Irongron wrote: ↑Mon Jan 22, 2024 8:37 pmIn answer to 98lbs - I really enjoyed reading your comments and definitely gave me some food for thought. I think you are right that there are some hurdles such an old game cannot surmount, at least not without even further departing from 3.5 D&D.
There is actually a 'how to get started on Arelith' article on our home page but it is out of date, if only a little. In general I should get back to regularly publishing there.
Do you think it would help to actually make myself and other key staff personally available for new players in a monthly Discord chat? We could likely easily add a tag/role to all recently joined so such Discord events were only for them.
Generally yes. Though I think people that make it to the discord also get help by the wider community too which is kind of the lifeblood of communities in the real life hobby too. But since I struggle sometimes to actually know what (for example) the setting is ought to be, this could help re-affirm that to newer people, it's also more official. I still think a more concentrated and easy to access place for key questions would be good.
Plus it bottlenecks it with staff availability.
I also did check again and just flat out didn't associate Players Handbook with the guide, which is actually pretty good now that I found it. Maybe the compendium of builds could be linked here if its curated a bit more so newer players can just follow that along, takes a bit of stress off and focus on the RP and exploring the world. My newbie friends usually direct their questions at me and everyone (all dozens or so) appreciated having a clear build guide to follow while learning the game rather than being bogged down by the choices and math ontop of getting into a large world where some baseline expectations do exist.
Though it still kind of lacks setting info in detail? A starter guide probably doesnt need it but the wiki could have a cordor entry where one could research it a bit. People will default to googling it and that's how they find 5e lore or in the case of the city itself - nothing
I learned in my 2nd year that Andunor was supposed to be similarish to skullport, then read up on skullport and then it made click while ingame I just kinda didn't know what to expect except "underdark" which can vary greatly. Just makes it a bit harder to jump in and get immersed.
Aradin is also 100% spot on with the social media. It's a pretty dedicated thing and benefits from someone having that as their focus too, social media stuff is really a skill.