to do is improve the experience for new players.

The following text will be posted both in our forums and available IG as an actual item that newbies can buy, the idea is that it will make things a little easier for them.

But I'm posting it here as a draft so you guys can help me improve it. Feel free to make suggestions/discuss additions...

OOC: New Player's Guide and Walkthrough

Welcome to EFU:A! Your presence here is very important to us. We really want new players to enjoy our server as much as we do. This guide has been written with the express purpose of trying to make our challenging server easier for new players. As with any new server, EFU:A may be difficult for you to adjust to at first but we guarantee that if you stick with us you'll find out just how amazingly fun this place can be. Note: This guide only contains very basic information, there is much, much more to learn.

Please do not hesitate to ask for help from other players or DMs.

It is highly recommended to check out our website and forums at:
http://www.escapefromunderdark.com

If you need assistance from a DM and are unable to find one through using the "/dm" channel, try going to irc.darkmyst.org channel #efu - instructions for how to use IRC can be found on our website.

Roleplaying

EFU:A is a hardcore roleplaying server. This means that all players are expected to act out their character and generally behave IC ("in character"). The stories that DMs and Players tell through the RP ("role play") of their character is the best part of our server. For more information on roleplaying, see the "OOC: Roleplaying Guide" or check out our website.

Common Questions and Problems

Finding other players - Interaction between characters is an important part of EFU:A. Do not hesitate to strike up conversations with other characters you may see wandering around. Characters often congregate near the "Kingsman's Tavern" or throughout the Ziggurat, but can also often be found in places such as the Docks or different camps in the wilderness. If you find yourself getting lost and frustrated due to being unable to find other players, feel free to send a DM tell or tell to other players asking for help in finding others. Make sure you get a "Ziggurat Token" from Fredoc in the Ziggurat Mythallar Chamber; this item will allow you to hear magical "sendings" from other characters while in the city. These sendings are often used to organize quests or for plot-related purposes.

Questing and Earning XP - There are lots and lots of ways to earn XP in EFU:A, however it is generally risky and level advancement can be a struggle for new players. With a brand new character there are some solo quests and delivery quests that can be done on your own (see below for a guide), however ultimately the best way to advance is to go on scripted quests with a group of other characters. The Sewers and Wilderness (particularly at night) are extremely dangerous, and most of the monsters you will find there will easily be able to kill you.

Gold & Merchants - Gold is in relatively short supply in our setting. In order to keep the supply of gold low, most items you find can not be sold to merchants (the "Stolen" tag is just an easy way to prevent the object from being sold). Those items that can be sold can typically only be done at a low price. Most basic equipment and adventuring supplies you need can be found on quests, so it is not necessary to have lots of gold although of course it is useful.

Resting - Resting can be done once every 27 minutes and only under certain circumstances. You may rest in a tavern (if you pay the Innkeeper) or in the wilderness after having successfuly set up a campfire. Resting will only heal a portion of any hit-point damage that has been done to your character.

Disease & Poison - Acolyte Boccelus in the Ziggurat "Arrivals' Tower" is a good way for new characters to get inexpensive healing and restorative blessings that will help against the horrible diseases and poisons of Ymph.

Death - Death has serious consequences in EFU:A and is something that every player will have to deal with eventually. Although it can be frustrating, please do not give up - having a harsh death penalty only makes achievement that much more meaningful. If you have died, there is a placeable in the City of Judgment (dead pc zone) that explains more about how death works. If you died while in the company of others, feel free to send a tell to your party mates asking if it's safe to respawn and you can then directly respawn back to where you died and where your equipment/gold is. If you died on your own, you can try asking in the DM channel to ask for a DM to move the monsters away from your corpse so you can respawn back to it - but if no DM is available, you can always respawn to a safe place in the Ziggurat Mausoleum or outside the city. If you died to PvP, you can not respawn but can be raised by your friends (although players often decide to stay dead after having perished to legitimate PvP). If of course you died to PvP that was not legitimate or that was griefing, contact the DM staff as soon as possible.



Walkthrough

If you're finding the first steps of getting into EFU:A difficult, this walk-through may be useful for you.

After having set your character up in the Welcome Area, proceed through the "Start Ziggurat" portal to begin your character's story by being inexplicably and confusing teleported from your former home to the mysterious Island of Ymph.

After appearing in a flash of strange magics, don't forget to roleplay your character's likely distress and confusion. It's not unusual for other characters to congregate at the top of the Ziggurat, and you may make a new IC friend or meet a helpful guide.

The first NPC to speak with is Nduru, an eccentric mystic who makes a point to welcome all victims of the Ziggurat's powerful magic. Ask Nduru what you should do now, and he will give you a scripted quest to go speak with Clerk Jaenette.

Descend one level down the Ziggurat (feel free to use the mini-map - look for "Citizen Registration Office"), and you'll find an entrance to the Mythallar Chamber where Clerk Jaenette keeps her Citizen Registration Office. Here in this area you will find a lot of NPCs who will give out non-combat quests suitable for level 2-3 PCs. You can read the descriptions of NPCs in order to find out if they give quests, as well as learn the OOC level range and limits for the quest they give.

Speak with the NPCs in the area, and you will soon have different quests lined up in your journal. Don't forget to pick up a Ziggurat Token from Fredoc after having registered with Jaenette.

Once you've spoken with the NPCs in the Registration Chamber, you can head out to complete some of the delivery quests you've been assigned. Make sure to read the journal entries associated with the individual quests, as some useful information may be placed there to help guide you. Additionally, once a particular delivery quest is completed it is worth looking around and seeing if there are new quests to get nearby. There are dozens of non-combat, solo quests suitable for low level PCs that can be found.

Another key area to check out early in your character's career is the New Arrivals' Tower (again, don't hesitate to use your mini-map while on the Ziggurat to find out where to go). Within the New Arrivals's Tower you will find useful things for a new character, including: free resting, cheap healing/restoring, basic gear, useful information, and some more quests.

Once your character has done some deliveries and has some basic equipment, it may be time to do some combat quests. EFU:A has a handful of low-level combat quests that can be soloed. It is worth wandering the Ziggurat to find such quests as the Rat Nest, Bat Tower, Chamber of the Marching Dead, Ziggurat Aqueducts (make sure to use the bubbleberries you find to keep from drowning!), and others. Tip: If you're careful, you can head out the main gate and find some more quests outside of the city. One good option is to find the sound of the buzzing bees in the Outer Wall Forest area to the west of the main gate, there you will find an orchard where you can pluck magical fruits that may be of great use to in doing other quests.

As your character reaches level 3-4, it's likely time to start doing quests in groups. You could try making a magical sending with Fredoc in the Mythallar Chamber to see if anyone wants to help you, or make friends with other characters you see around town. Low level group quests tend to be scattered a bit further afield, but shouldn't be too difficult to find and likely other characters would be happy to help some newly arrived adventurers find some decent work.

If you find it very difficult to find other characters in your level range, it may also be worth venturing into the sewers and collecting rat meat which can in turn be traded to the goblins of the Gobsquat for various useful adventuring supplies. Note: the sewers are very dangerous at night, because that's when the dreaded Nightrisers are at their most active. Other gathering quests also exist in some of the wilderness camps, oriented towards those characters who choose to make their home away from the Ziggurat and its laws.

EFU:A is designed to be a place where most players will be able to fairly easily level their character up to level 5-6. After that point the quests tend to become more challenging and dangerous. However, by involving yourself in other characters, factions, and groups and by making friends and allies you should be able to continue to progress and hopefully tell interesting stories and have a lot of fun while doing so.

Good luck and don't give up.

[DangerousDan]

The information in here is sound, but I am uncertain whether a newbie would buy/sift through this much information. If it was a bit more concise, I imagine it'd be more helpful.

Stuff like roleplay, etc. no longer really needs any explanation. Exceptional cases can be dealt with here and now.

[Equinox]

I think maybe directing people to the factions page on the website would be a good idea.

Imo, the factions of efu:a are the best thing. Getting new players involved in them quickly will give them a steady team to quest/rp/venture with.

When i was a newbie i found it very confusing that people always seemed to stick in select groups and didnt know much about the factions. I really would think encouraging newbies to try them would be an excellent way to help them learn the server.

[Staring Death]

The step-by-step walkthrough could be incorporated in the NPCs dialogues rather than in the OOC area (save for the Nduru's part); it would be easier to follow for people short of memory, and less likely for players to skip the steps by skimming through a long block of text.

[Porkolt]

The signs that point players to low level quests helped me a lot when I first played old EFU. However, they're rather hard to spot where they are these days. I'd suggest putting them in a more conspicuous place as a kind of IC walkthrough.

[Udenbur]

The information in here is sound, but I am uncertain whether a newbie would buy/sift through this much information. If it was a bit more concise, I imagine it'd be more helpful.

Stuff like roleplay, etc. no longer really needs any explanation. Exceptional cases can be dealt with here and now.

^ Yes!

[Craig210]

Having been here for just over two weeks, I think the information above is extremely helpfull. I was lucky to portal infront of two pc's, who helped me at the very start. But not everyone will have that oppertunity.

That being said, you dont want to give new players too much iformation to read. As most will not likely read it, so removing the roleplay part will most likely make new players read the text.

As for factions, it's best to find out IG, I did so and had alot of fun in doing so.

I think EFU is a place that players come to when normal rp servers just are not what they are looking for. So a good way to increase overall player numbers is advertising. You can make the starting process as easy as you like, but in the end not everyone is looking for a hardcore experiance.

That said, some more information on PvP would be great for new arrivals, as this is the first server I have come across with perma death.

[derfo]

You should likely add some information about how there is a non-party system mechanically, and proximity in taking quests/experience gain. I did not notice anything in the guide about it and think that it's something more unique to the server to get accustomed to.

Otherwise looks extremely helpful.

[Meldread]

One suggestion that can be given is to have this appear as a weightless item on each new character.  Allow them to drop it, and put a trash barrel in the starting area for experienced players.

Then when a new character appears in the starting area, have a trigger that speaks a message, "Welcome to Escape from the Underdark!  Please check your inventory for helpful information!"

It should be generally assumed that new players to EfU would generally be aware of the interface of NWN.  

Then divide the above information into three inventory items:

"OOC:  Welcome to EfU!  (Read First!)"

That would contain all the information down to Common Questions and Problems.  Rearrange it so that the website address appears in the beginning:

"Welcome to EfU:A!  Before you begin your journey it is highly recommended that you check out our website and forums at:  http://www.escapefromunderdark.com

We really want our new players to enjoy our server as much as we do.  This guide has been... etc.  etc."

Then for the second item which should be titled:  "OOC:  Common Questions and Problems."

That will go all the way down to the Walkthrough.  

The third item would just be entitled:  "OOC:  Walkthrough".  It would include the remaining information.

By breaking it up into multiple items it increases the likelihood that new players will actually read them.

[EfU.Scroll]

Personally, I like the idea of one guide that you can buy. I also think its something that can have an OOC reference in two places. A stone that says something like "New Player Read This" with text that explains they can buy the OOC guide in two places. The into area and the Fugue plane. That way if they get frustrated because they died they know they can buy a guide when they respawn that will help them out a bit. My two cents.

[Vendayan]

The "Did you know...?" Solution.


    Problem is people don't sit down and plan to dedicate time to learning a server.  They just give it a shot and they may just stick around if they start having fun before they lose interest.  A new player could either spend 5 minutes in the starting area to level, grab some cabinet junk and play OR they could spend an hour reading through more or less boring starter material (no offense to the authors).  Personally, I'll be damned before I dedicate an hour towards a game I don't know before I actually get to play it.  This is why I don't play Japanese RPGs and why the rules to Monopoly change every time you play at my house.

    My suggestion would be to first clear up some of the stuff which is currently up there (it's getting kind of crowded now) and organize it better into categories such as "How to find players" "Questing" "Setting Information", etc. Things people want to know rather than a "READ THIS MANDATORY 212,000 WORD INSTRUCTION GUIDE ON HOW TO PLAY IN THIS SERVER."  I would implement these as several objects which have conversations in order to relay their information.  That should encourage players to read them when they know what they will be reading and why it is actually important to sift through it all.

    Some players will still be too lazy to read through the information though and will instead make fools of themselves trying to wing it.  So we should at least actively use that 5-10 minutes that we have them there for.  This brings me to the "Did you know...?" solution.  Every 30 seconds or so, one of the new categorized help guides should spit out a helpful message which pertains to their content.  The messages that they give should be some of the most important bits and should also be worded in a way that might attract a character to talk to them to know more.  So even if they are the dive right in sort, they will at least be fed some of the basics.

[The Beggar]

After the changes:


Great new first area, very nicely laid out, and very easy to navigate the information (which is very cleanly and clearly displayed).

Kudos. I think that goes a long way for a first player entering our world. The two hit information (talk to NPC, who refers you to the website multiple times, and to the information area) sites is well set up, as is the monolith especially for the forums.

[Drakill Tannan]

I suggest that there is an OOC guide to character building too. After all, EFU is very diferent from any other setting, and you need to adjust your tactics- a magic missile throwing sorcerer won't work out well on this server, will it? Besides, perks and items change the strenght of builds, plus the types of enemies you will find, and the spell changes. Additionally, one must tell the PCs what is valid and what is not, monk/druid for instance aren't allowed here last i checked, unless with an app, we don't want DMs forwning over barb/ftrs whose players thouhg it was "ok" because they are new to D&D in general and don't know why it makes so little sence, etc.

For example, remember my rants about how useless druids where?, i actually just had to learn how to use them eficiently. Now they are the most versatile class in my book.

Would i had learned that before, it would have been cool.

[Thomas_Not_very_wise]

It's pretty amazing the number of new players who don't even bother reading the starter information. Every single new player I helped around has not.

Frankly, I would love to see a-

EXAMINE ALL BOOKS icon, and ask the player before entering the server,

"HAVE YOU READ THE INFORMATION IN THE BOOKS?! THIS IS MUCHO IMPORTANTE."