New Player ( please read and advise)

[wasgreg]

Well Met! Greetings! and Hello!

I recently was accepted into ALFA ( active player number 322 Wee!)

I am wasgreg.... I play under ID wasagreg

I am looking for a server that is right for me. Comments, advice, and greetings are quite welcome ( and encouraged )


My times of play.

I am an addict. I can play most every night from midnight to 3:30 am EST. I ~think~ that is GMT-5, but not really sure. Most of my Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays are wide open. However, if I have to miss one day one the weekend, it usually means I am away and miss the entire weekend. I am told these are bad times for weekdays. But, as that is my normal sleep/work/ fun times, not gonna really change. Also, for play time, other people on the server is more important to me than DM's on the server. Maybe that will change sometime, but I like to meet peeps.


My play style.

I am an addict. I love the roleplay aspect. But, I do need action. I can roleplay for hours on end if I am doing something. Making a camp, searchng a barn for a coin, climbing trees looking for the rare Yellowbreasted Hornbeaked Sembian Swallow's nests to gather eggs for a potion to cure hair loss. These things are fine and I can have fun with that. I am worse at RolePlay when it is sitting at a table for hours just chattin'. Strange, cus RL I can do it easily. I am not opposed to combat, but I do not ~need~ it. I can do the tavern chat. I just would not play if every day was tavern chat. So that is very important to me in a server as well.


My background.

I am an addict. I started playing pnp RpG's in the early 80's. AD&D was my first game. Played it at Ball State University student center in one of the cafeteria rooms turned over to a RPG club. I have played OOOODLES of different RPG's some good. Some oh oh oh so bad. I play with a regular gaming group. However, we find it harder and harder to get together. Also, our "character style" has become stagnant. RL has also affected it. I played NWN for a long time, several servers, primarily Taliv and offshoots from it. Was lured to the MMORPG Lineage2. Beautiful graphics, but no roleplay. Over time, I began to miss NWN more and more. I came back and played several servers for a few minutes to a few hours. I settled on CEPSciFi Itropa. I truely enjoyed it. And still do. But Roleplay is much more "lite" there. In other words, my addiction wasnot being fed. So stumbled on OAS Alfa.....



I have thought upon The Silver Marches... it is a reccomended server, DM's are supposed to be focusing on it this month. and most of all while I was in RP101, Ludo in the guise of her OAS bard was encouraging me to play there.


I also have met a few friends on OAS that play on other servers. Rangerxlt and treehouse. They play on other servers and I would enjoy playin' with them again as other toons for sure.

Truthfully, I do not worry about making friends though. This is a very friendly community. Even if the DM's delight in killing of my toons My immagination is endless and I can keep creating more for thier gratification. ( and mine)


Please give input. Hi's are nice and welcome. But a hi and some advice would be even better.


wasgreg wasALFA'n

[darrenhfx]

Welcome to ALFA, that was quite an intro

My suggestion, and you may have already done this, is to keep an eye on gamespy to gauge the number of players online during your playing hours and read the server forums for the areas you think you may be interested in. If you have OAS friends who have been playing on a few servers, get their opinion.

Find that sweet spot and have fun.

D

[Valiantman]

You said you weren't an addict?

[HEEGZ]

My suggestion, and you may have already done this, is to keep an eye on gamespy to gauge the number of players online during your playing hours and read the server forums for the areas you think you may be interested in.

That is exactly what I was going to say. When you are online, watch for which servers have the most people logged in when you are available. Once you narrow it down to a few of them, check the server pages for which one suits you best. Yes, EST is GMT -5 so you are available 0500-0830 GMT then.

[Ludo]

I've tried gamespy browsing, and for me it doesn't work. Too hard to interpret the data thus gathered. Since you often can't get into a campaign while it's running you might see a lot of players at a certain time and not be able to play with them.

Forum - Calendar of Events, Announcement(Poll) ALFA-wide DM schedule. EST is GMT-5 so go to DMs by timeslot (a link in the text) and look for timeslots 0300 and 0600. I just did and got Thursday:

TPI Syntaqx 0400-? by arrangement Thursday and Saturday
TPI Soulchrusher 0400-? Sunday
BG Coach 0500-0800 Sunday
SP Ecclessia 0400-0800 Thursday

Then go to DMs by server for more info on the people who aren't committed to a particular schedule. Also look at any servers that are attractive to you, read their threads and PM their DMs. I know some of the campaign times don't show up in the DMs-by-timeslot list, and some of them might be joinable.

Were I you, and I most emphatically am not, I think I'd try The Pirate Isles first. From what little I've read on the TPI forum I think you'd like the atmosphere there. Talk to people about it.

Also, for play time, other people on the server is more important to me than DM's on the server. Maybe that will change sometime, but I like to meet peeps.

The peeps follow the DMs around. Once you know some people and some DMs you can arrange things by PM, or at the last minute on ALFA chat. "Who's awake? Let's play."

I just would not play if every day was tavern chat.

I don't think anyone but Risa Bardsdottir would. Players are pretty good at thinking up quests for each other, though. "Come help me find some work" was a two-hour informal quest I sort of led. I led a patient helpful dwarf all over, through alley, field and forest. She especially didn't like the forest. I'll have to get her to show me the sewers sometime. There's a bounty on rats.

I see nothing on TSM at your times. I think Silvy might be the monthly server because of Wynna's low level campaign, which runs at a bad time for you, starting at 5pm EST on Fridays. Also, there might be more on Silvy than is posted. I never see another DM at Wynna's times, but those aren't your times.

This is a very friendly community.

Friendly and helpful. I have so many endless imaginations helping me with my characters and ideas. The perfect place for a bard. So why am I playing a cleric?

[darrenhfx]

Good post Ludo and good point about Gamespy #'s.
The Calendar of Events is an excellent means of deciding where to play.

Newly minted ALFAns are perhaps the best ones to give advice on your questions.

[HEEGZ]

Linky referred to by Ludo:

http://www.alandfaraway.org/phpbbforum/ ... hp?t=19148

and another one if you want:

http://www.alandfaraway.org/phpbbforum/ ... hp?t=16763

[wasgreg]

Merci to posters!


I will try those links and thankies for the effort of searchin and puttin em up.


wasgreg wasappreciative

[Treehouse]

Hello!

I have the same problem you do. Finding a live server with DMs and players on when I can play.. which at best is erratic. I just made a character in Sembia but who knows if it will work out. You play on the weekends about when I do so if I happen across a good server for weekend play. I will let you know.







OAS: Landi Hillsden
RIP: Alexandria'

Current Live PC:
Chrissy Thatcher
Sembia

[Brokenbone]

First off, welcome to ALFA.

Second, go on ahead, check out those links above, or check out server forums for "stories and concepts that pique your interest." However, no matter how good the milieu seems, checking into player / DM traffic in your chosen hours is important too...

If you turn out to make a terrible choice and don't see a soul for days, explore the woods (*gurgle, die*) or try to carefully navigate your way to another server. Folks in chat may be able to counsel (or lobby?) on server choice as well.

Cheers

[Coveting Acquiesce]

Be mindful of server portaling and the guidelines behind that.

[Wynna]

Welcome, wasgreg!

[Mikayla]

Vendui lueth al'doer, waela iblith. Usstan "recommend" dos el desu lu' wun jivvin i'dollen. Nindol orn qualla uns'aa.

[wasgreg]

Thanks folks!

I think I have a startin sever narrowed down. ( maybe) and I preciate the dyin' to get away advice ( though death maybe common, really dunt wanna encourage my PC's to behave that way) Nice seein so many friendlies.


To Mikayla ummm thanks? will make a more assertive post when I figures out what you are sayin thru all that jello. ( aside: your avatar is from my previous 2 year addiction.)


wasgreg wasthankin

[wasgreg]

gosh Mikayla, that is so sweet! (read mik's statement outloud eating jello and played it backwards at chipmunk speed, Unnnerstand it now)


THis "weala ilblith" is happy to "qualla". As long as those tinsnips stay in your bag.


wasgreg wasgargin'