Don't worry about oathing your nobles at first. Who would want to bribe a
newbie's nobles? And if they are taken, so what? The only possible
exception is for mages -- always oath them. Contract nobles are expensive.
Use fear. Oh, remember: If a contract/fear noble leaves service, you'll
NEVER recover the NPs. That's why it's important that mages are oathed --
if a fear mage leaves, you lose 2 or more NPs. Also, you should know the
Survive Fatal Wound trick. --> A noble with SFW will die if she receives
too many wounds and will then come back with 100 health. If you terrorize
a noble too much, that noble will die. SFW only takes two turns to learn,
so it's a quick and easy way to terrorize your nobles to a very high fear
value.
Learn 1-2 magic categories, not all of them. Perhaps Magic and Scrying.
You can pick up the others later when you have more NPs.
Learn the combat system! Train a small stack and go questing. You might
have to tell your the paranoid alliance what you're doing.
You're going to be *poor* when you begin. Plan now how you want to make
money. Your mage can't do Common Tasks and research and study. Trading is
profitable, but most of the nearby trade routes are taken. A lot of the
interior trade routes are still empty, but you'll probably have to
negotiate with the local paranoid alliance.
Unless you're feeling very brave and independent, join an alliance! It's
not so dangerous that if you go solo, you'll be wiped out -- at least in
the civilized portions -- but an alliance can help with gold, skills, and
trade routes.
Good luck. If you start in Yellowleaf or Harn, announce to this list who
you are and that you're neutral, else you'll be swept up and buried in the
ensuing conflict.
--jon
Eridanus
On Mon, 4 May 1998, Steve Rauch wrote:
> I just signed up for the game and am being placed in a random city. Any
> advice for the veterans out there as to how to get started?
>