Howdy all, I'm new to Lusternia and looking for a little advice.

Looking for some experienced opinions regarding what would be best for me to start with, to enjoy Lusternia. I don't intend to spend money on credits until I'm sure I'm going to be interested and stay interested. Which is sort of a pain, since credits always make it interesting.

So what would you suggest a brand new player do? I love RP, I don't enjoy the 'snuggly' RP so much, and I like playing 'darker' characters. I enjoy PK, but RP comes first to me. I haven't tried playing Lusternia yet and have dabbled with the other games, so I figured I'd give it a go. I guess I'm looking for suggestions as to what class/orgs to be part of that will give me a good feel for the game before I sink money into my character.

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

You should read about the organizations and see what really rings true to you. At a glance, most people would probably say Glomdoring or Magnagora. I don't know how you define 'dark', but Celest isn't just a happy snuggly place (though it definitely can be). You'll find some zealots there. There are some characters there that are more likely to stab you in the gut, then tell you it's your fault than say hi to you.

Define "dark". Glomdoring is dark in a secretive and spooky sort of way and have great RP, especialy if you're into extreme fanatism and but have a very small playerbase. Magnagora is dark in a more overt and grisly sort of way and have more people along with a millitant streak.

As other people have implied, I think Glomdoring is probably the closest to what you're looking for. They are recognized as having some of the most avid RP-ers in the game. They are "dark" in that they are the forest of no mercy. They teach sacrificing everything for the Glomdoring, and value stealth and deception. The downside is that they also have the smallest playerbase, and are undergoing a lot of change right now. They are seeing a (good) turnover in some leadership, and there is a good deal of political manipulation. It's been a pretty harsh place since it opened, both ICly and OOCly, but could be quite a bit of fun for you.

If you don't want to invest in credits yet, I would recommend bards (Harbingers guild). I don't know much about the guild structure though, only that the class itself is interesting and doesn't require many credits to have fun with. Shadowdancers are also a lot of fun, but they require more credits to get to being competent fighters. I would advise against warriors...they are pretty good fighters at low levels, but bashing is ridiculously slow until you get to high levels. They can kill other equally-ranked players at low levels easily enough, but when they get to high levels they require more credits than any other class to become "viable" in higher-tier combat. Blacktalon are the last possibility, but they also are not great for bashing, and will require at least a few credits to be viable in combat.

I don’t think anyone can really help you decide on where to go or what type of RP you decide to put forth in game. I strongly suggest you do some reading while you are slugging your way through Newton. Read the histories of the guilds/cities/communes and such to get a base line idea of what each RP is suppose to be in theory. Then immerse yourself in developing your character. You will have some very quiet moments that will make you wonder why the hell you wanted to play the game, but stick to it. Talk to people even if they just give you a polite nod. Make yourself known without becoming a pesky nuisance. In time you will be pleasantly surprised to discover that you have established your first core group of people you enjoying playing with. From there the sky is yours!

You don't have to be in Magnagora or Glomdoring to play a 'darker' character. My character has never been your typical 'good' or 'mercyful' or 'benevolent' and I do just fine in Seren.

Also, if you start in Glomdoring or Magnagora be ready to be treated lowly at first. You do have to earn your rank before you'll be recognized.

In Seren and Celest the atomssphere tends to be lighter and not as militaristic in my experience. Doesn't mean you can't meet 'evil' people there though.

Aesyra is basically the case-in-point for evil Serenwilders. She makes Kalodan look like an innocent cherub, and even Krellan cowers when she walks by.

I realize you don't know who those people are, but you will soon, and it will put everything in perspective.

umm I dunno what Aesy you're talking about, but my Aesy is a big snuggle bunny. Krellan's pretty...well I guess the best way to describe him is weird. It mostly depends on who he knows and is interacting. I still love love how he disfavoured Kharvik when he joined, then Kharvik got two communefavours giving him a higher rank than his original rank before the disfavour and he got a guildfavour. That just cracked me up. I'm with everyone else thinking you'll like GLom, but also a lot of people find it really hard to stay there, Glomdoring is in a sort of trial period right now with the admin and things are trying to change.

I agree, that was pretty hilarious. Laysus still doesn't believe that disfavouring a CR1 person does absolutely nothing; we argued about it a bit after that happened. I gave him my guildfavour, but not for that, more just because. The two communefavours were amazing, though.

Why didn't you disfavour me a few times when I joined?

haha you think they would've learned. I mean I got so many disfavours at GR1. never made a difference. Also, notice how everytime someone actually earns a favour they require two favours to be moved to CR2. Kaervas got 1 CDF and 2 CF's and then ended up at CR2.