Is skal best place for unexp rp'er

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Is skal best place for unexp rp'er

Post by Senshi » Mon Jun 14, 2021 4:49 pm

I may have my gf join at somepoint.

She has no RP exp at all.

Can she join Skal fine or would another player server be best to learn before joining arelith?

She will make many mistakes as all new rp players do.
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Re: Is skal best place for unexp rp'er

Post by Good Character » Mon Jun 14, 2021 6:49 pm

Yes and no. It's a liftoff point for a new roleplayer because it's very forgiving and friendly to those who have almost no knowledge of the lore. However, because it's so forgiving and appreciates the ignorant it may give her an inappropriate perspective on how to behave elsewhere.

In my experience for when I started roleplaying more than 15 years ago, I say it's better to throw yourself in the deep end with good roleplayers if you (or her, in this case) genuinely wants to roleplay well down the line.

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Re: Is skal best place for unexp rp'er

Post by Ordo.Lupus » Mon Jun 14, 2021 7:42 pm

I would break it into several smaller categories.

1. Learning basic RP
I've been RP for several years by now. Both as PnP, Larp, RPG/MMORPG so joining a nwn RP server isn't any new deal for me. The basics is more or less just "stay in character". And to help with that a short description or concept of character can be very helpful.
You can do this pretty much everywhere.

2. Learning "advanced" RP
To me this is more the "story" of the character if the basic "stay IC" was the intro/prelude. This is where you want to surround yourself with experienced RPer that can help you in unfolding the story of life for your character.

3. Learning NWN vanilla mechanics
Pretty simple. But I would advice to learn how to 'not run everywhere you go'. I've bound the 'z' key to regular forward walk. Others use Detect mode.

4. Learning Arelith mechanics
PGCC and arelith wiki can teach you alot but there are some matters that you have to experience first hand before you understand them as they can be somewhat complex. There are alot of custom content and changes to vanilla NWN that it would be nice to have an overview of. Like most classes gain additional skills and feat. But also constraints or mechanical changes. You should memorize them but just know that Arelith has made a few changes.

5. Learning Lore
Honestly I still know Jack's Hat about D&D lore. I've googled a bit and viewed a few youtube videoes about it. But I still feel that I only know the bare basics. However I must say that the people I've encountered are very kind and generous with sharing their vast knowledge about lore. Both D&D but also Arelith specific lore.

For me Skal could be a decent place to learn 1, 3, 4.
Getting to point 2 depends on you and the surrounding players but also Skal's ability to aid them in character development. Here I see Skal a bit lacking but at the time where you perhaps want to explore the next chapter of your character then you're already leaving Skal for the mainland (due to level restrictions). I don't consider Skal the best place for learning point 5. Given some people might be able to teach you a bit.
On the other hand then Skal is a great place to start since you can almost be certain to find people near your level and thus writwork. This allows you to get to alot of people pretty quickly and thus get a bunch of friends to RP with. This shouldn't be underestimated as nobody wants to play all alone.

TL:DR
Skal can be a good place to start with the basics. But it has its limits too
"To every man is given the key to the gates of heaven. The same key opens the gates of hell" - Richard P. Feynman

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Re: Is skal best place for unexp rp'er

Post by Ork » Mon Jun 14, 2021 8:52 pm

I learned from watching other people play. I think the best place would be Skal, and I don't think you need to teach her much of anything. Ask what type of thing she wants to do, and base the character off that. She can learn as she goes. Mistakes are fine. As long as she reads the rules and tries to take them into account, I doubt anything bad'll happen.

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Re: Is skal best place for unexp rp'er

Post by Drogo Gyslain » Mon Jun 14, 2021 8:55 pm

So based on how the staff and DMs have tried to portray Skal.

No.

Skal is meant to be Arelith (Hardmode), and be increasingly RP intensive, focused on Low Level RP. Far to often though, it turns into Joke RP, and the phrase "Only in Skal" has been uttered more than once in my presence.

In practice? It's as good a place to start as any, and people don't take life as seriously on Skal as they do in Guldorand or Cordor. It is a bit more laid back, and there is less lore to be hit in the face with walking in the door for the first time.

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Re: Is skal best place for unexp rp'er

Post by Ork » Mon Jun 14, 2021 11:29 pm

Skal was never meant to be arelith (hardmode). It was just the starter settlement for Arelith's first server on Enhanced. It isn't hard.

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Re: Is skal best place for unexp rp'er

Post by Duchess Says » Tue Jun 15, 2021 12:07 am

I would actually say the Underdark is the best place to start. A very fun place to level up, welcoming players (at least, the players who would welcome you, it’s very divided by race) and easy to get swept up in something. Cordor can be much to standoffish, Sencliff is the real “hard mode”, Earthkin area can be good if you are of the right race but can also be lonely and repetitive. Obviously the problem with the Underdark is you have to play an underdarker which may not appeal.

Skal is also a good place to start. It can be goofy but can be solid too. The thing that is either an advantage or disadvantage there is you’ll have to leave at level 16 and most of what you did there will be left behind (maybe you’ll retain a few friendships, maybe). In a way it is very good for an inexperienced player to work things out there as you kind of get a reset in your story when you go to Arelith main, nobody will remember your past mistakes.

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Re: Is skal best place for unexp rp'er

Post by Archnon » Tue Jun 15, 2021 12:17 am

I find that there tends to be a lot of low level pvp on skal whereas most of the rest of the server is more sensitive to people not wanting to get stomped in their starting levels. I would recommend the midtier settlements like bendir, brog, myon, arcane tower, etc. These places help you hone your RP in a group setting that isn't an overwhelming city and come with lots of helpful players floating about.

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Re: Is skal best place for unexp rp'er

Post by Ork » Tue Jun 15, 2021 1:25 am

As the resident Skal-enjoyer, the hate for the starting location is hype and memes perpetrated by non-skal enjoyers. I have been in 4 incidents of PvP in Skal over the years, and all 4 of those times were story-driven. I don't want to be continually hounding that skal is GOOD, and I'll stop after this post but - don't listen to the haters, fam.

Here's what Skal has:

- impermanence (good for mistakes)
- fantastic scroll options for low levels
- consistent low level players ready and eager to party
- very forgiving players (you won't find the same in the UD or surface, sadly)
- intuitive dungeons

Here's what Skal is not:

- A place to tell long-term stories (everyone leaves after a few months)
- Congested with epics
- hyper observance of weird, unintuitive law

After a month, everyone your character knew has probably moved on. Great if you want to shift over to the surface without being encumbered with mistakes you made while learning to roleplay.

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Re: Is skal best place for unexp rp'er

Post by Wethrinea » Tue Jun 15, 2021 6:36 am

Skal is a great place to start any character, especially if you are a new player. As Ork points out, the level range is such that you can always count on finding people to team up with, and the absence of epics and strong factions means almost any concept goes, even animators, warlocks and others who will normally be found out and hunted down early in their careers on Arelith proper.

I also find it has a much more welcoming atmosphere, probably because all characters are below 17 and none are permanents. That there is one central settlement also helps that feeling of community.

Some of my most enjoyable moments have been on Skal, and you will often find that characters with a past on Skal easily connect with you when you land on Arelith proper.
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Re: Is skal best place for unexp rp'er

Post by Morgy » Tue Jun 15, 2021 7:41 pm

Ork wrote:
Tue Jun 15, 2021 1:25 am
As the resident Skal-enjoyer, the hate for the starting location is hype and memes perpetrated by non-skal enjoyers. I have been in 4 incidents of PvP in Skal over the years, and all 4 of those times were story-driven. I don't want to be continually hounding that skal is GOOD, and I'll stop after this post but - don't listen to the haters, fam.

Here's what Skal has:

- impermanence (good for mistakes)
- fantastic scroll options for low levels
- consistent low level players ready and eager to party
- very forgiving players (you won't find the same in the UD or surface, sadly)
- intuitive dungeons

Here's what Skal is not:

- A place to tell long-term stories (everyone leaves after a few months)
- Congested with epics
- hyper observance of weird, unintuitive law

After a month, everyone your character knew has probably moved on. Great if you want to shift over to the surface without being encumbered with mistakes you made while learning to roleplay.

I support this.

I read a lot of anti-skal sentiment by people who haven't probably played there in a long, long time. The current PCs there change so often, that you can't really write the place off based on a few historical encounters. It's true there have been griefers in the past, but this really isn't common. The stories and RP tends to be shorter, which is actually a good thing for a brand new player, imo.

I start the majority of my PCs there, as so many good RPers I've met in my time here.

Really, I suppose it depends if you want to begin your PCs in a 'civilisation' type location, such as Cordor, or a remote/wilderness location like Skal.

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Re: Is skal best place for unexp rp'er

Post by AstralUniverse » Tue Jun 15, 2021 11:46 pm

Skal is great.

And Ork's post really covers it better than I could have. It's really THE place for someone with 0 experience in this server and/or RP in nwn, and I personally enjoy Skal a lot as a veteran player all the same. It's not without downsides (Stories dont last long, player shops are pretty crap most of the time) but it's great over all and you'll find that despite the fact there's high rotation of characters in Skal, you can still make the stories as deep as you like and people (especially new players) just go with the flow and innovate.
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Re: Is skal best place for unexp rp'er

Post by msterswrdsmn » Wed Jun 16, 2021 3:02 am

I'd say it really depends on what kind of character you're going to play.

If you're looking to play a hated antagonist, Skal might not be the best area for you to start in. The in-game community of skal is relatively small, and if the majority of the population determine you to be a problem, its very likely you'll be shunned or kicked around by the majority of the skal population...which is probably going to be very unenjoyable for a new player.

That said, its a great introduction to roleplay (pve, not so much), as the smaller community and single settlement make it far easier to run into people.

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Re: Is skal best place for unexp rp'er

Post by MRFTW » Wed Jun 16, 2021 4:30 am

Ork wrote:
Mon Jun 14, 2021 8:52 pm
I learned from watching other people play. I think the best place would be Skal, and I don't think you need to teach her much of anything. Ask what type of thing she wants to do, and base the character off that. She can learn as she goes. Mistakes are fine. As long as she reads the rules and tries to take them into account, I doubt anything bad'll happen.
I couldn't agree more with Ork and all of their posts in this thread. Skal isn't "hard", it's group-oriented. A person and their partner playing together is already enough of a team to take on all Skal content at the appropriate level.

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Re: Is skal best place for unexp rp'er

Post by Senshi » Wed Jun 16, 2021 10:59 am

Drogo Gyslain wrote:
Mon Jun 14, 2021 8:55 pm
So based on how the staff and DMs have tried to portray Skal.

No.

Skal is meant to be Arelith (Hardmode), and be increasingly RP intensive, focused on Low Level RP. Far to often though, it turns into Joke RP, and the phrase "Only in Skal" has been uttered more than once in my presence.

In practice? It's as good a place to start as any, and people don't take life as seriously on Skal as they do in Guldorand or Cordor. It is a bit more laid back, and there is less lore to be hit in the face with walking in the door for the first time.
This blows my mind.. I always thought it was for new players..
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Re: Is skal best place for unexp rp'er

Post by Senshi » Wed Jun 16, 2021 11:04 am

OK so reading all the posts , i can see the ups and downs.

I think ill have her start in skal with me as a neutral ranger.

Pets and Nature loving should help with RP learning and the community focus should help her warm up to it all.

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Re: Is skal best place for unexp rp'er

Post by lakhena » Wed Jun 16, 2021 12:14 pm

I think if you’re hoping to introduce her to rp, you should stick with her through the first pc, no matter where she starts, server wise. After all, you’re the one who will benefit if she games with you, right?

I personally wouldn’t take someone to Skal to show them how to RP as I would want them to see people not running around and to also offer deeper RP opportunities beyond fireside chats. It’s like if I’m introducing someone to a new type of cuisine, I don’t start at the casual, inauthentic place. I’ll go somewhere that does the dishes well enough (not fancy, mind you) so they’re more excited to keep trying. In the same way, you should go where you expect high quality rp so you get your gf excited about staying and trying to RP. Or you give her that high quality RP experience.

Sorry to be a Skal naysayer here, but it was the first place I started on Arelith and it gave me a bad impression of the server, from an RP quality perspective. It took months before I tried again in Cordor. Subsequent visits to Skal haven’t had me change my opinion.

I don’t recommend the UD for a new player at all because it’s too lore intensive.
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Re: Is skal best place for unexp rp'er

Post by msterswrdsmn » Wed Jun 16, 2021 4:48 pm

To clarify some of the other posts, I think why people keep refering to Skal as "Hardcore mode" isn't because of the roleplay. The pc mobs, last I played, were aggressively unfriendly and far more difficult than the mainland mobs.

Some of the beginner writs immediately available have some incredibly unforgiving enemies, including an enemy with an onhit-paralysis weapon (a death sentence with low level saves) and a fair number of stat draining or poison inflicting enemies.

Things typically don't get much better at higher levels, requiring either a very, very long trek through a large area, or a shorter trek with enemies that have a tendency to have very sharp difficulty spikes. Saytars shooting you from across the map behind an unreachable hill comes to mind, as well as the minotuar cave boss, which is much, much stronger than the spawns leading to it. Greater Graveworms and their ability to drain your CON also come to mind.

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Re: Is skal best place for unexp rp'er

Post by Duchess Says » Wed Jun 16, 2021 6:23 pm

lakhena wrote:
Wed Jun 16, 2021 12:14 pm
I think if you’re hoping to introduce her to rp, you should stick with her through the first pc, no matter where she starts, server wise. After all, you’re the one who will benefit if she games with you, right?

I personally wouldn’t take someone to Skal to show them how to RP as I would want them to see people not running around and to also offer deeper RP opportunities beyond fireside chats. It’s like if I’m introducing someone to a new type of cuisine, I don’t start at the casual, inauthentic place. I’ll go somewhere that does the dishes well enough (not fancy, mind you) so they’re more excited to keep trying. In the same way, you should go where you expect high quality rp so you get your gf excited about staying and trying to RP. Or you give her that high quality RP experience.

Sorry to be a Skal naysayer here, but it was the first place I started on Arelith and it gave me a bad impression of the server, from an RP quality perspective. It took months before I tried again in Cordor. Subsequent visits to Skal haven’t had me change my opinion.

I don’t recommend the UD for a new player at all because it’s too lore intensive.
This is a very pretentious attitude. Skal players are Arelith players, they aren’t inauthentic RPers because they aren’t jumping into Cordor politics or settlement social events. Chats by the fire are a wonderful way to learn to inhabit a character.

I think Skal actually offers the most traditional Dungeons and Dragons experience where characters from different and even conflicting backgrounds team up in parties to explore and plunder dungeons. That alone, instead of expecting them to immediately care about island politics is a good reason to start there if they know and like D&D or PNP already.

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Re: Is skal best place for unexp rp'er

Post by Aniel » Wed Jun 16, 2021 10:03 pm

Easy +1 for Skaljard for me. It's a very easy setting to jump into. You arrive at a hamlet in a frozen wasteland and have to survive against local threats. The place is very condensed, it's very easy to find people. There's a lot of great roleplay that goes on there.

Jumping into Cordor is far harder in my opinion. It's very wide, open, and can be scarcely populated because there's so much more space. There's a lack of direction as well. You go and pick up writs, you do them, and then you come back to the city where people are often concerned about the Underdark or something else far away.

The Underdark isn't bad either if that's what they're after, though it's hard to recommend due to it lacking longevity because the Underdark is the Underdark after all.

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Re: Is skal best place for unexp rp'er

Post by Kenji » Thu Jun 17, 2021 12:49 am

Honestly, if I wanted to feel like I'm actually playing a D&D game I'd definitely start on Skal. The politics and drama absolutely bore me to death.

Though there are plenty of veteran players on Surface and UD that can be very friendly towards newbie PCs or players. I've had more positive experiences than negative in pretty much all of the starting locations.

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Re: Is skal best place for unexp rp'er

Post by AstralUniverse » Thu Jun 17, 2021 6:31 pm

lakhena wrote:
Wed Jun 16, 2021 12:14 pm
I personally wouldn’t take someone to Skal to show them how to RP as I would want them to see people not running around and to also offer deeper RP opportunities beyond fireside chats. It’s like if I’m introducing someone to a new type of cuisine, I don’t start at the casual, inauthentic place. I’ll go somewhere that does the dishes well enough (not fancy, mind you) so they’re more excited to keep trying. In the same way, you should go where you expect high quality rp so you get your gf excited about staying and trying to RP. Or you give her that high quality RP experience.
Oh wow... this is a really bad advice, except MAYBE for someone who has a lot of experience in other similar hard-core RP servers in nwn. And even then, it's still condescending. Some players, and especially new players, enjoy what you call shallow RP fire camp chats (and yes, it is directly implied from what you said) and this is a very very good introduction to RP in arelith.
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Re: Is skal best place for unexp rp'er

Post by Curve » Thu Jun 17, 2021 7:07 pm

Lord above, they are offering an opinion that is prefaced with "I personally". Nobody is being condescending.

I prefer Cordor and would send someone there. No shade on Skall, it's just not my cup of tea.

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Re: Is skal best place for unexp rp'er

Post by LichBait » Thu Jun 17, 2021 8:26 pm

For new folk, who want a more authentic DnD experience, I echo that Skaljard is a good place to start and get one's feet wet. It's pretty amazing for it.

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Re: Is skal best place for unexp rp'er

Post by Skald Haldi » Thu Jun 17, 2021 9:08 pm

Skal is my favorite area.
It's small.
It's easy to learn.
Resources are abundant, so crafting is simpler.
The players are concentrated into the one town.
Everyone is about the same level - increasing cooperation on writs.

To me, the "only in Skal" meme is ONLY something that people say in-character.
Just b/c our characters hate Skal doesn't reflect the players' true opinion.

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