I would like to take a moment to remind all our forum members to use thier best forum manners when posting. I'm way to new as a GM to do this with any kind of official backing, so I'm just posting as a player here. There are a lot of folks that have been here for a very, very long time, and by now everyone whose been here for months knows when someone is kidding, or someone is grouchy, or when someone is frustrated in thier posts.
The new members don't have a frame of referance for everyones quirks and moods around here, and something that might have been meant with a joking good-natured attitude could be seen as a put-down or disrespectfull, I personally have seen several posts of the last week where it's obvious to me that one poster has misunderstood the attitude of another persons post, or someone else has gotten defensive or angry over a reply and I think with just a little bit of forethought we can avoid any misunderstanding or strife.
These are family friendly boards, intended to be a resource for the Layonara community to bond and share information and experiences. Stay IC when it's appropriate, stay respectfull all the time, and try to be understanding about someone not reading through a billion posts to find the nugget of information they are looking for. It's not easy to be new anywhere, and it's definately not easy to be new in a place with a large crowd of regulars, so cut 'em some slack.
Heres some tips for the new folks:
Pretty much everything you need to know about Layonara can be found in the Handbook (available from the downloads section on the top-right of the forum). The handbook contains information or races and PrC's that are specific to Layonara, a history of Layonara, Diety write-ups and much more. Also on the top right are the maps of Layonara, those should be browsed so you are at least familiar with the 3 main continents (servers).
On the left just under the Layonara banner there is a search function, you can type in the key word you are looking for, and have it search the forums for you. It's handy to use, and keeps you from asking the same question the guy that started a week ago asked and everyone responded to, even though a guy a week before him had asked the same thing, and everyone responded to that etc. Also on the same level you can adjust the look of the webpage, enter your details, add a sig. or a picture for your forum avatar, all sorts of stuff.
Probably the most important thing, if you can think of a way to say it in character than try to RP it in the game. For example, a fighter might be looking to become a weapon master, he encounters a fellow who claims to be a weapon master. Great opportunity to ask the fellow IC "I too strive to master my blades, though I am unsure on what skills I should cultivate within my fighting style to enable me to achieve mastery, perhaps with your aid I may find some enlightenment." It doesn't need to be a long, flowery thing like that... an orc might say "Howz yu get so gud et swingin yer basher fella?"
At any rate, I hope that helps a bit for the newer players, and I hope the folks that have been here long enough will remember being new and remember what it was like.
Vyris
