A few thoughts..

[Ronin39]

First and foremost my initial impressions of Armageddon..a very serious intense roleplay mud no doubt about that but what has really got me rattled is the ic treatment does not matter if its ic or not the treatment my pc has been unspeakably awful especially after joining the t'sa byn or whatever it is.. i get that the land is harsh and resources are few but being a new player and waking up my pc only to have him swore at degraded and humiliated is in my view not acceptable especially for a new player just trying to explore and learn the layout of the land there is little fun in that on a daily basis and  pcs within the byn sparring with mercy off  more unacceptable crap.. what i wanna know is why are the pcs so mean and nasty just because the lands harsh makes no sense to me this mud is very intense and morally degrading to the pcs there is no fun in that.. tavern pricks starting fights over nothing when your just trying to talk and learn things. I was enjoying this mud but the byn or some of the byn pcs just too fucking nasty of treatment parden my french to even enjoy the land not to say the pcs are all awful my pc found a few nice helpful folk but few far between so im sorry my pc is disbanded from the byn he cant take the cruelty nature of the behavior from pc byn members when he hardly knows the ways yet and i thought hed be paid for being clanned instead he had to pay to be treated as dog shit im sure youll have thoughts so before i post this im gonna say maybe its just ur pcs and how you play them maybe ur decent ppl but i and my pc cannot handle that theres no fun in that aside from that also im gonna add that i posted my playing times as i was asked and still my pc catches hell for missing drills? Really..well closed book guys and ladies so if ur pcs in the byn dont accept his departure for these reasons then do what your pcs must do but ill just recreate no worries there.. having him nearly killed in a spar and other byn members having issues with  him having done absolutely nothing to provoke issues is warrant enough to disband him selflessly... thanks

[BadSkeelz]

PCs can be mean. PCs who are part of a hardscrabble, ill-reputed, extremely gritty and dangerous clan as the T'zai Byn can be especially mean. Zalanthas is a harsh, cruel world and characters often reflect that in their personalities.

Remember that other characters being mean to your character is not because the other player want to be mean to you, the player. They're acting appropriately for their character and showing you how this world functions. It can be really distressing, but it's important to remember that In-character is In-character and is not driven by any kind of Out of Character malice. Even then Armageddon might just not be the setting for you.

Wait until you see your character's first real friend get her tongue torn out by your boss, then you'll feel some angst.

[BadSkeelz]

Also you shouldn't say who you're playing in public on the GDB, or air complaints. The best way to do this is through Player Complaints via the request tool.

[SuchDragonWow]

Most of us aren't actually mean outside of the game, but our characters have questionable morals and ethics.  Trust me, I've heard so much bullshit about things my CHARACTER did that is supposed to reflect on me, as a person, that I've come to just laugh it off.  You need to accept that people are trying to portray a fiction, a dangerous and unforgiving one, and if those lines of fiction and reality are too blurry for you, then you might want to evaluate that. 

[Lizzie]

The T'zai Byn are mercenaries. Knowing nothing else about them, and only that one thing, should be a clue that they're not going to be mollycoddling your character or trying to make him feel warm and fuzzy inside. If your character didn't want to pay the 300 sids to join, you shouldn't have agreed for him to join. If your PC wanted to know how much it paid, he should've asked.

Also, it really does matter if it's IC or OOC. If your character was an easy mark for harshness, he'll get treated harshly. If you rolled up an elf - expect him to not be treated well by humans or any PC clan, until your character has earned the right to be treated well by them. If you rolled up a half-elf, expect him not to be treated well by anyone at all, until your character has earned the right to be treated better than the abomination that he is. If you rolled up a human, and you went into the situation knowing that you're the "new guy in town" and you need to break your character in and learn the ropes, and approached the RP as someone who is willing to learn and fit in, then you should expect that at least someone would've attempted to give your character a hand in accomplishing that. If that didn't happen, a player complaint through the main website's request tool would be the appropriate venue to get it resolved.

[Jihelu]

I edited this comment for tone. To rephrase, while in combat you can remove yourself by fleeing or disengaging.

[Armaddict]

Sometimes it does get old.

However, the very important thing for you to do is not take it personally...but if your character is one to take it personally, your character should.  I've had characters who left the Byn over it, and I've had characters who laughed at others for not being able to hack it.  Play around it.  Play with it.  Let it affect your character.  Let it develop into grudges and disapproval, or let it turn them into a hardass, or make it so they develop this harsh, craggy exterior over what innocence your character maintained, secluded on the inside.

The gist of it?  It's rough.  The game is mean.  The playerbase is often apathetic towards the struggles of others, because we've all gone through these things before.  It is, actually, a much more tight-knit community than the GDB makes it sound, because we all have this sort of masochistic survivalism ingrained in us over our character deaths and struggles.  You'll be joining that community, but in the beginning, it seems like the game is out to get you.  That's because it is, and this is what I believe many come to unexpectedly enjoy.

So again, don't take it personally.  Roll with those punches.  Chuckle at the funny insults that get tossed your way.  Sometimes, it will come about in a weird way that these assholes are the most trustworthy people you know.  Other times, you'll suspect they all want you dead.  It's actually kind of a beautiful thing, when it comes to a roleplaying game...this is not just another rendition of 'form a party and get loot'.

[Majikal]

Hey Ronin, just some tips from a fellow player here. Often you'll find pc's that are inherently mean, racist, or talking shit. As has been said above, don't take it personally. In cases like your own the players recognize that's you're a new player however they will stay true to the role and personality of their current pc. Lots of times players will bend their pc's reactions to your pc thematically so that they are indeed helping (oocly) by giving information/not stabbing you in the eyeball  while giving you what you need as a newer player to help you along. If you ask for help with something you don't understand using the ooc command or helper chat, 99.9% of the time you'll find your fellow players aren't the assholes they're roleplaying and very willing to help you out with any questions you have so long as they follow the guidelines under Help ooc. Armageddon can be a lot to take in and many players understand that, keep on keepin on brother!

Also, definitely utilize the helper chat! There's usually helpers online to answer questions on the fly for you.

[Norcal]

Hey Ronin.

Joining the Byn is one of the easiest things for a new player to do, in terms of getting a job.  Yet the Byn is not always new player friendly in some aspects, like the ones you have pointed out above. I can remember being a fairly new player and having a clan leadership PC do some really stupid things, just to be mean. Things that just made no real sense in terms of the documentation or in any other way. Oh well. A carru ended that PC soon after and I went forward with a better understanding of things.

I think that the learning curve of Arm is very steep, and it is not reasonable for you to be expected to understand the ins and outs of play and of clans like the Byn, right out of the box. For some folks it takes time and a few PCs before things start to make some sense. 

There are more than a few that do their best to help new players IC when we can find them. However this is not the rule and the game world does not care if you are new or a vet. If Amos was being mean and nasty to your PC, then that is really too bad because Amos is a mean and nasty person. In game. In real life his player might be a kind and gentle florist.  And although  I agree that sometimes other players can make the game less fun, once you are up to speed with syntax and understand some things about the game,  you will be able to deal with this type of play in a better way.

My advice to you would be to play on and play through it, because once you get past these types of hurdles, you will really enjoy the game and have FUN. Use helper chat if you need to ask questions or if you just need to vent!  And if you really really feel that someone was just overboard, you can use a player complaint and ask staff to look into it. Make sure you have cause though and are not just upset. If you are just upset..then get on helper chat.

Many of us really want new players to come and we want them to stay.  So we welcome you and we want to encourage you!

[wizturbo]

I don't want to come off as mean, but your writing style might also be an underlying issue here.  Based on your paragraph with no punctuation, spacing, or capitalization I wouldn't be surprised if that also translates to in-game writing, and you might be catching some flak purely for that reason.  

For text based games, writing skills are pretty essential.   It's almost like MUD hygiene.  No one wants to play around the smelly guy.  This especially sucks for players where English is a second language, and if you're one of those people I certainly don't want my post to come across as discouraging.  Keep at it, and that'll improve with time.  If the issue is mostly with your desire to write quickly (I know i'm guilty of this more often than I'd like), you might find that spending a little extra time with your writing could go a long way in encouraging more positive interactions from a strictly OOC perspective.

[Riev]

Disappointing to say the least. But if you do come back to read this, take what others have said to heart. 99/100 players will recognize you as a newbie, and try to help you out. Unfortunately, when you're new, we can't handhold and suddenly do things our characters wouldn't do. I would VERY MUCH suggest the Helpers, or try to find someone to take you into a room alone to OOC chat over syntax you might be missing.

If your main contention is that 'people were mean' or 'talked abusively', please remember you joined a clan/guild/group who virtually does the majority of their recruiting out of the jails, from people who are either going to be executed, or join the Byn as a last ditch effort to stay alive. If you have trouble with the setting, or knowing what your character should be doing, a bunch of hard-assed mercenaries are going to give you shit about it.

Arm is not easy. It requires patience, and time to sit and think about what is IC for your character to do. If it makes sense to rebel against your clan because they were mean... go for it. If your character was supposed to be Muscular Badass Amos the Destroyer... you might need to step outside your character, and be an onlooker.

[Harmless]

Sometimes roleplaying a character in the Byn is very fulfilling. It is one of the only experiences where I may sometimes truly feel like my character belongs to a band of mercenaries, almost rag-tag but with a few exceptionally good and experienced mercs leading the pack to chaos. Bottom line is that it is also a big clan, consistently, so you are most likely to see a slice of every type of Zalanthan. Including, tragically, the unbelievably crude, brutal, and cold ones as well.

The key is not to react too strongly to what is thrown at you. Your character is there because they wanted to be (though many change their mind about being Byn soon after they go in. Sadly, in Zalanthas, your character paid the equivalent of a contract, and leaving the Byn is not always so simple.

Here are my tips.

1.) Know your character's life may be lost with the next big/dangerous mission. If you get into one of those missions, you may have a chance at surviving it to tell the tale or you might conveniently die and get to reroll. Bynners are rarely permanent.
2.) Recognize the low position Bynners have in most societies. I know you're still learning the setting, but most Bynners ICly understand that they are seen as disposable (by most but not all).
3.) Maybe your character joined the Byn for other reasons besides the usual "glory, guts, coin, and good training in killing." But, if they did, then they're the minority. Being the minority in a hot, sweaty, stinky camp that serves salt-broth and dry-tack is unlikely to be pleasant. Maybe your character is cunning enough to learn to pretend to be "a typical merc," but as soon as they get out they can revert to their true, likely more gentle selves.
4.) Fighting isn't everything, and you will likely lose at all your fights for the first year. There is a lot of code silliness behind fighting that experienced players know how to min/max to get good results. Maybe your character is codedly weak, and you suffer more Bynner discrimination as a result. If you're confused as to why your character is weak, and this one is part of the problem, just ask and we'd be happy to explain to you how you too can kick ass in this DIKU-based MUD. Hint: it's about training up skills regularly but not overly; basically, characters can learn a little bit of several skills in a day, then they need to digest that before they practice again. Or, they need to recover from their wounds, which may not have caused HP damage but will leave bruises or welts or whatever.

Hope that helps. On a personal note, I've totally been there, I've had my characters called anachronistic curse-words repeatedly or had my characters forced into awful situations, which weren't always enjoyable. The Byn really is kind of a cess-pit, and for whatever reason the playerbase seems fond of keeping it that way. Many character concepts just don't fit the Byn life or playing style, whatever you want to call it. On the other hand, it is REALLY REALLY fun to kill Bynners. So I'm glad they're around.

[RogueGunslinger]

That sounds like a shitty experience. I'm sorry you went through that. Despite what people are saying I've found the Byn to be a pretty pleasant place despite the "hardened merc atmosphere". I think there's generally going to be people who totally have your back. That's just my experience with the place though. The players make the clan, really.

I don't like when people bitch and moan about the newbie who keeps falling off his mount or doesn't know how to flee in time, or who misses chores. There are things that new characters(not even noobs) will do that, as a vet, you should recognize are going to happen and take it in stride instead of venting your OOC frustrations on those players. However if you're purposefully skipping chores or being a dick to your clannies, or just playing a frustrating character in general, it is quite likely that you will receive some IC ire and you should expect that. And then sometimes you will just be someone's punching bag, just like in real life if they have power to exert over you it will be exerted. I find those sorts are usually pretty rare, and someones a person had a bad day before they logged in and they will bring that shit with them into the IC world. It sucks, but I don't think it is very common. After all we're all here to have a good time.

All that said if you played a breed or an elf you had that shit coming.

[Yam]

Most of us go through shit like this at first.

My first PC got thrown off a rooftop for insulting some Borsail Wyverns.

You'll come to cherish it.

[Raptor_Dan]

Hi Ronin,

I'm sorry for what your char went through. I saw you interacting with the Byn, and I, myself, was like "Oh shit. I really want to take that guy out into the streets and help them learn the ropes." However, I saw some people were using OOC to communicate with you, and I expected you would get some rope-learning from them. I would have done it, but it would make absolutely no sense for my char to do so. It would have been like the villain taking aside a villager in a horror novel to show them around town.

Most of are players are really nice people. I'm not one of those, generally, I'm kind of a belligerent asshole, but even so, I love this game so much I want more newbies to play it, and sometimes go too far out of my way to help.

I remember my first char. I rolled up an elf because I wanted my char to be pretty, and graceful, and kind of woodsy. Heh. I didn't read enough of the documentation, and was tortured by krathi's and alleged psionicists. I basically created the equivalent of a space-robot to play in a western. Even if my char survived, it would not have fit in, and the story would have been horrible.

Your char basically joined a gang. A gang of criminals and murderers. I hope you come back, though, and become one of the best criminal murderers ever, or, alternatively, become super badass and kill them all with a vengeance after years of careful plotting.

[SuchDragonWow]

Welcome to the Byn!

[yousuff]

Hey Ronin, sorry to hear you haven't been enjoying the Byn. I tried to approach your character in as IC a way possible, unfortunately you were mostly interacting with elves from what I saw, which as a human you should be wary of as per the docs. Hope you've better experiences elsewhere, I know I tried to help you out as much I could while remaining true to my role

Edit to add:
You mentioned about almost dying during sparring. When to flee will be something you pick up quick, and if you do get knocked out or whatever and are surrounded by sparring partners who don't like you, do expect them to potentially do awful things to you. I've lost more than one character to training accidents. As for the nomercy bit, maybe it was intentional, but I know if I leave nomercy off during a spar it's more than likely an OOC mistake, but still one best dealt with in an IC way. (OOC = out of character, IC = In character)

[Raptor_Dan]

Eh? You joined a Bynner Elf Group? Don' you know you're a human?

Is like saying in real life

Whoa whoa whoa. You joined the Bloods? Don' you know you're white?

[MeTekillot]

[Yam]

Unless you're in the 'rinth.

[Is Friday]

You might also want to primarily play from a computer. Playing from a phone is rough.

[Chettaman]

That sounds like a shitty experience. I'm sorry you went through that. Despite what people are saying I've found the Byn to be a pretty pleasant place despite the "hardened merc atmosphere". I think there's generally going to be people who totally have your back. That's just my experience with the place though. The players make the clan, really.

I don't like when people bitch and moan about the newbie who keeps falling off his mount or doesn't know how to flee in time, or who misses chores. There are things that new characters(not even noobs) will do that, as a vet, you should recognize are going to happen and take it in stride instead of venting your OOC frustrations on those players. However if you're purposefully skipping chores or being a dick to your clannies, or just playing a frustrating character in general, it is quite likely that you will receive some IC ire and you should expect that. And then sometimes you will just be someone's punching bag, just like in real life if they have power to exert over you it will be exerted. I find those sorts are usually pretty rare, and someones a person had a bad day before they logged in and they will bring that shit with them into the IC world. It sucks, but I don't think it is very common. After all we're all here to have a good time.

All that said if you played a breed or an elf you had that shit coming.

Hey, Ronin.
Sorry, bro. I noticed you might be having a hard time "fitting in" and did nothing about it. -- I remember once I had a half elf that joined the byn in for nearly an IC year sparred by himself and literally no one tried to help me. And that's good. They roleplayed accordingly. ... but man. Did it fucking suck...

Anyway, I'm no fool. ... (I don't think) and I noticed you /really/ getting crap from pretty much everyone for the smallest things and I could tell it was all in character stuff and I can tell from your post that you understand that. My suggestion would be, "Eff those mother effers and abandon your duties! -- accept whatever consequences, get stronger and smarter than anyone that might try to kill you, eff bitches, gather coins, then smoke spice until you effing get so high you go straight to whatever place you go to when you effing die."

Other options: (I have no idea if you've tried these already)
- request for change of byn sarge
- send in a request to the staff to leave the byn through a VNPC byn sargeant if a PC byn sargeant has already denied such request
- fake your death
- get on with someone important and have them steal you from the byn
- use your cunning to make all of those that give you shit think you're doing perfect. (including bribery)
- Hire assassins to take care of those that bully you
- Do your best to bully them back on your own or with a group.

It's a good thing you let someone know.
Again, I know you got shit for no reason. I know that you know and are just trying to make changes to enjoy your time with us which is awesome. Don't stop. Make adjustments and roll on. That's a good attitude. I can say for certain that other less militant groups are more friendly, but groups like the byn and the arm give people a reasonable excuse to be hard asses. Might I suggest, next time, salarr! While the byn is great for new characters to learn "the ropes" I can testify that sometimes it's the worst environment for people who aren't up for being militants.
Salarr and kadius are both pretty laid back. Firm, but laid back in terms of where to be, how to be there and what you should be doing. In fact, I remember once in salarr, I had a guy that never went out to hunt. He would go into other people's little hunt-boxes or whatever and take stuff from them and put it in his own box. It was good stuff. Or, of course... you can just go out and hunt which is fine! There are rules, but no one's going to expect you to have much discipline.

[yousuff]

You might also want to primarily play from a computer. Playing from a phone is rough.

*Cough*
I play exclusively from my phone and do ok

Back ontopic though; Ronin do as you feel is appropriate for your character to do. Hell, you can use this whole experience as justification to hate the Byn, and come back in a few years and use it as an excuse to murder everyone in it if you felt like it. I mean it's not likely, but don't be discouraged!

[Rhei]

*Cough*
I play exclusively from my phone and do ok

How the drov do you even...

Anyway, OP, I'm sorry to hear you feel that way. Just know that these are (I hope) entirely IC reactions to actions your character may or may not have done. The people of Zalanthas are an incredibly prejudiced and distrustful lot, for the most part. When a character goes against what most other people would consider normal, you may expect to be shunned or ridiculed. This is roleplay, and I'm sure those behind the keyboards don't wish you, as a player, any ill will.

As for your character, you could have this develop in whatever way you'd choose! You could suck it up until you're finally someone people would rather not mess with... maybe even return a couple of favors. It'll be rough, of course, but learn to take these things in stride and you'll really start enjoying the game.

[Dar]

Im a little worried that so many replies to this port have "kill them all" suggestions. Kind of makes it sound like this is some kind of a PK mud. It's not.

You joined a military band of mercenaries.  You might as well have joined Pirates. Don't be surprised they are all a bunch of low class assholes. Believe me, the players are not. Another day,  they'd play a different character and you'd be amazed at their gentlemanly natures. Then you should get 'reaaaally' worried.