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Choose My Adventure: Swiftsnout theCrotchety

Jef Reahard
- Managing Editor
Updated ·5 min read
0

Aaaaaaooooooooooooo... er, sorry.

I was just getting into character a bit early, I suppose. Welcome back, loyal readers and Aventurine subscribers alike, to Choose My Adventure. With the past couple weeks' worth of voting formalities behind us, it's time for the main event. As we speak, I'm rolling up a brand-spanking-new Darkfall character, the better to suffer at the hands of my new PK overlords -- and hopefully get a good look at the world of Agon prior to writing about it over the next six weeks.


Join me after the cut to see the results of last week's voting and get a sneak peek at what I'll be doing first.


The voting was pretty close on two of last week's three character-creation choices. Mahirim (that's Darkfall's answer to wolf-men) narrowly out-paced Alfar (the fantasy staple dark elf) by approximately 50 votes and a few piddling percentage points. Apparently you folks are also into bad guys, as votes for the Humans, Mirdain (light elves), and Dwarves were, well, dwarfed by the votes for the so-called evil races of Agon.

The game focus category produced another squeaker of a vote. I broke your choices down to a combat-, crafting-, or hybrid-focused character, and you responded by giving my Mahirim a clear mandate to spend his days sticking the pointy end into the other man. Over 52% of the vote went towards combat, while approximately 43% of you were interested in seeing some sort of division between combat and crafting. A measly 4.5% of you stuck your necks out exclusively on behalf of Darkfall's tradeskill system. In the interests of providing a comprehensive game overview, I'll still spend a wee bit of time on crafting and gathering, but not nearly as much as on combat.

Finally, my new Mahirim's social status vote was something of a landslide. Over 75% of you raised your hands in favor of clan-focused gameplay, while only 24% wanted a look at Darkfall's solo-centric options. My plan as of right now is to join the Newborn on Agon (NEW) clan to re-learn the game and get a feel for the new player experience. In the interests of full disclosure, I did play Darkfall in the spring of 2009, first on EU-1 and then on the U.S. server when it opened in the summer. All of my time was spent solo, exploring and crafting using a human character over a period of approximately two months, so for all intents and purposes, I am a complete combat newb. After a stint in NEW, I'll look to join a permanent clan and get in on as much of the gameplay as I can over the remainder of my official play time.

As per Choose My Adventure tradition, you're free to play along with me (or in Darkfall's case, hunt me) if you wish. My schedule varies, so I won't be putting play times up for a vote this week. That said, I will set up a couple of weekly time slots during which you're guaranteed to find me online. If you are looking to give the Darkfall trial a go and are in need of an adventuring companion (and don't mind rolling either an Ork or a Mahirim for alignment considerations), hit me up during the following times and we'll go gank a few goblins along with whatever else it is that Darkfall newbs do.

Tentative (partial) play schedule:

  • Thursday nights from 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. EST

  • Friday afternoons from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. EST

  • Sunday mornings from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. EST

So, without further preamble, I give you Swiftsnout theCrotchety (yes, really). Aventurine's interesting generator comes up with all manner of thuggish surnames (theTough, theMighty, theFierce, etc.), so I figured, why not have a little fun with it? Swiftsnout will be starting his adventures in the Mahirim newbie town of Silverspear. There's no particular reason for this other than that I thought it was a cool name and there happened to be a body of water nearby. He'll likely be moving on to explore and join a clan anyway. For the first few hours, though, you might find him hanging out in and around that part of the map.

I'll also be partaking of Valroth's Darkfallhelp videos. Aside from browsing the forums and joining a clan, soaking in the knowledge imparted by this series seems to be the Agon equivalent of required reading. Though I'm not finished with the videos as of press time, I will say that what I've seen so far has been very helpful, and I'd highly recommend them if you're a true newb.

That's all I've got for you this week. Agon awaits, and I look forward to seeing some of you folks in the game.

Continue to Part IV.

Join Jef as he morphs from a ranty writer into a grindy action hero in a Choose My Adventure directed by you, the Massively readers! Add Jef in-game to play along, or simply follow the column every Wednesday for a recap of the week's mischief. When six weeks are up, we'll spin the wheel of fate and do it all again.