Title: Newbie Quests
Summary: A series of "quests" for new players to guide them through the confusing first few days of BM and help explain some of the mechanics.
Details: Someone mentioned quests for new player in a thread in the General Discussion board and I thought I would expand upon it.
Every character a new player creates within the first, say, 7 days after making an account would receive these quests. They could be tied into the family gold that a new character receives - start a character, receive family gold as normal. Complete the first quest, get your next lot of family gold. Complete the second to get your final family gold donation. Further quests could reward the character with a point or two of Honour - nothing game breaking.
There would be the option to skip the quests for those who have already done them on another character, say, or for a returning player that knows how to play already. They would receive their family gold in the normal way.
Quest 1 - Find a home: Welcomes the player to BattleMaster and to their new realm. Encourages the player to introduce herself to the rest of the realm (with instructions on how to do that). The actual quest would be to find an estate. The game would list the vacant estates in the surrounding regions (or estates further away if none are in the closest regions - if there are no estates at all, turn off the quests and ask the player to message the Realm Council, perhaps) and explain how to use the Travel tab.
Finishes once the character has an estate. The game congratulates them and gives them their next family gold bonus.
Quest 2 - Travel to the capital: Asks the player to travel to the capital and explains the importance of a capital to the realm (only place to recruit troops, often has lots of paraphernalia, etc). Gives the location and name of the capital and explains how to use the Routefinder.
Finishes once the character reaches the capital. The game congratulates them and gives them their next family gold bonus.
Quest 3 - Recruit some troops: Asks the player to recruit 5 (more) soldiers and explains how to do so. Also explains the various unit stats such as Equipment, Morale and Cohesion, and that if you already have Infantry, for example, you can only recruit more Infantry. Also explains how to pay troops.
Finishes once the character recruits 5 more men. The game congratulates them and gives them a point of Honour.
Quest 4 - Join an army: Tells the player to message his liege lord and ask to be assigned to an army. Also explains the importance of armies in a realm. A special game message should be sent to the liege lord's character (and maybe even to his Player Page) to try to ensure the new character doesn't get stuck in this quest due to an inactive liege lord. Perhaps give this quest a time limit of X days, after which it tells the new character to send a message to the Realm Council.
Finishes once the character is assigned to an army. The game congratulates them and gives them a point of Honour.
More quests could be added after this, but I think the first four explain the most important aspects of the game for a new player.
Benefits: Would give new players a guiding hand to get into the game, and newbie quests are very familiar to anyone who has played a video or PC game, particularly an MMO.
Possible Exploits: Could be used by some unscrupulous players to get family gold more quickly with a new character than they otherwise could. Could replace the family gold rewards with Honour instead, if it's an issue.
