Introduction: Starting Out in Dark Age of Camelot

Welcome to Dark Age of Camelot. You are about to enter a living world of adventure and shared experience. This guide is designed to orient you to the world of Dark Age of Camelot and to get you off to a good start. You may have played other games on computers or game systems. You may even have played other online games, in which case you'll find much that is familiar in Dark Age of Camelot. However, you will find specific differences, as well. We recommend that you read through this brief guide and keep it handy when you first start playing. It may answer many of your questions before you have to ask them.

Who Can Use This Guide?
This guide provides a brief look at how to get a good start in Dark Age of Camelot and its expansions. You'll find this guide useful if you:
* Have played computer or video games, but have never played online games.
* Have played online games, but never played massive multiplayer persistent world games (or don't even know what those are).
* Have played other MMORPGs (Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games), but have never played Dark Age of Camelot.

About MMORPGs
Massive multiplayer online role playing games (sometimes known as MMORPGs) are online games that involve thousands of simultaneous players in what are called "persistent worlds."
Persistent worlds are worlds that exist twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week (24/7) and continue to change constantly. Whether you are online or not, these worlds are dynamically active.

Your way of interacting in these worlds is through a character you create, sometimes known as an "avatar." This character will have certain characteristics, depending on the kind of character you choose. In Dark Age of Camelot, you can choose any of 18 races, and for each race, you'll have several choices of types of characters you can play; for example fighters, magic users, healers and others. More on that later…

Among the basic concepts of play in a persistent world MMORPG are gaining experience and "leveling" to improve your character, as well as communicating with other players and joining groups of various kinds. As in all role-playing games, the character you create will begin with only a few skills. As that character gains experience, it will also improve special abilities unique to its class as well as basic qualities such as strength, quickness, dexterity and so forth.