Greetings and Salutations, Gentlefolk of Arabel
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I suppose you can say this is an introductory post for my return to Arabel. It's been quite a few years since I was last here. Quite a few years, I should say, given some of the changes I stumbled upon while perusing the forum and wiki.
First, a little information about myself. I am now 28 years of age, and I have been fascinated by the Forgotten Realms for the better part of the last decade and a half.
My first encounter with Faerun can be ascribed to R.A. Salvatore's trilogy of Icewind Dale. I obtained the trilogy during high school, and almost immediately fell in love with the character of Drizzt Do'Urden.
After that, it was a losing battle. I was captured in a mire of words so to speak. After that first book, I began to avidly seek out any books bearing the Forgotten Realms logo.
I've been roleplaying for years now, in various locations. My first real experience with it online, of course, was with City of Arabel, those many years ago. I admit, it's a bit vague now, however I remember traipsing about with Amananca in the pits under the city, facing down Slaadi and other foul things. Or the antics of a theatre troupe, putting on a performance akin to Scooby Doo.
But that was the glorious past. I drifted away from Arabel, over an RP dispute. Sad, but it happens to the best of us. In turn, I ventured out to other avenues of roleplaying wonder.
My next years were spent roleplaying from forum to forum. Whether it was for the Dynasty Warriors series, or creating my own forums under the theme of Legend of Zelda.
I even spent time roleplaying in the World of Warcraft, though true roleplayers are a dying breed there, from my experiences. But I was driven from the server by the GMs, in that circumstance. Needless to say, on their forum they had a thread where they bashed the players, and a disgruntled GM leaked the information.
For a time I stayed with a small group that left the RP server, bent on creating our own. I even served for a time as a Storytelling DM. But, sadly, dialup isn't the best for things like that. Primarily in terms of keeping up with all of the patches released.
So I drifted again, to new forum roleplays, and ultimately find myself coming full circle, back to Arabel.
From the looks of things, there are numerous changes from what I remember. So anyone wishing to point out some topics that might interest me, would be well received. Whether offering friendship with a character in-game, to providing information about a group or party you are a member of in order to pique my interest in joining.
Whatever the case may be, if you have taken the time to read this, maybe you will reply with something useful. Even if it's just about some of the new features of the server.
I intended to see to the reinstallation of Neverwinter Nights within the next few days, as well as the patching of it's content, and to download any files that may be required.
During that time, I will entertain any who wish to converse about the server, and where my newfound place in it might be. That, of course, will help to determine my first character on the server, and what goals I may wish to achieve therein.
–Aizea Celeste--
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Welcome back.
I can't answer any of your questions, but hope you have a great time. :-)
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Welcome to Arabel, the city of many dangers and threats! Here you will find adventure, intrigue, and well, danger! My name is Mr. Bacon, and I will be the DM that says hello to you to your new home-server. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!
Cheers.
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Holy mercy that has to be the longest introduction ever. Of useful advice I suppose I should say the wiki (which you've seen), skimming the "Mechanicla changes" in the Announcements, looking up factions in the Player resources and taking your time to create an interesting character that can work in a rapidly changing environment.
Also, Welcome. :)
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Welcome back.
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And I will be the first person in the world that ever wrote the following.
"Turkeys are happy when the blackboard shoots a hershy bar that comes back to the city of arabel."
Having said that, this post has become uniquely special.
I may now give you a special "Welcome back!"
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I believe I've been afflicted given my years spent roleplaying on forums. Most have held posting requirements in the range of several paragraphs, so it's easy for one to become accustomed to writing things out at length.
I can see a number of factions I could have an interest in at varying depths. The Wizards, Knight of the Red Hart, even the Sheriffs. The fact is, I am very open on playing characters. I can be male or female with equal alacrity.
My only downfall is in the available races, of which I tend to limit myself to specific ones. In general terms, I prefer human, elf, half-elf, or dwarf, of those available.
While I've played a halfling, gnome, and half-orc in the past, it has generally only been for an afternoon's lark, and nothing serious seemed to come from it.
With that being said, I generally have little trouble in the way of character creation. At times I think I like creating the character more than the RP, for all the varied options available.
I am an avid collector of RPG sourcebooks, whether they be those attached to Dungeons and Dragons in one way or another, or other RPG's entirely, such as those presented by White Wolf, and other lesser known sources.
Not to brag, by any means, but my current collection, albeit in the gray areas of legality, surpasses 100 gigabytes by dimension, and incorporates over 6,000 total files.
Despite being gifted at character creation, sometimes it does become a burden, when one has too many ideas to deal with. Then it just leads to headache and confusion.
I'm not yet sure which type of character I might work with upon my return to the fair city. In the past I've played scouts, rogues, rangers, warriors, crazed dwarves, doddering old men, mages of the purple dragon, and so on.
Thanks, though, for the warm welcome back I have received thus far, as well as those yet to come. I will endeavor to think hard on an appropriate character design, before I reveal myself in person upon the server.
I just hope that the welcome I receive there is as friendly, and in those friends I find a core group to fall back upon in times of need, as well as to lend what aid I may.
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Welcome back to Arabel! Bet it changed a lot since you last played here. You go as far back as V2?
Should you wish to learn more on the Company of the Gear Faction, I'll be hapy to help.
As for things to look over, I sugges the stickies in the Announcement forum and also what's in the Player Resource forums. All then ew companions/familiars, dot comands and much more new stuff around. In the library section there is a post that lists out most of the main books, in some of the you'll find some information on what happened on CoA in the last few years. Though you'll get a better timeline of things in the Project Arabel forums.
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I go back pretty far. Around 2004-2005 was when I first began my journeys in Arabel. I remember some of the people I see, yourself included Loonaya. I remember the mapping project you did, and likely still have a copy of it tucked away on a CD-R somewhere.
I've spent some time browsing through the various threads. Looking over the factions, and what can be applied for these days. I see a few things I am interested in, though for my inaugural character I think I will stick to a non-application theme.
I have some ideas, though disguises would play a partial role. And from what I've read, they aren't supported, which is slightly discouraging.
The main trouble I remember from my time on Arabel was the metagaming. Not that people did it intentionally, it's just I saw a lot of them relying on the character name floating over one's head. It made for a lot of situations where you couldn't play your character accurately for them calling you by the name they figured you had.
I'm sure most of the players these days don't partake in such trivialities, but I am a bit particular about roleplay anymore. If I have a name and a face to work with, I would safely work with that. By which I mean, if you introduce yourself as "Mary", and I can see your face while you do it, then from then on I would RP it as such.
The problem comes in from voices, unless you make an effort to say in the RP that your voice sounds a particular way, as well as using different phrases and accents.
In all that can make for an effective disguise. I just would hate to have it ruined by someone barging in and using the name over my head as an indicator of who I am, while ignoring the clothes I wear, the way I speak, etc.
I still may endeavor to work the character out. I would enjoy it, and it would give me cause to learn more about the way Arabel is in the current climate, as well as to better find my way around. Not to mention it allowing me to meet many of the players and characters, perhaps even to engage in a bit of friendly business with them.
In the long term, if I make enough money in things, I may option to add a partner in for the business, as well as a capable secretary. I'll have to see when I get back on the server, and may post up on the bulletin about hiring myself out to any in need.
It is an exciting prospect, I must say. I'm rather eager to get started, and perhaps take my place in the history we make for Arabel each time we enter her gates.
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I have some ideas, though disguises would play a partial role. And from what I've read, they aren't supported, which is slightly discouraging.
Don't be discouraged! The rule isn't that you can't be disguised, just that players don't -have- to play along. Most players play along though, so far, and I haven't had any problems even though my char is sometimes disguised.
Just make sure not to wear your disguise too often and you should be fine.
Also, this concept sounds like something you should find me IG with.
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Yes, I did a search on disguises and came up with numerous threads on the subject. I was merely stating concerns over those who might disrupt my disguise.
I will send you a private message on the more salient aspects of the business I will be looking to found. Perhaps we have something to offer one another.
It may take a few days to a week while in game to re-acquaint myself with the NWN mechanics. I haven't played the original for a number of years. Though I have played NWN2 in the past year or so.
However, once I work things out satisfactorily, I am sure to broadcast the business into the open, and take on jobs for those in need. I just hope there are those who do need someone of my character's talents.
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All i can say is welcome back and that i look forward to seeing your char ig
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Welcome to the server! I look forward to seeing you in the game.
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My first encounter with Faerun can be ascribed to R.A. Salvatore's trilogy of Icewind Dale. I obtained the trilogy during high school, and almost immediately fell in love with the character of Drizzt Do'Urden.
I don't want to spoil it for you, but the real protagonist of the series is Artemis.
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Welcome Back :) 2004-2005 were good years, hope you have some more
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While Artemis was a decent enough character, as it's revealed in later books by the author, he is little more than an "albino" drow. At least during the time period of Icewind Dale.
It's only later that he begins to show a hint of morality in his friendship with certain characters. But all in all, I prefer Drizzt. More for the combat skill, than anything to do with him being a drow, but being one of the good guys.
But this was years ago, and the book was still enough to hook me into Faerun. Up to this point, my primary experience with fantasy stories consisted of the Belgariad, Mallorean, Elenium, and Tamuli by David Eddings, and a few of the Dragonlance novels.
Generally whatever was available from the school library or public library. Which, sad to say, had perhaps two Forgotten Realms novels back then. I'm pretty sure they had "The Legacy" by Salvatore, and "Evermeet".
Still, they were decent books. Once I got internet access in 2003, I began to broaden my horizons with electronic books downloaded through varying sources.
On to more important issues. My character concept is firming up somewhat, and I've gotten NWN installed on my PC once more. It took a little effort but I also found the DVD that had the 1.69 Critical Rebuild, to patch me up. And I found some override files, primarily to colorize icons used in the game. I also went and obtained the Domains files for the custom ones used on the server.
So I'm very nearly ready to venture out onto the server once more. I may find myself on the IRC channel once more as well, once I add it to my copy of mIRC.
I also have a secondary character idea, that may be built upon skills obtained with the first. I suppose my curse of having too many character ideas has already begun to plague me.
While the first idea might work out with a couple others helping out, I'm thinking the second one is more of a far-reaching type of network, that could come to employ a dozen or more characters in the long term. With a variety of jobs, of course.
I imagine when the time comes, I'll put up a notice for applications. Not as rigorous as those employed by the DMs, but still something to make the position earned, rather than just a simple joining up.
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Well then, I have succeeded in character creation. Celeste Ma'fay lives! I was in earlier, and kindly received a welcome from one of the DMs, which was nice.
Unfortunately I couldn't stay long. I was merely in to get my character setup and reacquaint myself with the process. But everything is in order, and soon I'll be branching out into Arabel once more.
The only remaining bit of setting up I need to do is to input some of the chat commands into Celeste's journal in game, as an easy reminder, until I've become accustomed to using them and have them memorized.
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Welcome back… I've a vague idea who you might have been... guess we'll see..
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David Eddings was one of my favorite authors when I was a kid. I loved his books.
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The only remaining bit of setting up I need to do is to input some of the chat commands into Celeste's journal in game, as an easy reminder, until I've become accustomed to using them and have them memorized.
You have an option to add the chat commands to your journal from the crafting menu. Not sure if all the latest ones are on there, and of course there is the open bug report about the entry being too long to read: /topic/5154 but I suppose the most important once are there. You'll memorize them quickly enough from starting each session with a bunch of them (for me usually:.pvp sparring, .langhalfling, .local, .hood on)