First Cool Experience In Arm

[Is Friday]

Hrm... I was wondering if everybody had something like this. Basically, a "selling point". First, I tried it out and generally liked it, but then something awesome happened. In my case it wasn't even really special, looking back, but it was greatly atmospheric.

I was wandering around allanak with my first character and came across a cloaked individual. My character asked why he was hurt, and he mentioned he was just in a knife fight. He slinked away shortly after.

[Coat of Arms]

My first tavern brawl. It must have been my third character (my first 2 were incredibly short-lived rangers) and I happened to be a warrior who ended up duking it out with some untrained non-warrior, so I beat the crap out of this guy just because of the guild difference. I felt so badass. Even though I did neglect to emote most of it, it was still pretty cool.

[Dakkon Black]

I think my moment was with my first enjoyable char who so unimportant I can say Dalin. She was my attempt at a burglar and was noticed by some maybe bad people. At any rate, she ends up in the wrong end of town with these folk and is considering the fact that she might have to fight this woman to get out alive when a throwing knife comes flying in from the east along with some generic profanity and death threat. This badass woman bats it out of the air casually looking barely annoyed and goes back to figuring out what to do with Dalin. It was the first time I really felt on the edge of maybe loosing something great and I almost crapped my pants through most of the action.

[Is Friday]

I just had a  :idea:!

This thread might/might not be useful to staff members for brainstorming ideas in what is inspirational to newbies. I assume it's hard to gauge that sort of thing, as it's mostly just feedback, so anything related to "being neat for new players" should be discussed here.

Did that make sense?   :?

[Ktavialt]

I played on and off six years, with a consistent set of three-day old characters each dying horribly (including gith PC at some times - thanks uhh, Haldol was it?).  Anyways, my first real character that learned how to really enjoy the game was a Whiran, and one of Dakkon Black's Kuraci PCs just RP'd a certain situation so well that it inspired me to RP better myself.  It was a very simple drunk Kuraci meets a magicker situation, but it was good.

Other than that, I always see characters that are awesomely played, some real sick and twisted characters like a particular elven defiler in the past, mostly other magickers cause thats what I played (been rolling w/ the mundanes lately).  Don't be hatin' magickers (oocly) just because we're on a pro-mundane roll though .

Most every time when the immortals animate NPCs, I am impressed.  They got flava.

[acekj]

I read about Armageddon some time last year, and joined... think it was last year with one very short lived ranger. Gave up quickly on that and rejoined just about 4 days ago, with a mindset to really try to immerse myself in the atmosphere and game. Got recruited by someone after talking with her and a few others, but the kicker has to be today- Srsly in awe after hearing her story and meeting a Tuluki in 'Nak. I was like o_O I'm a recruit, I can't do anything to him. Panic panic panic, but so fun cos I didn't know what to do even though I was in the Militia. Nothing much happened, but today had to be one of the best moments of my 4 day arma career. XD

[Reiloth]

Reminder to not use IC names or events on this thread that are like..a day old.

my selling point was definitely my merchant (4th character, 1st in Tuluk) spitting on a certain Winrothol noble's shoes and getting assassinated for it!

that was awesome.

[Bogre]

Rinth intrigue.

[Wolfsong]

Hrm... I had a PC who'd deserted the Byn, once, and went to make its fortune out in the dunes-- came across a magicker, once, who randomly pulled food outta the sky and gave my PC a cute little obsidian ear cuff, then flew away. Being naturally paranoid, I left the food and took the jewelry and started back to the city on foot.

Somehow ended up with no stamina, dying of thirst, and had no idea what the syntax was for water at the temple. So I ended up outside the Trader's Inn with 2 HP left, exhausted and unable to move, too embarassed at how stupid this whole situation was to actually shout at the passerbys. Then my PC got a last burst of stamina, moved east, bought a cup of water and lived.

...And if that didn't do it, it must've been a contract under Scratch (I believe) where we had to go catch... a jozhal? But the jozhal was a vNPC-- or so I thought, so I just emoted tackling it and grabbing it. I had a kank named Bob, and when he died, a second kank named Bobtu...

[Nile]

One of my very first characters was playing in the 'rinth. I had no clue what was going on, but instantly liked the game when some guy...Toes I think it was...Anyway, when he told me the best whores are the ones with no teeth and how its best to just beat the fuck out of them and knock them out, then took me around the 'rinth and hassled some elf PC. Resulting in a fight, and me stabbing a random hooded figure.

I had an awesome time.

[bardess]

My first char met a couple of bards (in Tuluk) outside of the main bar.  I got sucked up in the bardy stuff and have been in love ever since.  I think I can mention Holten Irofel?  He's a few years old now.

P.S. -- the username came first.

[Twisted Minstrel]

My selling point came with my twenty-third character.... I don't remember all the details, but I do remember it having something to do with beating another character's ass into the ground (he was armed, my character wasn't) and then throwing his unconscious body down the well in 'Rinth.  

[mansa]

http://www.zalanthas.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=296398#296398

[brytta.leofa]

Watching a 'nakki militia officer lie horribly about my second character...a seedy 'rinthi trying (ineptly) to make good southside.  To Lord Templar Malenthis Jal, I do believe.

It ain't wrong if you do it to a 'rinth-rat--there's thousands more where that one come from.

[Ocotillo]

Getting killed in the desert by a tarantula when my would-be warrior wandered out of 'nak.

[Maybe42or54]

I was subdued in a various prison by a huge half giant. I was given the death sentence and the templar drew his sword, and I parried it. He attacked again, missed, I fled and broke the half giants grip, and then the templar hit me for 67 hp twice. I died.

[Dan]

Spending all of my newbie coins on a bow and like two quivers of arrows before going to hunt 'in the woods'.

Finding out I was too weak to shoot the bow.

What is a Gortok?

How do you run away again?

Mantis.

[Simple]

First character, finding out that things in the 'rinth are not what they seem.
Got pretty scary.

[Rairen]

I played for four IRL days, one summer, to kill time.  Didn't touch the mud for two years afterwards.  Came back, killed off that character, rolled a new one, who sat around the Sanctuary being terrified all the time while I took the opportunity to hone listen and learn my way around.

The 'hook' came a few days later when one of the Faithful asked her to take a walk with them.  They explained - ever so mildly - why it was that she should stop being afraid of one of the Sun King's loyal and stalwart servants.  Soon.  :wink:

[Ourla]

What hooked me as a nOOb was my first jaw-clenching, sweat-popping, adrenalin-pumping brush with death.  I was playing a Tuluki Kadian huntress who thought she was a badass.  She rode her House kank across the grasslands, right into a bahamet.  It knocked her off her kank and she fled like a madwoman straight into the thornbushes.  After fleeing, I forgot to walk again.  So the 'met's behind me, with imm-created echoes of howling in anger and crashing branches, and I left my po' kank and ran and all the way back to Tuluk.

Thanks again, imm (you know who you are) for not giving me a negative account note, and realizing I was just a baffled young nOOb.

[Hot_Dancer]

Drinking black kore excessively with my young Blackwing with an elder pc, and later puking his guts out outside (I think) some old wagon. (This was about 6-7 years ago)

Kurano really helped hook me in Arm..

[Gimfalisette]

My bard girl knocked herself out with the Way while trying to ask a Lirathan templar something (I was being nosy). The templar came to find her, then took her to tea on the roof of the Ghatti. The fairly long conversation ended with the statement, "We'll be watching you." Total chills, and I was hooked.

[Jherlen]

Riding down from Tuluk to Red Storm with a few hunters and our merchant boss, getting jumped by raptors and nearly dying.

Then going into the Labyrinth, in full Salarr gear, with another hunter the next day so she could buy poisons. Getting jumped and watching her die as my PC made it out with about 30 HP left.

The first near-brush with death and the first experience of losing a PC I knew really got me hooked.

[bardbard#4]

Riding into the wilderness with Merana (sp?) and Kholdarian to find this crazy bone helmet thing.

Awesome.

[Sokotra]

My selling point came with my twenty-third character.... I don't remember all the details, but I do remember it having something to do with beating another character's ass into the ground (he was armed, my character wasn't) and then throwing his unconscious body down the well in 'Rinth.  

Lol.. I've done that before... I think I had someone helping me one time, also.  And another time I think someone did it to me, but I survived.. and they came down after me and I ended up killing them... funny stuff.

One of the first things that really got me about the game, though, was playing PC Mantis back in the day... hunting inix and warring with Gith and Elves that were nearby.  I played one mantis after another for a long time... and then started playing other races in the 'rinth some, near a certain tavern a lot.  The ol' Mantis Head will forever hold a deeper meaning for me...

[Kradock]

Besides my stint as a gith PC, I think the thing that really hooked me was an event a few years back going after a Roc egg. The small group of us were a merry band under, Rin? I think it was. Quite the adventure.

[Medena]

I'd been playing about a week and had a 'rinthi.  I'd actually had a lot of fun slinking around in there and exploring but I studiously avoided RP'ing with anyone, even when I went southside a bit because I was afraid of not being able to do it properly and to the high standard of the RP I'd observed.

And then a character named Digger started talking to me.  And he said his organization might have some work for me. WHEE!  I was so excited.  And I thought this guy was so amazing!  I wanted to be able to play like that one day, giving such a graphic image of a character with every word and simple little gesture.

That PC of mine died not long after but I was hooked and the inspiration of that meeting carried on.

[psionic fungus]

My first character was some kind of young rogue in Allanak.

I had been the 'roleplay' immortal on another mud.

A player there 'dared' me to make a character on Armageddon.

A REAL roleplaying mud.

Upon entering the game (which then happened in Meleth's Circle), I walked straight into the Trader's Inn.

I sat down at a table.

An Oash was already sitting at this table.

The Oashi told me to get away from his table.

I was not invited.

I told him to fuck off.

He had his guard attack me.

I managed to escape.

Made my way to the Dirk, which was just outside the 'Rinth.

I decided to heal up in the back room.

I laid down and closed my eyes.

Someone emoted coming up behind me and slicing my throat.

I was backstabbed.

I died.

I instantly contacted the player who had 'dared' me to make a character and thanked him for providing me with the most intense RP I'd ever experienced on a mud.

I was such a fool.

[WarriorPoet]

Sujaal caught me running amok in the 'rinth.

After chastising me fiercely, he led me to Meleth's and stripped me of all my Byn gear. After a few more harsh words, he spit at me and told me to get away. I screamed at him that it wasn't over, not by a fucking long shot! AND I WOULD HAVE MY REVENGE!!!!!!!1 I spent the next three IRL days plotting my revenge on the Byn, quite openly with people in the Gaj, until someone professed their eagerness to help, led me back to their apartment, and promptly stuck a knife in me, I assume to gain favor with Sujaal.

-WP was in love.

[Fathi]

Falling off the Shield Wall and stumbling around in wide-eyed horror, not knowing the Tablelands at all, and being terrified as my comrade killed a durrit.

Getting laughed at afterward.

... In fact, I still get laughed at for that.

[Bogre]

And then a character named Digger started talking to me.  And he said his organization might have some work for me. WHEE!  I was so excited.  And I thought this guy was so amazing!  I wanted to be able to play like that one day, giving such a graphic image of a character with every word and simple little gesture.

Was also Digger who hooked me.

[kosker]

Err.. I crafted a set of shelves...

Seriously. I used to play deckers and similar -skills- people. Being actually able to do something without waiting for a GM for a few hours did really give me pleasure.

So it's coded and it's RP-enforced? I love it.

[aruna]

With my very first character: Getting my tongue cut out, dragged into the street, blinded and publically executed for mouthing off to a templar in the Gaj.

[Malken]

I first started when Armageddon was karma-less and a hack n' slash mud so there's too many awesome stories from back then to be told.

[X-D]

Falling off the Shield Wall and stumbling around in wide-eyed horror, not knowing the Tablelands at all, and being terrified as my comrade killed a durrit.

Getting laughed at afterward.

... In fact, I still get laughed at for that.

Snickers

[Kennath]

My first experience with the game involved me typing the command <be bored> and cracking up for no reason over the echo. No, seriously, I laughed a good long while.

[Zoltan]

For me, it was my first character's "oh shit" situation. He followed one of his Bynner buddies to "have a talk with" and/or "rough up" a guy who screwed him in business. My wet-behind-the-sack Runner followed his buddy and their drunken target to an abandoned building. Things got way out of hand and the next minute my PC's friend told him to finish off the mortally wounded guy on the floor. RPing out that scene was really intense because it was my very first PK and my character's first kill, too.

Follow that immediately with a good-natured Byn bar brawl gone bad (I didn't understand the brawl code), and my character sprinting across 'Nak to the Byn compound, militia hot on his heels.

After all that, I was fucking hooked.

I wish I had known how to do logs back then...

[Simple]

How do you do logs??

[Coat of Arms]

Most mud clients have some form of logging function.

For zMUD it's #log <log's name> to begin logging, and #log again to stop.

[Zoltan]

I use MUSHclient. That one has a button on the top bar for you to turn them on/off. I always turn it on when I start a session, and I throw a date and character name on it. The client takes the log down on a notepad and saves it to the logs folder in the program folder. Very simple, and it sure beat the crap out of all the little "remember this" notes I used to scrawl on any available bit of paper.

[Pale Horse]

Sooooo many things that hooked me on this game!

One of my favorites was playing a half-elf in 'Nak, and getting pushed around and spat at while in the Gaj for being a filthy breed.  I spent my days hunting scrab (for some reason, scrab seemed easier to solo back then) and my evenings drinking and being harassed.  Then, one day, I had this guy walk up to me when I was sitting on a bench and tell me he'd been watching me, and that I'd make a good partner for this plan of his.  He was twitching and shaking and generally seemed like he had gone far too long without his fix.  So we staked out the Barrel and eventually tried to rob this Bard and her Guard/Companion at crossbow point.  She ended up jumping from the balcony after handing over her coin, and my partner and I headed for the gates when her friend started shouting about thieves.

We ended up in Red Storm and split the coin, then went out separate ways.  After a few days of spice hunting, I ended up being contacted by a recruiter for the Blackmoon and willingly signed up.  As I didn't have a kank, I ended up following on foot the whole way from Storm to the Blackmoon "fortress", where I was introduced to several other members.   The next time I logged in, I was invited to go hunting with a mul I'd met the week before and we took the lift down and headed out into the sands...

...where we met a mantis that ripped apart the mul and came after my character for dessert.

[naatok]

My addiction experiences were so long ago I have trouble remembering names and details.

Before Karma, the 'karma' guilds/races were not the beefiness many have commented about (both positively and negatively) on the Forums since the Karma system was introduced (also so long ago I can barely remember it).

Back then, I played a mul.  My understanding of muls was not what it is today, but still, the spirit of the guidelines docs was available to us and I did try (and often fail) to play what I considered to be a realistic mul.

He met a more realistic mul in game.  That mul was a raider.  Someone feared and either hated or respected.  During the course of a single rp scene in a tavern, and another in the grey forest, my mul went from having the anger of one who lost a friend to this raider and his band and wanting to fight over it, to a profound shock at just how little he understood -why- this other was a raider.  Directly due to interaction with this other mul, my character began to understand why he himself was so angry inside and not only did his view of the raider go from one of anger and hatred to one of (at first grudging) respect, but in the end my guy joined the band of raiders.

Before his death, my character found in that band of wicked brothers, a home he had never known existed before.  It was a very interesting, life-changing experience for my character, and from then on out I knew there was no leaving this game.

It's the world that draws us in, but it is the characters we interact with and the situations they present to my own that keeps me coming back for more.

[Fnord]

Not sure at which point this happened, but it was realizing that Arm is the only game I've ever played that has nearly unlimited depth, immersion, and unpredictability. I attribute it to Arm being around for over 10 years along with the enforced RP that the staff and players are committed to. I predict that one of these years someone will realize that, and will make the WoW killer of MMORPGs.

[Morrolan]

Ten years ago: getting into RP back when we could actually see skill percentages.  The characters name was Kessira, and she was an assassin.

Then, years later, trying to charge down a gith with my 2 day Byn warrior as I got pelted by arrows.  Watching the emotes for about twenty minutes as the group tried to bring me back to life before giving me a "mercy" killing.

Thnk you, Akasha and Marook.

Oh, and my first RPT, shortly thereafter, when Luir's was invaded by Mantis.

[Aquarian]

Arm was the ONLY text based game I had ever played at this point. I was playing my second character, Fnord was the one who brought me to the game so mercifully he would drag me around the world with him. Anyway, one day we were in some tavern, I suspect in either Luirs or Red Storm because a mul came in. And Fnord's fearless, bad ass character all but pisses himself when this mul takes notice of him. It was the first time I had seen a fear in that character and it suddenly showed me just how real you could make your characters. I was actually nervous, and I had that heavy feeling in my chest like when you think someone is following you. His actions garnered a real, tangible emotion and that was what really showed me this game was deeper than I had imagined.


Edited for crap typos

That and the mud sex was fucking hot :twisted:

[jstorrie]

I fell down the well.

[Nile]

I fell down the well.

I also fell down the well.

[alger]

My first character also fell down the well.

[Simple]

Mine too. He had poor strength, exceptional agility, must accident prone person ever. Knocked out from falling probably 6 or 7 times. Even falling from rubble and things. Died of starvation in the sewers, wandering around in the dark, unable to climb out. Hmmm.

[wildhalfling]

Back in 1997 when I was finally able to keep a character alive for more then 3 days. I had made a small circle of friends. We went to Allanak because there was some big celebration going out with free ale and other stuff in meleths circle. Some Templar was showing off his power and turned to a female that was with me and *POOF* she was gone. He laughed and everyone else laughed or did so out of fear. My char was contacted by the way and she was out in the tablelands somewhere. I gathered up some friends and we spent the next two hours looking for her and fighting through gith to get to her.

[Dynnage]

The well has claimed many of my characters, and offered hours of fun for my own.

I'd like to see the immortals clog it full of dead bodies. xD

>l down
>"You can only peer through the darkness slightly before you realize that stacks upon stacks of desiccating corpses are lying only a few cords below your nose. You hear a faint moan from below the corpses."
>think wtf?

[Maybe42or54]

I went down the well, with enough food and water to last me 4 ic days and only enough light for 2 ic hours. Towards the end, I was depserate, my character prayed to the gods. My prayers were answered and a gust of wind blew in from a direction. I followed that wind, in the darkness, so I don't know actually where I was, I fell down 3 or 4 more times "Following" the gust of wind. I found a lit area and an actual torch. I picked the torch up happily, and eager to escape, as I've been in there 4 IC days and I was running out of food and water. I picked up the torch, lit it, walked into the next room and I got hit for 89 hp. My hp at the time was 87. I died shortly after.

[phatpasco]

My first PC also learned the pleasures of the well up in tuluk..Waking up to find myself fleeing with fear becuse a cylops was stalking me 0 stam. left and dead...Ah  good times.

[X-D]

A LONG LONG time ago, I had a certain Tor dwarf LT...who was with a certain now famous templar and a LOT of other PC's and npcs...for some reason, we went to the well...climbed in...EVERYBODY fails climb check

AAAAHHHHHHHH!

Thud.

Was much fun RP after that as my Dwarf was the ONLY PC not KO'd...one HG npc was not KO'd and there was a couple deaths...good times.

[manonfire]

My Bynner took a shot to the head during a sparring match and died instantly.

Thanks Henna, wherever you are.

[Stroker]

Witnessing a newly recruited cadet for Salarr transform into a tembo, which then proceeded to rape everything in its path.

[Eukelade]

Fell down the well.

[Melody]

My first character was absolutely blue-eyed. I did not know a thing about the game despite reading the helpfile back to back once. (information overload) She got picked up by Borsail, who sponsored her into the Atrium.

We did have a lot of visitors, and because the clan leaders are not very active, we keep running out of wine. So one of the leaders stashed 5k on my char and told her to keep the wine fully stocked. I sat there for an hour listing all the 'cool silks I want'.

Not a single sid went to wine buying. She graduated and the school closed soon after. Never caught.

Oh, she did feel guilty afterward, and smuggled some wine from Borsail to Atrium to 'make up'.

[Cale_Knight]

My very first PC ever was standing alone in the Gaj looking generally hopeless when some staff member animated the bartender there, played out a little scene with me, and gave me a few tips on how to get along in the world.

If it hadn't been for that little nudge in the right direction I'm not sure I ever would have stuck around Arm.

[mansa]

This link specifically is a bit of the story of my first character:

http://www.zalanthas.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=296428#296428

I had an immortal jump into one of the NPCs in the Bazaar that randomly shouts out things, and was telling me that I should get a job doing what he does.

So I was shouting out things in the Bazaar for a while, and I kept going back to the NPC dude and asking him questions, but he never responded...

[jhunter]

The well has claimed many of my characters, and offered hours of fun for my own.

I'd like to see the immortals clog it full of dead bodies. xD

>l down
>"You can only peer through the darkness slightly before you realize that stacks upon stacks of desiccating corpses are lying only a few cords below your nose. You hear a faint moan from below the corpses."
>think wtf?

So true. I lost one trying to check it out. I lost another that was trying to hide out from a bloodthirsty lunatic that was trying to kill him. Damned well.
I think they should slip it into Arm 2.0 with rotting remains and skeletons piled up at the bottom as well.

[staggerlee]

This seems applicable for some reason:

Madness!  If they didn't want you to jump in the holes, they wouldn't have coded in holes in the first place.   :wink:

[Dynnage]

The well is the single-best part of Allanak.