Story:
Setting is as already have read a fantasy one. The story is set after an invasjon of hordes of undead. After defeating the great elven city of Feledan they proceeded to attack the gnome settlers. But the races in Istaria finnaly got together and assembled an army upon wich they succesfully managed to push the undeads back. Here is where the players are introduced to the storyline.
When entering the game you get to chose from a good variaty of races (even dragons). Chosing your race and gender, you can now alter the appearence of your avatar. Colour, hair, posture, size and even facial expression. After your happy about the looks, you proceed to the training halls. Here you get 4 adventure profs to chose from: Warrior, Scout, Mage and Cleric. Also there is 3 crafts to chose from: Blacksmith, scholar and outfitter. you are opt to do some basic training quests to learn about the basics before you proceed to the starter towns.
The starter towns hold all the resources and mobs a new player could desire and will keep you there for as long as you chose to. You can even go back there later, but that will cost you far more than teleporting between the other citys in Istaria.
Personaly I liked this way of starting a game a whole lot. you learn just enough to get you startet. You will also get the weapons and equipment you need for the first 10 levels or so. Then you need to start thinking of upgrading. Here comes the cash part! To obtain the riches the land has to offer, you can either go on a hunting spree and grab whatever the mobs drop, to sell that to other players, or to the NPC called pawn broker. you are also able to spend your time as a crafter to make items you can sell off. Selling the stuff to the Consigner (player shop) will allow other players to buy what you have made/found. you set a price at your own chosing and cross your finger that someone will like your goods and buy it. Before you know it, coppers will start to jingle into your purse. or you can make loads of stuff and sell it directly to the pawnbroker and get cash fast, but at a much lower price than a player would pay.
Adventures:
Initally you get 4 adventurer profs to chose from. Warrior, scout, cleric and mage. These 4 profs make up what we call the basic profs. There is nothing wrong with sticking with that all the way. They arent all that bad.
As you gain experience, you will gain skills in certain catagorys related to the prof you are (warriors gains in combat related skills. Mainly melee). Once you have gotten enough skillpoints, you have the option to join a more prestige filled proffesion. Like ranger, reaver, paladin, chaoswarrior, battlemage and wizard to name a few (there are lots more). XP here is made from completing quests or simply by killing mobs.
Crafts:
3 classes to chose from here at the start: Scholar, blacksmith and outfitter. All the proffs here cover their own areas of crafting. Outfitter makes clothing and armour, Blacksmith makes weapons and tools and the scholar makes spells, potions and jewels to name a few things. You gain xp here by constructing items and/or doing quests. As your skill raises, you can join other prestige schools of your chosing, as long as your skill permits it. unlike the adventurer profs, you dont get penalized by multiclassing. So in theory you can join all the schools there is. I am trained in 5 shcools I think. Some guy in the guild got 10. As you progress you get acccess to more intricate formulas, and can make better items that is worth more or give better bonuses.
NB. you can be both crafter and adventurer. Those two doesnt affect one another.
What I have written here are facts, not something based on me liking the game or not. I will post more later. Like how the gameplay is like, graphics, content, events (both playermade and GM made), RP, pros and cons. For those interested, I hope this was informativ and not sensless blabbering
