Your Character's First Hours

[Dynnage]

Alright, you've written up a detailed background and sent it in with your application, and a few hours later, you're in. You load up your character, step past the ancient starting hall, and whisk away to your starting city.

My question is, what do you do next? I'm not lost or confused, I'm just interested in seeing what other people do with their character during it's first day or two.

I, personally, go search for a waterskin, and buy some bread cakes from an NPC before I do anything else. Then, I usually find some shadier supplies when I'm playing a thief, or else I'd go buy some hunting armor for my ranger. Once I'm all set supply-wise, I idle around until nightfall, and make my first burglary, or maybe go out into the sands in search of prey on my ranger.

[Pale Horse]

First few hours of my characters' lives are:

In general:  Get food, water, and/or a change of clothing fitting the role they are in.

Warriors: Find some cheap weaponry and save up for the Byn.

Rangers: Get me a mount (if I'm not an elf) and (sometimes) a quiver, arrows and a bow.  I generally only do this with northern based characters.  For the southern ones, I get myself a sling.

Thieves/burglars: It's been so long since I last played a sneaky-type that I don't really recall what I did with them...

Merchants: Get some better duds and hang out in a bar to start socializing and making contacts.

Magicker: Save for the price of a gem if I'm in Allanak.  If I'm going ungemmed, I try blending in.

[Marauder Moe]

Straight to the market, ditch the newbie clothes.

Go to the local watering hole, read the boards.

Chat up people, start making friends and contacts.

[Is Friday]

The most important thing for me to do is to change the clothes. I often spend hours deciding.

[Bogre]

Ditch the clothes, weapons/cloak/armor.

Then off to the taverns to check the boards/look for work/start my nefarious plans.

[Zhaira]

I spend a while in the hall of kings.  Even though, by now, I'm sure I know every skill and spell by heart, I still go over my description, my skill list (several times), and read over the help files for everything I have.  I spend about 20, 30 minutes just standing there, thinking about the skin I'm in.

Then I point to Allanak (for example), change my objective to: "OOC: New character setup" and go into the Bazaar or wherever to ditch my newbie gear.  Then I head out to a tavern to read the boards and socialize, since I find that, no matter how much background I have, I don't really feel like I'm -in- my character until I start interacting with other people.  The questions people ask my characters and the things they make them think about are what -really- flesh my characters out into three dimensions, rather than just two dimensional concepts.

Then.. well.  I just go wherever adventure takes me.

[Angela Christine]

The most important thing for me to do is to change the clothes. I often spend hours deciding.

That's nothing.     I often feel the need to travel to another nearby town (or two) to check out everything available before I make my final clothing choices.  Once I was actually killed by gortoks because I couldn't find everything I wanted in my hometown (Tuluk shopping sucked during the occupation).  Clothes make the man.


First I go to the bank, and deposit 300-500 coins (300 if I'll need to buy a mount, otherwise 500).  That keeps me from accidentally over-spending while shopping.  I usually spend 2-4 hours shopping, I love shopping.  Even if I'm playing a 'rinther, I scour the shops trying to find the prefect picture of dilapidated poverty (which can be oddly expensive).

[flurry]

Buying clothes is a big one, for sure.  I don't bother trying to get the whole outfit down immediately.  That evolves over time.  But I couldn't stand walking around without making some change from the newbie getup.

Getting into the personality and speech patterns is usually the hard part of starting a character, I find.

[brytta.leofa]

I add a couple items to the newbie gear...belt, cloak, hat? But I don't mind running around in what is, presumably, typical commoner garb.

Buy the equipment needed for First Stage Existence.  You know, First Stage, where, whatever you do, every coin you make seems to be spent on food and water to just keep you alive.  For a grebbin' southie, this probably means one or two waterskins + water, a mount, a weapon, and whatever armor you can afford on top.  For a Bynner, I would probably deck out armor before worrying about a mount...and feel plenty sad about it.

More interesting purchases wait for Second Stage Existence: where you suddenly notice that you've got five small accumulated in your belt pouch, and you know that mining nonstop for the last twenty IC days was worth it.

Getting into the personality and speech patterns is usually the hard part of starting a character, I find.

[Coat of Arms]

I spend the first hour or so shopping, setting up a suitable set of equipment for my character. I also do a quick brainstorm for last-minute details that I might have missed in the background and consider adding them as bigraphy entries. If the character has a skill I've never used before, I might test it once or twice so that I know the syntax and mechanics. During this time I'm only acting in-character if I stumble upon other PCs and can't avoid interaction. I try to keep to myself until I'm out of my newbie clothes and have a basic feel for my character, which rarely takes more than 1-2 hours.

[Hot_Dancer]

I usually have the first in game year of my character's life planned out before they get into game. What their daily habits will be, what clans they'll join. Set up is often fairly minimal. Basic arms, cheap. Go and get some interaction..

[Lizzie]

I haven't had much opportunity to actually do much with the "first hours/days" of characters in this game yet. But I have given it some thought and here's what I would do, if/when the occasion comes up:

If my character is intended to be the outdoorsy type:
I'd get decent headgear and chest armor, then a mount, a cheap-but-useable weapon, a filled waterskin, and spend the first few days exploring the environment closest to "home base."

If my character is intended to be the type who wouldn't normally leave the city gates:

The same as above, minus the mount, and I'd add a nice pair of pants or skirt, and bank the rest.

If my character is intended to be combat based, but would remain in cities as a guard/militia type: Substitute the nice pair of pants or skirt for a better quality weapon, and add a decent neckpiece or sleeves.

No matter where I'm based I'd check out the environment; whether the desert, or the city itself, the bars/gossip board, etc.

[spawnloser]

First hour:

Buy appropriate gear and/or mount.
Find appropriate means of income.

Go.

[Eukelade]

I concur with Angela Christine - the clothes make the man!

Seeing what kind of clothes are in the shop helps me determine my character's personality - at least if I don't have a pretty good idea of what it is already.

Dressing up npcs is one of my favorite things about being on staff.  Besides playing with you all, of course.

[Ourla]

I'm all about testing my skills after my characters stop looking like nOObs.  Take my cheap stone knife, find a puny critter, and see how long it takes me to get beat up.  Try to get a peek in someone's cloak and sneer at them for looking atcha dirty.  Burn a batch of travel cakes.  I guess it comes down to the lingering, albeit unrealistic, hope that a magical combination of a certain stat and a certain skill will mean instant success and riches.

A girl can hope.  And play lots of pickpockets.

[Angela Christine]

I add a couple items to the newbie gear...belt, cloak, hat? But I don't mind running around in what is, presumably, typical commoner garb.

But it has to be the right cloak, the right hat.  Getting the best fit means looking at every single cloak that is for sale in your starting city, which can take a while.    It usually isn't possible to complete your outfit the way you'd like out of newbie coin, but getting the right cloak is important, because it is the most visible piece of clothing you own.  (Unless you plant to immediately join a clan that gives you a uniform cloak, in which case spending coin on a cloak that is going to sit in a footlocker until someone steals it is silly).

[Dresan]

I usually put some effort in my characters gear and clothing aswell. Not always in the beginning but definately in the second round when i have the coins to spend either armour or clothing though never silks thats for nobles. I sometimes find it sad that the cloak hides the shirt, while i understand why ( they are large overcoats almost), it would be nice if you could open up your cloak more, it is must be hot completely wrapped up indoors after all. That way you can show off the stylish Tuluki shirt that are a perfect match for the stylish Nakkie pants you bought.

Unfortunately going around without a cloak is completely out of style especially in the desert where the sands will rip someone to shreds without decent protection...oh well.

[Shiroi Tsuki]

I sometimes find it sad that the cloak hides the shirt....

I actually own a nice fall/winter cloak, and when you have it tied a certain way and throw the wings over your shoulders it doesn't hide your shirt at all, but just spills down your back.  I would like to see cloaks able to be 'opened' and 'closed' in this fashion, but I've never felt like posting about it as an actual idea, and I'm sure it's probably already around somewhere.

As for what I do in my first hours, it's pretty much the same as everyone else.  Bank my noobie coins, find myself some appropriate gear, and then start hanging out looking for interaction.