A Jaded Life

Official Road to Purgatory-Beta Forum

-Tobiuno, confirmed Beta-Account

Greetings, fellow Gamers

Many of you will know me, I'm Tobiuno, formerly battle-leader of team Razor, now guild-leader of the “Blades of the Realm”-Guild, formed in the Human Empire, to be precise in the duchy of Highever. Personally, I started as a simple cavalier and got promoted to Captain recently, thanks to my experience in the real world. Out here, one of my hobbies is HEMA or Historical European Martial Arts.

Now, as all know, tomorrow the next wave of Beta-Testers is allowed to join us and I wanted to present some of the things my guild-mates and I have learned about the world and the character-creation process. I also spoke with a multitude of gamers I know from my past in other games and they contributed information about different aspects of the world.

Let's start with the obvious. Real Life abilities matter. As I said before, I learned to use a sword in the real world giving me a tremendous bonus at the beginning; not only was I able to fight without having to rely on game-given skills, the skills I gained rose at an insane speed - where the rest might get a point per day of training, I gained multiple.

So, moral of the story, if you have any applicable skills, you would be well served to choose a class that fits them.

Now, on to character-creation. The first time you enter Road to Purgatory, you have to create your character. For this, you gain an assistant that can answer some questions for you. While I'm not sure if it's true, some people claimed that being polite to your assistant makes them more helpful and being a dick to them will have them try to screw you over. Not sure if it's true but I wouldn't chance it.

The first step of Character-creation is Attribute Selection. Some people are locked in here; they can only use one of the two methods which, in my opinion, sucks but it's a Beta after all.

Method one of Attribute Selection is called Point Shift. You start at 11 points in all attributes, making your character overall better than average. In addition, you have 5 free attribute points to spend. With that done, you can shift points around, increasing some and decreasing others. You can not go below 8 or above 15 with that method and I'd not go below 10 in any attribute - trust me, it's better that way.

The other method is called Body Baseline. Here, you are given a number of tests, allowing you to use a scan of your real body to use and your stats are measured by your success. I, and most of my guild, used Point Shift so I'm not sure what those tests are, I only spoke with two Body Baseliners, both were given tests of Agility, Strength and Cunning. They had to challenge an endless parkour, infiltrate a mansion and find a way to break open a door, either by doing a puzzle or using brute force. In both cases, their stats fell slightly short of those gained with Point Shift so I'm not sure if there is any advantage to using that method.

With your attributes gained, you need to pick a race. Races are not only important for their bonuses, don't get fooled there. Your race also influences where you start and how society as a whole will react to you. A buddy of mine thought it would be awesome to start as an Muspelar-Berserker, a type of Fire-Giantblood because the explanation said it was rare and the attribute bonuses were rather good. Well, joke is on him, he started in an impoverished village with little to no resources and no trainer for his class. So he spent the first weeks ingame doing scut-work for one of their hunters to get some training in turn. He didn't even get his inventory, or Bag of Holding as it is called here, until then.

On the other hand, those who started as normal humans, like I did, can select their starting point from a couple of cities in the human empire and are received by the local Adventurer's Guild, given a small Bag of Holding and explained how to make the best out of our class. Hell, they even introduced me to the Dukal Guard, a local cavalry unit which recruited me.

I immediately got armour, a weapon and a mount and was assigned to a veteran unit that helped me train and then level. My previous experience and quite a bit of luck helped me to rise through the ranks quite fast and my superior took a chance on me, letting me execute a campaign against the border incursions of Baretonia. So yes, you might have seen me in the second highlight-reel, back then I was only probationary lieutenant but my success has confirmed my rank. Of course, I was given multiple experienced sergeants and was told that they had the authority to take command from me if I fucked up. Well, as you saw on the highlight-reel, I won the battle and got my promotion.

But no matter, back to character-creation and races. Choose one of the main races or at least one that has a strong sense of community; it will make your start in the game so much easier.

The next step is to select your path. The paths are rather simple, you either specialise on Fighting, 'Mage'-Magic, 'Cleric'-Magic or Interpersonal Skills.

Personally, I'm a Fighter, or 'of the Martial Path' as they call it. I need less time to raise my fighting skills and I'm a better fighter. Obviously, one should take the path they want to specialise in. Maybe the most interesting path is the Civilised Path, as pretty much everything could be part of it. For example some of the skills I was taught to inspire and command my troops are part of both, the Martial and the Civilised Path, others are only Civilised.

At the end of the day, it's an important decision but also an easy one. You either take one of the classical archetypes, Fighter, Mage or Cleric or if you are unsure, you take the Civilised Path. Of course it's not as easy, a lot of classes have some overlap so choose what feels best to you.

With the path chosen, you need to start walking. The starting point of your Path is your Class. Some classes, as said above, belong to multiple Paths, the best example might be the Paladin, straddling the Divine and the Martial Path. It would be too much to list all classes here, if it's even possible, so I'm not even gonna try. Again, remember when choosing your class, try not to take something too exotic, without someone to show you the ropes, it will be a giant pain in the behind and you will fall behind if you ever manage to find your way.

There are reasons for classes to be wide-spread, they work.

Also, if a class sounds evil to you, consider not taking it, if the basic skill of your class is considered heretical, you will have an incredibly hard time finding groups or NPCs to work with and if you are caught, you are in deep trouble.. Examples for those would be Necromancers and Blood Mages.

The last part of character-creation is choosing traits. Those can be pretty much everything you can imagine and more.

Advantages and Disadvantages will be balanced by the System if you don't do it yourself so take care. You also shouldn't just look at the shiny numbers, some of the most innocent sounding things might be the biggest screw-over. I know someone who thought “Oh, that trait doesn't sound too bad” and took the Outsider-Trait. Well, as soon as something happens and he might be involved he's the instant suspect. Even just looking at him gives you an uncanny valley feeling, as if there is something wrong. Not enjoyable.

Even simple traits like a bad smell can muck up your game because people don't want you around them, you get barred from shops or inns and even worse, sometimes your whole group gets thrown out. So beware the non-numerical traits, they might just be the worst of them. Something easily quantifiable like 'You have 50% less Astral Power' - what they call mana in this world - might be bad, but being unable to use any shops or paying double prices because the shopkeeper wants to get rid of you is worse.

Then you are allowed to choose a starting point, again I'd try to take something in the happy middleground: large enough to support you while getting started, but not so large that you are just shuffled off into the slums. For those who are able to, the duchy of Highever is awesome and the Blades of the Realm are recruiting.

Well, that's it from me, I hope to meet you on The Road to Purgatory.

Best Wishes

Tobiuno, Lieutenant in the Dukal Guard of his Grace, Sir Walter, Duke of Highever

Yuthos, confirmed Beta-Account

Thanks Tobiuno, good summary. Personally, I'm playing a dwarven crafter and I have to say, it's awesome.

Honestly, I have to agree with what he wrote, don't treat this as a normal game, this world feels truly alive. Don't just think of it as a game, you will run into trouble.

And believe me, the Death-Penalty sucks. Well, both being sentenced to death and the penalty you suffer if you die. If you die, you lose temporary attributes, levels and skill-points and even permanent attribute-points. Yes, each time you die, your character permanently becomes weaker.

Seriously, don't die. Even dying in the early game might screw over your late-game. We might respawn but don't go charging in willy nilly, treat your life as if it's the only one you have.

On the subject of dying, remember to set your spawn-point. If you don't there's no way of knowing where you end up and you don't want to be in the wilderness with high attribute-penalties for days. You will likely die again and have to gamble with your respawn, again. You see the problem - it can easily become a vicious cycle of death, lowering your attributes further and further.

Look for a place you trust - an inn or a temple, for example - and ask the owner if you are allowed to bind yourself there. They understand what you mean and if they don't actively dislike you, they will likely allow it.

Yuthos, Smith of the Aurina-Clan

Tobiuno, confirmed Beta-Account

About the Death-Penalty, it's even worse than you think. Not only do you lose temporary levels, from level 50 onward, you lose permanent levels. A few days ago, when I was level 60, I died and when I had regained my lost temporary levels I was only level 59 but needed the same EXP I previously needed to reach 61 from 60.

So yes, don't go dying willy nilly, it's most likely not worth it.

Best Wishes

Tobiuno, Lieutenant in the Dukal Guard of his Grace, Sir Walter, Duke of Highever

Slanesh

Cut the crap, you just want to take all the benefits for yourself! Don't listen to the troll!

Jeanyra, confirmed Beta-Account

God, where were you when I needed you?!

Just kidding...

But in all seriousness kids, don't do what I've done. I always played casters so my path was clear. I invested in all those tasty mental stats, disregarding the physical stats and made a Sorcerer. My guide told me it would be a bad idea but hey, high risk and high reward and all that.

So I made an Sun-Elf Sorceress, thinking that I'll be awesome.

Joke is on me, when I arrived, I had no spells, just the ability to make my own spells. Yeah, funny that, how the hell do I do that? I then joined the Mages Guild and they taught me a few runes and after a long time of trying, I finally gained Fire Rune Mastery and the runes became easier. Then I saw one Traveller who rolled a guild-mage. Guess what? He is able to learn the runes directly from the guild, no need for stupid rune mastery to paint them into the air. In addition, he can even use a wand to skip the stupid air-painting I have to do. No, he just waves that stupid stick around, says some phrase and things go boom. That's such BS, I'd love to reroll but nope, you have one beta-character.

Tittania

All will knell befor me! The Dark Quen will rise!

Cell

Lol, Trolling is a art!

Heracles, Official Pantheon Moderator

After the last two post, I'll set this to only allow confirmed accounts to post here. No need for trolls, it's a great summary in my opinion.

However, people should keep in mind that it is only from a limited point of view.

Tobiuno, confirmed Beta-Account

Thanks for keeping the trolls out. Also, before things derail here once more with Pro/Anti-Titania Flames like they did a couple of times before, please note that the account is called “Tittania”, so I'd bet that it's a troll. I doubt that the real Titania would stoop so low, she's too awesome for that.

So if you read that Titania, there is a place for you amongst the Blades of the Realm, contact me if you are interested, I'm sure we can get you here.

Best Wishes

Tobiuno, Lieutenant in the Dukal Guard of his Grace, Sir Walter, Duke of Highever