Playing DragonRealms - What do I do?
OK, I've been getting a lot of email from our friends who are just starting out in
DragonRealms and
haven't got a clue what to do. So here is Zepath's guide on getting started in
DragonRealms (no
professions specific).
Before we even start:
Let me alienate 75% of you by stating this up front; If you haven't taken the time to
download the player's guide which is available in the DragonRealms libraries on both GEnie
and AOL, then you are just flat silly. Yes, I said you are silly! You're silly because,
without reading that guide you are wasting your time, my time, and anyone else you bother
in the game asking questions that can be answered with the player's guide. What's worse
is, your laziness is going to get built into your character. Yeah, every mistake you make
is going to be reflected in your character and you are stuck with those mistakes for the
life of that character.
With that said I can now presume that those of you which are still reading, are the 25%
that have read the player's guide, and so I don't have to explain myself or quote the
guide. J I can assume that because I made those that haven't read the guide mad, and they
are already back to the main page of the den looking for more pictures. J So why don't the
rest of us get down to business.
The Character Manager:
A lot of you are confused when you first enter DR because it is so open. You come out of
the character manager and feel somewhat lost. That is because we are all used to games
that prod us along and sort of take us where the game wants us to go. DragonRealms doesn't
do this. Instead, DR allows us to do what ever we want anyway we want.so I'm going to make
an effort here to help you get going, and to answer some of the questions you might have
up front. So let's back all the way up to the character manager. If you've already been
through the character manager, then you can skip the next paragraphs.
The character manager is the first thing you enter when you come into the game for the
first time. If you are a GS3 player, you are going to find this CM (character manager)
very different from the CM in GS3.
First off, all you have to do in this CM is select your last name, first name, sex, race,
hair color/style, eye color, and skin color. BOOM. You are done and can enter the world.
But lets back up again, to chosing a name. The DragonRealms staff is very picky about the
names you chose in DragonRealms. I have already met several people and had several people
write to me about having been sent back to the CM to change their name. Well, like it or
not, you aren't going to get any sympathy from me if you tried to come into the game as
Rifleman, or BattleMaster, or Zone Enforcer, or Elvis Preseley. Simply put this is not
the place for those kinds of names and as a player I am very glad they aren't allowing
them. So be sure you pick a name that is appropriate. If you need help with that, check my
protocol page on the Den. I have an entire section there on how to choose a name.
Once you have a name selected you will find yourself in the hall of the seven races. If
you type the command LOOK DAIS, you will see all the races that are available to you in
DR. You will note that the races are represented in the form of figurines. By touching the
appropriate figurine you will change yourself into that race. You will also be rolling
your stats. Type INFO to see the stats you got. If you do not like your stats touch the
figurine again.that will make you the same race, but it will also reroll your stats. You
can touch a figurine as many times as you like, and you can stay in the CM for as long as
you like. It's your dime. J
STATS:
What are good stats you might ask? Well I personally have never rolled anything better
than a 14, although I have been told by others they have rolled higher. But I have no way
to validate that so just accept it as rumor and understand I've never seen anything higher
than 14.
Where do you want these stats? Well it appears that they make you choose your race first,
because your stats and the rolls you get seem to be weighted by the race you chose. So
just keep playing with it until you have something you find acceptable. I can't tell you
where to put your best stats simply because what profession you choose, the weapon you
choose, the armor you choose, and the skills you are going to choose to develop, all
dictate where you might want to put your higher stats.consequently, having read the
player's guide, and having seen what skill you'll want to specialize in, use your head.
Appearance:
Once you have the stats you want, move north into the hall of mirrors. Here you will find
three mirrors. Each mirror allows you to change one aspect of your appearance, one changes
your eyes, one changes your hair, and one changes your skin color.
Understand that each time you touch one of these mirrors, you will get a random result
that seems to be weighted by the race you chose. Also there is a vast number of
selections, so it might take you a while to get exaclty what you want. Some people like
this approach, some people hate it. Personally I like it because no one, not one of us,
really had any say about the way we look, and this just adds another realistic aspect to
the game.
Entering the World:
Once you have selected your appearance, you need to go through the arch and enter the
world. Now when I first rolled up my character, there was only one place that you could
come out, but noow there is several.The bottom line is, you come out in The Crossing,
which is the central town of the game. Now if you are a GS3 player, you will find this
pretty much the way you first found Wehnimer when you started that game. If you are not a
GS3 player, this part might seem a little confusing and scary at first, but don't. There
is an order to the chaos.
The first thing you want to do is type INV (short for INVENTORY). You will find (as of
this writing) that you are wearing a tunic, trousers, boots, and have a sack attached to
your belt. If you look in the sack, you will find a simple ascii map of The Crossing. Now
of course I recommend the firs thing you do, since I know you downloaded my maps is to
toss this thing away and get out my crossing map. You do have my maps don't you?
The Guilds:
So we are in this world, what do we do? Well the first thing you want to do is join a
guild. Now listen, yes, you can play the game without joining a guild.and I know that in
my overview of DR on the Den I state you don't ever have to join a guild. Well the bottom
line is, you have a rough road ahead of you if you don't join a guild. Having read the
player's guide, you should have a pretty good idea of the profession you want.so let's go
there.
NOTE: As of this writing, Bards are not in place. They are still being worked on.
Before you would-be thieves get all worked up, thinking I'm going to give you the direct
route to the thieves guild, just take some valium and mellow, I'm not. The location of the
thieves guild is a secret, and as is my normal course, I am not going to reveal anything
Simutronics wants to keep as a secret, I will tell you this however, you need to talk to
the NPCs in the Crossing. If you talk to the NPCs and use a little common sense, you will
find it.
The Mage guilds (both the Moon Mage Guild and the Warrior Mage Guilds) are located outside
of town. If you have my maps, then you'll have no problem finding them. If you don't have
my maps, then get them.(laugh)! Seriously, the War Mage guild is outside the Northeast
gate of The Crossing and to the east, the Moon Mage Guild is out the East gate and through
Middens to the southeast.
Moon Mages will find that their leader is hidden too. All I will tell you is that finding
him is a puzzle, and he is in fact there.
For the rest the of you, the DIR command will help you find the guild you need. I.E. DIR
RANGERGUILD will take you to the gate in the sicle grove which leads to the Ranger Guild,
or DIR BARBARIANGUILD will lead you to the Barbs Guild.
Once you find the guild of your choice, you want to stand before the guild leader and type
JOIN. If you have the required stats for that profession the GUILD leader will ask you to
type JOIN again (a confirmation) to show you really want to join. If you do so, the guild
leader will assign some guild members to take you out and train you in the ways of that
guild. (this takes only a few seconds).
Once that training is complete, you will be brought back before the guild leader where
he/she will give you a talk. Listen to this talk. For some of the guilds it is difficult
because members seems to have started congregating there, but do your best to read what
you are told, because what you are being told is improtant. Also, make sure you listen to
it all.you are going to be awarded experience for the training you receieved, but you
don't get that experience awarded to you until the leader is done talking to you.
But what if you don't have the minimum required stats to join the guild? Well the guild
leader will offer to train you.DO NOT DO THIS! The guild will charge you much more than it
cost to train yourself, both in TDPs (see below) and money.
If you do not have the minimum required stats, the leader will tell you where you are
short. Leave the guild and get back in The Crossing's City limits. Then use the DIR (or my
maps) to find the various training areas. Let's say you need to improve your agility, then
you want to go to the agility academy and STUDY. When you study, you are charged TDPs
(TRAINING DEVELOPMENT POINTS) and you are charged money.
Training (improving Stats):
When you exited the CM (character manager) you were given a certain number of TDPs ( I
believe it is a static 500 for everyone). Once you use these TDPs up, that's all you get
until you make another level in your guild (see why you need to belong to a guild?). The
next time you make level, you will be awarded 20 additional TDPs to raise a stat with.
Now, you don't have to use all your TDPs, but they aren't doing you any good unless you
spend them, so I recommend you spend them all.
One place of training that seems to confuse a lot of people is the Strength training area
that is in Tembeg's Armory.to train there, you need to go into the armory, through the
door, and into the bellows room, that is where you train for strength. Another confusing
place is for Stamina.stamina training is in the Barbarians guild and a lot of people just
stand in the main hall and type study.well if you'll look at the room description you will
see there is a room off to the side of the main hall, go into the room (GO ROOM), this is
where you train in Stamina.
Also note, one stat that people tend to ignore is Stamina.it is very very very important
that you train in Stamina. Not to the exclusion of all other stats, but a character with
less than 10 in stamina is not going to get very far, and I recommend at least a 12 in
stamina..remember that when rolling up your character.
Once you have all your training requirements for guild membership, go join the guild. Then
go use up the rest of those TDPs.
After you've joined the Guild:
Ok, you've joined the guild, and you have these skills they trained you in and so what's
to do now? Well, first, write down those skills.now before you learn any others. These
skills are what we call your primary skills for your profession. These skills are the ones
the guild leader will be checking when you want to advance to that next level.
Buying Weapons and Armor:
Once you have the skills written down, it's time to go get some weapons and armor. Use the
maps, or DIR to find the weapons shop. Go into the shop (yeah this is where you trained
for strength) and in the first room you will find Tembeg the armorer. You will also see a
catalog. Now for those of you used to the GS3 merchant system this is completely
different, so pay attention.type READ CATALOG. This will allow you to get an index of the
items the merchant has to sell you. You will see that the items are grouped by pages, to
see a page, type READ PAGE X, x being what ever page number.
Now once you've found the item you want to buy, type ASK TEMBEG ABOUT <item>.Tembeg,
which is an NPC (non player creature) will tell you something about the item, including
how much he is going to ask for it.the amount he states is the starting price he is
asking, not necessarily the price you are going to pay.
Now that you know his initial asking price for the item, if you decide you want it then
type ORDER <item>. By typing this you have now entered into negotiations over the
item. After you type order the item Tembeg will tell you how much he wants, this is his
offer. You respond by typing OFFER <amount>. If you've insulted Tembeg, he will
break off negotiations. If you haven't he will counter offer. to which you can respond
with another offer. At some point in time he will either blow you off because
you aren't negotiating satisfactorily or he will accept your offer and give you the item
and take your money. If at any time you decide the negotiations are not going in the
direction you want them to you can type REFUSE and the negotiations will end.
This above example of how to negotiate a purchase with Tembeg is static with all NPC
merchants in the game. The only exception to this statement seems to be when you go places
that have menus (taverns, bakeries, inns, etc). If they have a menu, their prices are
static.
Be aware, don't enter into negotiations unless you have the money. If you finally agree on
the price and the merchant finds out you don't have the money, he'll throw you out of the
shop on your ear (literally) and you won't be allowed back in for a while, like 10 or 20
minutes. So consider yourself warned.
What to buy:
Now, when you buy your armor, buy what is appropriate for a young adventurer in your
profession. Don't buy the most expensive things.you have plenty of time to work your way
up. I have found that a leather breastplate works just fine for the beginner, and it
doesn't hinder the spell casters like metal armor does. Also, make sure you buy vambraces,
greaves, a helm and a tasset. Once you have your armor, go to the weapons shop, which is
out the door and one room east.
Here we get into some interesting selections. The bottom line is, there is not (in my
opinion) any *best* weapon for any particular profession. You will be as good with your
weapon as you want to be no matter the profession you chose. So buy what you want and can
afford. Understand the heaver the weapon, the longer the RT, even with Bows.a long bow
takes longer to use than a short bow. It is my recomendation that if you choose to go with
a bow, that you don't even bother with a short bow, if you can't afford a long bow, then
you want to move up to one as soon as possible. Also, if you buy a bow then you need to
buy arrows. I suggest you go right to barbed arrows or bolts.
Yes, we are still working from a sack, so if you have any money left over, I recommend you
find the general store and buy a backpack.now, don't bother with sheaths and all that
stuff. If you chose to go with a bow, make sure you buy a quiver.
Deposit that money!
Now, find the bank, using the maps or the DIR command and deposit everything you have
left. In The Crossing, they only deal in Kronars, so just go to the bank, go to the teller
window and type DEPOSIT ALL KRONARS. I will talk about coinage and currency later on in
this guide. Note: This is an important step, as you may die and when you die, all the
money on you poofs (this is to keep people from killing you for you money) and you don't
want to die with all the money you have in the world on you.
Our first fight:
Ok, so now we're all dressed up for a War party and have no invitation. What do we do now?
Well, we find the shipyard. Using the map or DIR, find the shipyard in the southern part
of the crossing. Go through the gate into the receiving yard, into the office, into the
work yard, go slip two, and climb the rope ladder (you may encounter rats before you even
get this far).
Once you encounter your first rat, do not panic. The creature cannot kill you immediately,
and it can't even attack you immediately. The first thing you want to do is get your
stance set. If you have a shield, make sure it is in your left hand and type STANCE
SHIELD. Then make sure you have your weapon in your right hand.
If you are using a bow, type STANCE EVA for evasion. Have your bow in your right hand, and
get an arrow (GET ARROW) and then load the bow (LOAD BOW). Once the bow is loaded, AIM RAT
or if I remember right TARGET RAT will start you aiming. Now once you have started aiming,
you can fire at the rat at anytime by typing FIRE. But if you will wait, after a number of
seconds the system will tell you "You feel you have your best shot now." And
that is when you want to type FIRE. If you wait you will get the maximum effect from your
shot.
Once you have fired your bow, get the arrow and and reload your bow. Don't keep using
arrows from your quiver, use the same arrow over and over. J
Now, back to you slashers and stabbers. If the rat has not engaged you, you need to engage
it by typing ADV RAT for `advance rat".this will begin the process of getting close
enough to attack the rat. If you are using a spear or halberd type weapon you can begin to
attack the rat as soon as it is in pole arm range, if you are using a sword, you will have
to wait till it gets within melee range.
There are several commands that you can use was you fight, I find that ATT RAT, FEINT, and
LUNGE are the most effective. ATT is more or less a choping slice. A feint is exactly
that. LUNGE RAT is the move I used to go for the final kill, but it is dangerous because
it puts you off balance and unless you in a superior tactival advantage you can quickly
find yourself at a disadvantage.
There is also RETREAT and WITHDRAW, both of which back you up. You will find that your
balance is the key to winning most battle, and you can always check your situation with
ASESS.which reports back to you what your currently situation is.
If at any time (which will be often when you are first starting out) that you find you are
in a sever dis-adavntage then you want to retreat. Regain your balance and re-attack.
Also, if all else fails, try hiding, if you can manage to hide, this will give you time to
regain your balance and regroup.
Pay attention to the battle messages you get. Since this game does not use numbers, those
messages are all you have to keep you informed with how you are doing. Now, at this time
DR is still in beta and some of these messages can be misleading, but they are working on
them daily and they are getting more and more dependable. But don't stake your life on
those messages.it's a bad habbit to get into anyway for later on when you are fighting
more than one critter at a time or hunting in a group.cuz you might misread a message.
If you continue to fight rats, you will be able to use EXP (for experience) to see that
your skills in parrying (or evasion), armor, and weapon class you are using will be
gaining in experience. Once in a while, if you haven't already seen them, you will start
seeing messages telling you that you have just gained a new rank in skill x.
Things to remember:
Always skin everything you kill. Even if you are not successful, you get skinning
experience for trying. Always search everything you kill. Even though you will never get
anything off the rats, get in the habbit. Because later when you are fighting creatures
that have treasure, you want it to be a habbit to skin and search before they decay and
you lose your opportunity to get the treasure they were carrying. Also, while you
are in the shipyard, climb that rope ladder every chance you get. You won't be able to at
first, but everytime you try you get a little climbing experience. After a while you'll
actually learning a rank of climbing. The more you do it, the more exp you'll get in
climbing.
My recommendation to you is that you continue to fight in Rats until you have reached a
point where you can kill a rat in two or three blows and the rats can't touch you at all.
Why? Because the next critter you have to fight is Goblins, and they are much more nasty
than rats, and you need to be at least that good before you are fairly assured you won't
get killed right out.
Now, make sure you type HEALTH a lot. HEALTH will tell you what visible injuries you have,
but in particular pay attention to how you feel. The reason I say this is because in DR
there are not just the visible external wounds, but there are also internal wounds that
you cannot see. You could literally have not a single visible scratch, and be bleeding to
death on the inside. The only hint you have to this possibility is to watch how you feel.
If you are feeling battered, get to an empath, DO NOT mess around, until you get a sense
through experience, any time you have any doubt, get to an empath.
Empath's hang out all over the Town Green. As of this writing they seem to hang out in the
Town Green North (TGN) and the Town Green Southeast (TGSE). If you can't find a player
empath, then go to the hospital where you will find Martyr (an NPC empath) who will heal
you once you sit or lie down. If you don't sit or lie down, you can stand there and bleed
to death.so sit or lie. You can find the hospital using the DIR command or the map.
Working on the other skills:
Once you have exhausted yourself in rats, you need to focus on some of your other skills.
So lets talk about those non-combat skills.
Skills are learned one of two ways, either by doing or from learning from another player.
I.E. if you want to improve your hiding, you need to hide in front of people or have
someone with more skill ranks than you, teach you hiding. Take my word for it, you learn a
lot faster by doing than you do by learning from another, so when ever you can, do it
yourself.
Now some of these skills may seem repetitious and boring. I don't see it that way. There
is a certain amount of repetition in any game. Either you're killing a bazillion critters,
or you're killing a few critters and doing repetitive things elsewhere. I personally like
DragonRealms approach because it allows me to do a little of this, a little of that, and
then a little more of this.and in the long run there is more than enough to do to keep it
from getting overly boring. And what is cool about it is you can be learning one skill
from someone while you practice another.or in the reverse, you can be teaching someone
something (and thus getting teaching experience) while you practice something else. NOTE:
You cannot teach while in combat! And if you are teaching a weapon skill, the teacher must
be holding the weapon in their right hand.
Spells cannot be taught or shared. Spells are one of the few things that are particular to
the Guild and can
only be learned at certain levels and cannot be taught outside the guild.
Getting that next level:
At the end of this document, I will cover how to gain experience in some of these skills,
but for now , let's
say you have all the skill ranks you think you need to advance in your guild, so what do
you do? Simple,
you go back to your guild leader and you ask him about experience.
At this point the guild leader will either promote you, or tell you what you need to do to
get promoted.
Now, this part is very confusing for people and has generated a great deal of discussion
in the message
boards, so let me explain what I understand is going on here; When you ask the guild
leader about
experience, the first thing the guild leader does is check your primary skills for your
profession (see the
player's guide) and if any of them are short of the requirement, he tells you so, and that
is the end of the
discussion, he/she doesn't even bother to look any further.
Understanding those skill requirements:
So, being the diligent little guild member you are, you go out and upgrade these
skills.and if you keep
going back you will see that the specific skills he/she sights will go away as you get
them where they need
to be. So you get it down to one skill and then go back and BAM! Now he says you need to
bring up your
weapon skills. We jeez, why didn't he tell you that before? Well, compared to your primary
skills, your
weapon skill was not important. So, you go out and bring up your weapon skill and you go
back and
BAM! Now he/she tells you that you need to bring up your primary skills over all,
especially x and y.
This last part is what makes people mad and confuses them. So let me explain what that is
all about. It
appears that the guild leader has set requirements. Each primary skill has to meet a
certain requirement
on it's own.I.E. the player must have explicitly x number of ranks in y skill. Then after
that, there is a
secondary set of skills that get checked, in my above example the weapons, armor and parry
skills. Then
after all these requirements are met, there is a an overall average for the primary skills
group! Ah, a new
term.the primary skills group *is* different than the primary skills. Primary skills are
specific, where
the skill group is the general skills that fall into that group.and those skills he picks
out when he tells
you that you need to bring up your overall average, seem to be the primary skills that are
the lowest in that
group, which are requirements for that profession.
So, even though you can bring up any skill within that skill group to help bring up the
overall average, the
guild leader is citing those skill he's recommending you bring up simply because they are
required skills
for your profession, and they are the lowest.
Some people try to read into it that the guild master is lying because he says, you need
to bring up x skill
group and that you should focus on say, swimming, yet they get promoted by never
increasing swimming.
Well he isn't lying, he's recommending, and if you make the requirement in some other way
he is not
going to hold you back. J
Once you have met all the requirements, the guild leader will congratulate you and promote
you to the
next level. With each promotion you will be granted additional TDPs that you can go raise
your stats
with. Also, if appropriate for your guild, you will be told by the guild leader when you
are able to learn a
new spell. If he doesn't offer you a new spell, then you aren't qualified, or the right
level.
Now let's get into some of the questions I get asked on the Den
that I haven't covered yet:
Q: Where is the thieves guild?
A: As I already stated, the thieves guild and access to it is a puzzle and you need to
find it on your own.
Ask the NPCs in the game about the thieves guild, talk to other thieves, read the message
boards, find a
thief in the boards and ask him in private email. Don't ask me.
Q: How do I get a familiar?
A: Right now the only profession I'm aware of that can have a familiar are the War Mages,
who have to
buy a talisman at the Artificers shop and carve it for themselves to bond with it. No, you
cannot use
another person's talisman.
Q: How do you get deeds in this game?
A: In this game deeds are called "favors." Getting a favor is a puzzle, but if
you ask around the game, it's
not a well kept secret anymore.
Q: How come I never got to pick my stats?
A: Your stats we rolled for you when you touched the figurine, you can keep touching the
figurine over
and over to keep re-rolling.
Q: I don't want to be a Paladin, but I was made one before I even came out of the CM.
A: Well if you would have just continued through with your character creation, you would
have discovered
that you came out a commoner. It appears that the variables for your character needed to
be initialized to
something, and so before you come out, you are a human paladin that is like 50 years
old.just finish out
your character creation, you'll be fine.
Q: What is Mech Lore and how do I get experience in it?
A: Mech Lore is the knowledge of mechanical things. There are a few ways to get it, one
being the
lighting of fires.yeah that's what all those people are doing that keep striking flint.
Q: How do I get climbing experience?
A: Climb anything and everything you can find. As an example, the rope ladder in the
shipyard.
Q: How to I get swimming experience?
A: There is a brook out in the western wilds, you can get swimming experience there. There
is an area
under the new town of Riverhaven where you can get swimming experience.
Q: Is there any jobs in DragonRealms?
A: If you find one you let me know okay? The closest thing I know of to a job is
collecting sticks and
selling them to Mags who is in the town bizarre (north of the Town Green Northeast). Other
than that you
can hunt or become a trader.
Q: How do I get out of the Warehouse?
A: Again, this is a puzzle that Simutronics does not want revealed. I will tell you that
there is a way out,
in fact there are two. One is a puzzle, one is hidden.
Q: What have you found to forage for?
A: Branches and Sticks, although I hear there are other things to forage for and more
coming.
Q: What level are you in DR?
A: Uhm, what day is it? Oh.it's my re-roll day.I'm level 0 J
Q: How does money work?
A: Really it's easy, it works like this;
Let's say something costs 1034 Kronar.then here what it breaks down to.
1 0 3 4
| | | |
| | | |___4
copper
| | |____ 3 bronze
| |______0 silver or, you could
just give them 1,034 coppers J
|________1 gold
So in other words, 10 copper = 1 bronze
10
bronze = 1 silver
10
silver = 1 gold
10
gold = 1 platinum
Now, different areas accept different currency. The Crossing accepts
Kronars, and Riverhaven
accepts Lirums. This is just like the U.S. accepts the Dollar, and
Mexico accepts the Peso.
Every bank I have been in, has a money changer that will convert
anything into anything, and
no, I haven't found a place that accepts Dokoras. So I can only imagine
that is coming.
Ok, that's it for now, as I get more questions, I'll answer them and then re-post this to
the Den.
Enjoy, and I'll see you in DR!
Zepath