How dumb

Darktalon

Thinking about a second character, haven't played one in literally years. Just something to change things up once in awhile when Talon isn't busy. My main question is - how dumb are we supposed to play a second? I have been around the game for a little while, so having someone sit there and explain every step seems silly. I don't want to just pop in and proclaim I know everything even though I am 18. So just curious what the standard is roughly.

Naah

I've had like, so many characters. I tried every class before I posted asking about Serpent, to which I made Koyuki, then Serenia, now I am Naah.

The fact remains; some people love to help out Newbies like @Tesha (and I can't think of any others off the top of my head) because you can encourage them in a great learning environment.

Then there's some who enjoy the fact you're an alt because they don't have to baby you every step. You set your intelligence any place you want; so many combatalts now a days that I don't think anyone really cares.

Just be careful how you play out your character, no one loves a smart ass 18 year old; that has knowledge of some event that he shouldn't. Just be ignorant of past events, open yourself up to a new class/city/House, and enjoy the game from a different perspective. Took me a very long time to find my place in game; and I definitely didn't settle after my first character. 

Caoimhaen

Play dumb to the point where you seem young. Doesn't mean you have to act like a total newbie. Also, as @naah says, don't act like a know it all newbie. That annoys the crap out of me and others.

Ask questions about cities and such. Why people believe the way they do. You know. Common questions a young person might ask. But again, the point is to have fun.:) So it is truly up to you. Your character could have a past that makes him knowledgable. But keep in mind, it annoys people at times. Just make it make sense ICly and it will be all good.

Shirszae

I'll go ahead and say you don't have to act totally ignorant of everything. You are 18, not 1. So long as you don't act as if you have inside information of important events and such, you should be fine.

Sena

I find it helps to play your new character in an environment where you really are new and inexperienced in some ways. A class, city, house, goals, etc. that you don't have much first-hand experience with. Then you really do have a lot to learn, and things to ask questions about, and it's easier to avoid being a know-it-all because you really don't know it all.

As for basic mechanical things, like how to cure and how to find your way around, I haven't seen anyone actually have a problem with a new character already knowing those things, even back when the newbie:alt ratio was higher.

Ruth

Well. When I create new characters, I create them in cities and houses I've never been in. That way, while I still have basic information like curing and how to read messages/news/hhelp, I would still be pretty new to the class mechanics itself, the house progression and the city atmosphere.

I wouldn't recommend you act like a know-it-all 18 year old; that also doesn't really encourage anyone to work with you because attitude-wise, you're going to come across rather arrogant.

Saeva

I think making someone take the time to explain very basic mechanics to you is a little overboard though.
When I was doing orientations for the Kindred I dealt with some newbies that were clearly old players, literally making me spend the time to tell them how to utilize their rift when I could tell they already knew.
That's just kind of wasting everyone's time.
Learning about your house, your city, people.. that makes sense, but when you get down to acting like you don't know how to use a follow command or landmarks etc, that seems overboard and tedious for everyone involved.

Eld

Sena said:

I find it helps to play your new character in an environment where you really are new and inexperienced in some ways. A class, city, house, goals, etc. that you don't have much first-hand experience with. Then you really do have a lot to learn, and things to ask questions about, and it's easier to avoid being a know-it-all because you really don't know it all.

As for basic mechanical things, like how to cure and how to find your way around, I haven't seen anyone actually have a problem with a new character already knowing those things, even back when the newbie:alt ratio was higher.

This pretty much sums it up. Don't worry about pretending not to know about mechanical stuff, but ask about IC stuff; even if you're familiar with the org's philosophies and such, it's always interesting to get someone else's take on things (unless it's an org you've played in enough to know what everyone thinks, I guess, but then why alt there?). The only thing I've found particularly tricky is that I often can't bring myself to let misinformation go uncorrected. In situations like that, I'll usually just find a HELP to quote and act like I've just been doing tons of reading.

Sarapis

I love playing alts. I'll probably go back to playing around with Tanris someday, but right now having too much fun as Silas to make time for that.

Xith

My policy is that an 18 year old can know a significant amount about Achaea depending on their IC education/background. 

Apart from a couple of orphanages though, Achaea doesn't leave much room for pre-18 life. I'd kind of like to see some schoolhouses or something. I just wonder how the Achaean child gets their education, especially since the whole bloodlining thing happens later and people are somehow separated from their birth parents prior to that.

Xith took the orphan route but there's not a ton of detail to go into, just that as a child he eavesdropped enough to hear adults discussing current events that he knows stuff from about 13 years or so before the character was created. If not from the events themselves then from the lingering gossip that follows for a few years. Sort of like how Bal'met was over 30 years ago but still gets mention here and there.

Areigna

Yeah I can relate to this. Having played just only Areigna for like.. 4 years or something with no serious alts, I was pretty unsure about how to act when I made my super secret alt. It is hard to pretend like you don't know anything about anything, and truthfully it kind of made the experience annoying for me the more I tried to do it. So I found a happy medium, where (like everyone else has already said) I pretend like I don't know anything about what happened before my character was created. 

Also, I let someone tell my character about curing and messages and other newbie junk at least once, but I don't ever ask questions about that type of stuff because I don't want to willingly waste someone else's time making them explain about crap I already know. If they -want- to teach my character about stuff they didn't ask about, that's their problem lol. 

But I don't really see the point in going out of your way to act like a newbie. Just don't be obnoxious about anything either way, and you'll be fine. 

That being said, I hope you have fun alting. I never really bothered with it before and it is actually -very- rewarding. Get to try being part of a city/house etc that you never have or never would have, and you meet new people you wouldn't have otherwise. Saved the game for me, personally. 

Shirszae

Xith said:

Apart from a couple of orphanages though, Achaea doesn't leave much room for pre-18 life. I'd kind of like to see some schoolhouses or something. I just wonder how the Achaean child gets their education, especially since the whole bloodlining thing happens later and people are somehow separated from their birth parents prior to that.

Unsure of what you mean by this. There are plenty of child denizens running about achaea. Put your characters in the shoes of one of them and imagine how their life must have been in whatever village they grew up until they were 18, taking into account whatever else you want to include in their backstory. Not really hard to do I don't think there are schoolhouses, at any rate. They are probably put to a task and learn by doing (and gossiping, and lazying around with other things)

Xith

Shirszae said:

Xith said:

Apart from a couple of orphanages though, Achaea doesn't leave much room for pre-18 life. I'd kind of like to see some schoolhouses or something. I just wonder how the Achaean child gets their education, especially since the whole bloodlining thing happens later and people are somehow separated from their birth parents prior to that.

Unsure of what you mean by this. There are plenty of child denizens running about achaea. Put your characters in the shoes of one of them and imagine how their life must have been in whatever village they grew up until they were 18, taking into account whatever else you want to include in their backstory. Not really hard to do I don't think there are schoolhouses, at any rate. They are probably put to a task and learn by doing (and gossiping, and lazying around with other things)

Oh good point. Nevermind then. I was a mhun child who lost my rag doll a lot.

Shirszae

Xith said:

Shirszae said:

Xith said:

Apart from a couple of orphanages though, Achaea doesn't leave much room for pre-18 life. I'd kind of like to see some schoolhouses or something. I just wonder how the Achaean child gets their education, especially since the whole bloodlining thing happens later and people are somehow separated from their birth parents prior to that.

Unsure of what you mean by this. There are plenty of child denizens running about achaea. Put your characters in the shoes of one of them and imagine how their life must have been in whatever village they grew up until they were 18, taking into account whatever else you want to include in their backstory. Not really hard to do I don't think there are schoolhouses, at any rate. They are probably put to a task and learn by doing (and gossiping, and lazying around with other things)

Oh good point. Nevermind then. I was a mhun child who lost my rag doll a lot.

Your lack of creativity is hardly surprising by this point. 

Darktalon

So my basic plan of asking only about city/house aspects and mentioning I know the other parts is generally accepted. That is what I figured.

Though after joining a house and reading a million (ok just a lot) pages of text, still have 50-60 help files for the house to read, and being told to memorize a 13 page document, I am considering going rogue. ) Although I haven't seen any essay requirements yet, so that is one positive.

.

Trevize

Darktalon said:

So my basic plan of asking only about city/house aspects and mentioning I know the other parts is generally accepted. That is what I figured.

Though after joining a house and reading a million (ok just a lot) pages of text, still have 50-60 help files for the house to read, and being told to memorize a 13 page document, I am considering going rogue. ) Although I haven't seen any essay requirements yet, so that is one positive.

.

I would like to point out that playing the game is reading text... and memorizing a document means ctrl-s.

That said, yeah, some places take it a bit overboard.