New Player

[Lyris]

Hello. I've played the majority of D&D related games, and have had some tabletop experience in this setting as well. However, this has only given me a very mild knowledge of setting lore. I've been reading up on certain areas and aspects, trying to make a back story for my character. However, it's all a bit... overwhelming. It's just so much. My question is basically: Where should I start? What is necessary knowledge? What lore and areas should I educate myself on mostly to start with?

Thanks so much for your help

[DM Eurydice]

Hello Lyris,

and welcome to BGTSCC, we hope you'll find your time enjoyable here.

I do think you could get a lot of good advice from our community if you posted the question to them, but I'll try to help you to the best extent of my knowledge with links and the like.

For local lore pertaining to the server and timeline we're currently playing, I'll advise you look here: http://bgtscc.net/viewforum.php?f=13

The year of our server is 1350, with a time ratio of 1:1 - be aware of that when reading through links from external sites as some things haven't occurred yet, like Time of Troubles.

For creating a character, you'll need to pick where your character is from - here's two interactive maps that can help with some basic knowledge of Faerûn:
Political Map of Faerùn - West
Political Map of Faerùn - East


Realmshelp generally have some good advice for character creation and deities.

If you'd like help making a good build, I can recommend checking out www.nwn2db.com, which will allow you to generate builds and publicize them so others on this forum can comment on them and offer suggestions for improvement.

I hope that helped answer some of your questions. Again, welcome to BGTSCC, we hope you'll enjoy your stay here and help enrich the environment with your RP

DM Eurydice

[Lyris]

Thanks so much for the reply

One more quick question. Two of my friends plan on joining me. Could we role our characters with stories in relation to one another? As in, could we already know each other at character creation?

[DM Narshe]

Yes that's fine. Many players have formed characters sharing a backstory. Some are brothers, sisters, twins, comrades, etc.

If your friends are sharing a router with you we do have some provisions to help ensure server stability.

If this applies to you, see this thread for details. http://bgtscc.net/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=7

[DM Nilbog]

My only bit of advice is when making the backstory keep it simple the more complex you make it the more you put yourself in a corner rp wise till you figure out where you fit. Also try to avoid the mistake some make with trying to do all these epic things in the background before you become level 1 hard to live up to.

[Lyris]

Thanks guys
Sorry for the delayed reply.
One more thing. I'm working on a bio to post to the forum. Is there any way to copy past it to my character bio in game?

[DM Narshe]

Most ingame bios are much shorter. Usually only a physical description of what someone would see as well, nothing about backstory and such.

[Nomster]

A good tip is to put your game into windowed mode and then place your character description that you wrote on a word program next to the game screen. Pick a smaller resolution for the game so that you can see both of them side-by-side. Then type away!