DM's Recommendations

1. Sign up for the message board.
   If you want to whole campaign experience, sign up here and select "Individual E-mails" or "Daily Digest". If you just want to show up and hack-and-slash, sign up here and select "Special Announcements" (so you know if a game is cancelled or if you need to upgrade your OpenRPG program).

2. Make a PC that you can live with for a long time.
   In the past, I allowed any player to create a new PC whenever he wished. This allowance aborted many relationships between PCs, destabilized the game and absorbed time and effort which could be spent on improving adventures. Now, I generally do not allow a player change PCs.

3. Consider a class besides fighter and a race besides elf.
   Nearly everybody wants to be an elven fighter or elven fighter/thief or a half-elven bard (or blah-elven blah/blah). Sure, there is always space for one more but, then again, a well-rounded party is more likely to be successful. Success is even more likely if you have at least one cleric, too.

4. Consider being single-classed.
   It is tempting to try to be the Swiss Army knife PC, to be able to swordfight and cast spells and sneak around all with the same PC. There is a price to pay: single classed PCs will always be nearly twice your level. (If not, they can petition the me to raise their level. And I'll do it.) The fun of the game is taking advantage of a PC's strengths, working with other PCs to protect his weaknesses and watching the PC change and develop over time. A single-classed mage will never forget which spells he has, miss an opportunity to use them or stop thinking of a new strategies to make them more effective. But many multi-classed mages will.

5. Save a lot of gold pieces for training.
   To advance to 2nd level, it costs 1,500-2,000 gold pieces. 3rd level costs around 3,000-3,500 gold pieces. And, so on. For more details or a way to ignore this rule, please see Experience Points and Higher Levels in the House Rules (er, Guidelines) section.

6. Buy a hovel, cottage or a shop after a few weeks.
   Using a sack with 300 gold pieces as a pillow as you sleep in the common room of the Green Dragon Inn isn't exactly secure. A hovel costs about 20 gold pieces. A decent cottage with a garden outside Fallwell's Keep costs around 90 gold pieces. There are even more expensive residences in the city. It is a good investment.

7. Make friends with some NPCs.
   In the past, adventurers have befriended a government bureaucrat, the local clergy, a tavernkeeper, a merchant and a noble. These people provided gold pieces (as loans or gifts), land grants, for-hire adventuring-type jobs, healing salves and oils and a pay-some-now and do-something-later-for-me special package for training to rise a level. Not all NPCs are helpful but not all of them are out to get you.

8. Shoot for the moon; have big ambitions.
   Adventurers can own large tracts of land, entire city blocks and on-going businesses. Some of these assets will provide income. A large palace and an expensive galley ship will increase your prestige and access to important NPCs. Adventurers can be granted noble status, even become kings and emperors. These accomplishments will create new adventures. In the dungeons, you will earn much gold; some should be saved but some might be better off spent. You won't have to give up the adventuring life when you accomplish these things. Kings can still go on dungeon romps and slay dragons.

9. Share information.
   I may e-mail or whisper information to you that only your PC will know. But that does not prevent you from forwarding that information to the rest of the group. Post it on the message board or cut-and-paste it into the chat window. Sure, some of it is better kept private but let the party know about the rest. And, don't count on me to do it for you. I'm too busy to send e-mails and make posts on your behalf.

10. Be a vicarious participator.
    Balance problem solving and acting (that is, role-playing). If you think up a smart strategy but your PC only has 6 intelligence, tell the other players about it anyway. Solve the problem. Be smart. Go up levels. Become rich and powerful. Win. But, along the way, develop your PC into a personality. Give him ethics, quirks, allegiances, personal history, ambitions, likes and dislikes. Develop all those things as experiences and interactions logically change your PC. But don't let it get in the way. No Oscars or Emmys are given here.

11. Have fun.
    Hey, Dumbo, remember fun? If all these recommendations make the game boring, ignore them. If you don't like role-playing, don't develop your PC's personality. If you love acting, forget about solving problems. This ain't your job and you don't get paid here.