The word n00b is not used here, except in regards to Narsrim. Feel free to berate him for it in tells.

Magnagora is harsh. Excellent novice support, but don't expect to get away with *anything* until you get to know a few people fairly well. Basic militaristic fruitcakes, with the Taint, Necromancy and demon lords lending them pwnsauce. If you can avoid messing up before you get to know a few higher up people, you'll be set.

Serenwilde is competing for the title of "snuggliest place in the basin". Fairly militaristic too, but only with a few members - the rest are all busy frolicing through the woods. The Moondancers are probably the most role orientated guild there, and easily one of the most overpowered ones in game. Try it. If your head doesn't explode from all the cutsy names, you'll have fun.

Celest is in the hole. They used to have great rp, (fanatic zealots making everything difficult) but upon realising it was killing off their city, they gutted it and left the main problems in anyway. If you can find someone who isn't interested in berating you for not wearing the correct colour shoes (also competing for the title), it's good fun, though. Try the Paladins, here. Terrible novice program, but they're a fairly interesting guild to play in terms of rp and skillsets.

Glomdoring is a dictatorship. Once the leaders find an OOC reason to dislike you, expect an IC reason appearing shortly accompanied with a boot. It's like Celest combined with MAgnagora, with an utterly insane Goddess (who rocks, incidently, and rocks hard) and constant griefing expeditions from Serenwilde. If you're a masochist, I suppose, give it a whack. They advertise for "harder" rp, which is, in reality, unpleasant. But enough ranting: It's about as interesting as Serenwilde, just think an evil, less snuggly, more random idiot, less populated Serenwilde. And try the Blacktalon. They're great fun.

You do have one reincarnation plus the novice system (similar to Achaea's) to help settle into a race and guild without losing anything on your character. You can also just try some throw away characters to get a feel for the options, which is possible in all the IRE games.

Many times players will know some of what they want to do. For example, some may decide they want to be a warrior only and will pick a race that matches that and float around to see which warriors guilds fits them best by switching through the different cities. Finding a race that works well with a specific class is pretty much like how you would do it in Achaea. High INT works well with spell casters and high STR works well with warriors. You can make it more complex than that, but that's a good starting point.

Others frequently decide they want to be, for example, evil but do not know which class to be. (Actually we call them "archetypes" here, but most people understand the word "class". We call them archetypes because it has much more flexibility than the typical class systems.) This situation is problematic in most IRE games since a race usually ties to a class. So if you start as a troll in Mhaldar but find out the Maaldathi aren't for you and finally settle on the Apostates, you have to reincarnate or, if you already used it up, suicide and start over. We have city/commune oriented races for each city/commune that should work well in any guild of that city/commune. For example, the Elfen work well in all guilds of the Serenwilde and the Viscanti work well in all guilds of Magnagora, etc. So if you know you want to support the cause of one of the cities/communes available, you would do well to chose its native race. This gives you the freedom to switch between the guilds of that city/commune until you find the one you like best.

I would also add there are many venues available for you to pursue. It may be good to think about where you want to focus you energies on. Some of them are the standard fare for IRE games and MUDs in general, but I think Lusternia has more. You of course have bashers and questers like every other MUD. Questing can be particularly complex here. Most of Achaea's best quests IMO were written by Eris, who is Estarra here. Several quests have different solutions every time you do them. For example, there is a murder mystery quest that is basically a game of Clue with a different killer and weapon every time you do the quest. And there are quests that directly impact the world's economy and the balance of power between player organizations. Browse through the web site for some info on these. Click on the "Quests" link.

There are a little more political outlets in Lusternia if you want to pursue the political game since we have more guild positions, like the champion fighter, and also more city/commune powers, such as governing styles that elected officials can use to impact the way the city/commune interacts with NPC orgs like villages. Again, check the web site for more info if this sounds interesting to you. (Look through the "Society" section's link.)

If you want to be an explorer, the Aethercraft system is a good thing to pursue, providing a level of exploration beyond the typical MUD.

The influence system makes it easier to level up and participate in things if you wish to RP a strict non-violent pacifist like Achaea's Bambi, an alternative to violent bashing. Though you may face strong peer pressure to participate in village influencing if you are a champion influencer, which is great for some people and not great for others. See HELP INFLUENCE. Some races and guilds are better at influencing than others. Charisma is the key to races. Some guilds have skills that boost influencing. Talk to guild novice aides for help in that area.

There is a large selection of trade skills that also provide useful non-trade skills to boost PK or whatever and a more complex economy than Achaea's. Almost every item is player-produced, even the vials and personal journals. Players can directly and indirectly influence the productivity of village commodity production, and villages are more properly influenced by supply and demand laws than Achaea. So I think you will have more options in merchantry than Achaea if that's your thing. Browse around the web site to see what trade skills are available for you. (Some are restricted to certain guilds.) I believe all trade skills also offer special skills to boost your character. For example, crafters of poison can build themselves immunities to the poisons they brew. This provides lots of possibilities to pursue a merchant character. See HELP TRADESKILLS. Probably any race and guild works for merchant. You could even do that guildless, though I don't recommend being guildless.

The ability to pursue a PKer is easier to participate in here since we have tried to provide automated checks and balances on it instead of having a lawyer's tome of rules enforced by human judgement like Achaea has, so less worry of people threating to issue if you kill them after they taunt you and your mother for an hour. Some races, archetypes, and skillset choices within an archetype are better for PK than others; talk to guild novice aides for guidance for guidance.

If you are interested in god worshipping but didn't like Achaea's divine order system for whatever reason, the orders here are pretty different from Achaea.

And for more esoteric RP goals you may have, the guild skill choices provide good flexibility. For example, if you have settled on Aquamancers then you could be an standard elementalist by choosing Runes. Or maybe you want to be a shadowy spy by choosing Dreamweaving. As a Nihilist, you could go the extra evil route with Hexes, or you could go the scholar route with Astrology. The variety there is too complex to describe every possibility here and you would be best off going through the help files of the guilds to see which skillset combinations you have and the help files of the skillsets themselves or talking to guild novice aides.

I hope this helps. If you have specific ideas on what you want to do in the world then that would be helpful in whittling down your options.


PS - Never snuggle Roark. Never.

Just for the record, Yrael is famously biased, almost as much as Guido.

Wow, everyone! Thanks for all the advice. And Divine suggestions as well!

I have to admit, a couple hours into Lusternia and I'm drawn in. The learning system is amazing, and I'm still boggling at all the abilities I can get with just a few lessons spent, that are equivelent to much harder to obtain skills in Achaea. (Weaponprobe and diagnose being two such examples.)

The RP, amazing. I think if I do switch here fulltime, that will be the reason. Well, one of them, but it was almost impossible to find consistent roleplayers in Achaea.

Thanks again!

Is it true they have sex slaves in Achaea?

Why does that matter, we have them here too.

I know, but I want more of them

Well, you could always start your own ring I guess. Can't be that difficult.

Sorry. No. I'm allergic to D&D novels. They make me break out in a rash of mirthless laughter.

The fact that you know they are from D&D novels makes me think you read them at some point anyway .

Arix's Mobile Booty Emporium?

I could have sworn Raistlin was from dragon lance not d&d?

Dragonlance = D&D setting

And Richter is in no way as badass as Raistlin. Or...Murphy in any way like Caramon except that he hits things with weapons. (And yes, Ferlas, Dragonlance was developed from a D&D campaign, apparently.)

Join Glomdoring and BlackTalon!! We've got a world breaking ritualist, a awesome Administrator and a champion who kills you and makes Seren think he's gone traitor! And...we sometimes eat novices and apprentices.

Oh ok, well either way I thought Caramon was pretty goody goody anyway? Wasn't he like Raistlins older nicer brother or am I like totally mixing this all up with someone else?

No, you're exactly right...did someone say something that made you think otherwise?

"Murphy = goody goody" would make anyone think twice

Exactly as foren said, he was compared to murphy.