The wonder of it all.

[Ansherak]

I'd be interested in hearing stories of peoples early days in GS, you know, the things that made you say...."wow" thats really cool! Things that made you think this was a pretty cool game and a good way to lose alot of your free time in.

I'll post my first really cool experience in GS a little later on, gotta get some things done here!

Ansherak

[Wezas]

I was shown to GS3 by Oaksheerii, a few might know him. I'd known him for a few years, we'd partied together quite a bit. The first night I got in the game, he led me to a room where Gillaume (sp) was telling a story. Normally, I could give a rats ass about a story. But seeing everyone else's reaction to the twists and turns of the story was definately something to remember.

And when I got married 6 years ago. I got 3 alters out of it, and then she left the lands a few weeks afterwards. At least we used her money.

[Edaarin]

The first cool thing I saw was a golden imflass claidhmore.

It was being swung at my head by Hughmungis because I stole from his disk.

[Askip]

<< Gillaume (sp) >>

You got it right - Lord Gillaume d'Clans.

I've had good and bad experiences over the years, but the first thing that sold me on the game was the generosity of some of the players with their time and items.

This was in '96 when the AOHell mass influx was starting (I was on Prodigy), so the older players were soon overwhelmed. If there had been a Plat version of the game back then (at today's price) I would have joined in a heartbeat.

Although many folks play to hack&slash, it's always been a social experience for me.

[Miss X]

Il never forget during the days when I found GS magical, hunting outside the south gate in Icemule with Krimstol and Trilley. Trilley loved kobolds so we didnt attack them and she would sleep them with lullabye so they didnt attack us when we were killing squirrels.

One of my funniest memories is the first time my main charecter died in game, she was hunting squirells and a sorcerer's evil eye came in and killed her, at the time I was really scared, heart was racing because I'd never died. Looking back it was so funny. (Oh, and Adredrin, you still owe me that deed):lol:
Vx

[Dighn Darkbeam]

The first time I was openly amazed was just after I had titled and casted an open implosion. I was in a troll area where a large amount of heavy equipment was strewn about.

Needless to say I made an error and did not properly time an attack, receiving a missing leg and heavy stun. Four other trolls rushed into the room and began to hack away. With less than 10 health left, I recovered and immediately opened a void. In less than a second everything in the room besides myself was reduced to a fine mist. At that moment I at last realized the true power of sorcerery.

[longshot]

I remember the old crew...

We all used to live in the temple storeroom.

The people have all left the lands now, but Aelphaba, Tessle, Archpain, Mortanius, Baalor and this putz named Scorpiun.

I went to recharge a bunch of wands with a group, and figured out the runes to get up to the reach. I didn't cheat or use a guide... we just toughed it out.

I have to say it was those friends that made the game really special.

Returning years later to find them all gone, and having to deal with playing on a completely different time schedule... I just deal.

Sorry for the rant... I've had like 6 vodka and tonics and this Halloween party...

[Praefection]

Reading stories like these makes me remember when gemstone was actually magical and people seemed to care about the game, and how others were effected by their actions. Now it's so much out of character bullshit on a constant, regular basis filled with snerts and idiots I am not suprised a lot of the quality people have moved on. Not that I am implying that it's still not good, nor are there good people about but it's gone downhill.

I need coffee and sleep before I should try spelling.

[Edited on 07-18-2003 by Praefection]

[Xcalibur]

When you try to change something that was good, when you try too much, you break the magic.

[Kestrel]

My friend introduced me to GS shortly after I signed up for AOL's new unlimited ISP deal. He told me about this really neat chat room type game that was all fantasy and medieval, and since at the time I was getting into the RhyDin stuff, it sounded interesting and worth a shot. After all, free games are good.

My character was a redheaded sylvan ranger named Katyrnia, and said friend was a human empath named Cordac. Neither of us really had much of a clue about mechanics, took the first roll that had a 90 (which was put into the strength stat, of course; the other ones didn't matter at all), and then trained in a hodgepodge of skills that we thought looked nifty. We were both thrilled when my character genned in Wehnimer's and not this far off, exotic and obscure town called Icemule, which was no doubt several days' journey away.

I remember getting excited when I learned a spell one level, but never did figure out how to cast it. I also trained in scroll reading because I didn't want my character to be illiterate. Luckily, I think that I actually was fully doubled in edged weapons for any given level.

We hunted rats a lot; we either didn't know about the newbie quest for the first level or it wasn't in place at the time. And we always never went further than the initial opening of the catacombs by the cul-de-sac; I got so horribly disoriented one time when some fellow took my character further to where the nexus is.

Another time my friend and I went by way of the well to where the gnomes were; I remember freaking out thinking that they were going to be too difficult for us to handle, since I had never seen one before and was only about level one. I also picked up every single handaxe lying around thinking that I was going to get rich by opening up a weapon store. One time I was horribly flustered when I tried to put back some handaxes I had picked up in front of some other people, having just realized that it was rude to take things on the ground in front of others; however, I kept picking up and dropping the same handaxe instead of typing MY or noting my backpack.

Two guys who played from Prodigy's entry somehow picked up my character at one point. We went to hunt sea nymphs in some exotic place by the water; I think it was a very hidden location. I found it very silly that one of them proposed to my character, who opted to answer him later after thinking the decision over. Then they logged off, leaving Katy in nymphs and me without a clue as to where I was or how to get back to town. So I started exploring and eventually found a path that lead down to the beach. Lo and behold, there was a cave there, too. Expecting it to be full of treasure, I plunged into it only to find a quick demise at the hands of a shelfae. After a few minutes, some kind person actually found her, resurrected her, and returned her weapon -- a prized drake scimitar -- and I got my first lesson in how deeds worked.

I found the kobold village before my friend, having heard about it from someone else in Wehnimer's. Taking him there, we spent many an evening holed up in one of the shacks with a few others, tapping silver coins to entice the kobolds out.

One time I died down the rope and my friend was in a state of panic since we found that a body could not be dragged back up it and no one was coming. I had my first experience with decaying then, and found that my character was now naked and possesion-less, much to my chagrin. It had taken me days of raiding recently evacuated lockers at the Moot Hall to acquire the many treasures of mauve leggings, purple coats, green skirts, shiny bracelets, and countless other priceless artifacts.

When I had made it to a fearsome level four, a small group took my character to fight the dread hobgoblins. I think I managed to hit a few of them, and I even lived through the ordeal. We took a break up on top of some boulder, where a few people were having a picnic. One of our party members surprised me by picking a cuctucae berry from somewhere in the growth. I made a mental note of the place in case I wanted to ever get free food (I didn't want to die of hunger, of course) and later returned to forage up about 80 of them.

Perhaps the most memorable tale I have from when I began is the one where my friend became the harbinger of ill luck for some poor individual. At the time, it was possible to throw a myriad number of weapons -- and not only that, but they could be thrown a room away to hit a random target, although I believe this was rather rare. We had a lot of fun playing with the javelins that kobolds dropped, trying to throw them whenever possible. Never mind that neither of us trained in thrown weapons.

My friend IMed me when I logged on one evening telling me in near-hysterics of what transpired not a few hours earlier:

He was going about his merry way killing kobolds somewhere outside Wehnimer's. Naturally, he was also playing with their discarded javelins. At one point, he threw a javelin a room away.. and when he went to look, he found that he had actually hit something, to his great surprise. Not only that, but he had killed something. And that something was another character. Since neither of us knew about lifekeep in any of its forms, he instead panicked trying to get the scant few others passing by to help; none stayed in the room long enough to hear his pleas.

Unfortunately for the poor fellow who died, none did come to his aid and he decayed.

My friend continued to inform me that not only was he a higher level than Cordac -- who was an impressive level six -- but he was also on his way back to the inn to train up to his twentieth level and title for the first time in his life.

And he had no deeds.

I could probably go on about a number of other early playing stories, some filled with the horrible experience of trial and error where we figured out what was illegal to say, what this strange beast called "OOC" was, and just what that dirty boot was for. But I've probably bored you long enough already. :>

[Trinitis]

oh wow, memories..

I remember my frist char in GS..where I used to hunt with this guy (I can't remember his name..) in icemule. We used to hide at the fork in kobolds (where it split up into Thyrils) and leap from hiding to crush the kobolds. I thought this was great..and had no idea he was a rogue..He just always got the lucky hits!

I goofed with this char for a while in GS (I did not play often at first, as It was on Unlimited AOL, and I did not have an AOL account, I borrowed friends.), but once it moved to the web, is when I really got into GS. I made a new warrior, and no one bothered to tell me CM's where important till I was level 18, and had 0 ranks :-x

Lots of things have happened over the past. Lots and LOTS and LOTS of chars (I have this untold joy of playing the first 10 levels..I don't know why, but those are always the most fun to me!). I have done lots of things in the lands, lived in a lot of the towns (namely Icemule and Rivers Rest..) and tried all types of strange RP's and Char's.

Notable Chars I had that I miss?

Littlebean, the blind empath in Rivers Rest.

Asteria, Elven Wizard that had a lot of friends in Landing.

Casilda, the only empath I ever had that actually healed more then hunted.

Cacalia, The only empath I had that got "evicted" from Icemule for not healing..heh

Bakuratsu, Ghrom killed him once, was funny as hell.

Trinitis, Claid using Half elf rogue, was a blast to play.

Most remembered moment? Getting the altar placed at Standing Stones, my major low level hang out spot. It was so cool making a mark on the lands.

Fav quote?

You show some zombie jerky to Armaxis.
You take a bite of your zombie jerky.

Armaxis says, "How barbaric..."


-Adredrin

[AnticorRifling]

Hunting large ogres for the first time. At the time I was lvl 6 and my prized possession was an onyx-studded black leather thigh-sheath. I didn't find out until months later that the sheath came from the rogue's guild. I still have the sheath and I still remember that ogre hunt.

Was a great time with some reall good friends, I love hunts where you mess up and you can be dead.

[LordSagan]

The first thing that had me hooked on GemStone 3 I will never forget.

I made a character and start tooling around just outside of town hunting torkaans (roltons). I hit a torkaan and got the "spatula" critical. I wish I could quote it as it read back then, but my memory isn't that good and I've had dozens of hard drives die on me since then. The critical went something like:

"Body flatened to a pulp. Get a spatula."

It was in that instant I said to myself "Too cool, any game that can give you that kind of visual image from text is one I have got to play more."

Another experience that hooked me into the game was when the first set of new traps were released. Up until this point, the only traps seen in the game were "Poison needle" and "Gas cloud". There was no other kind of traps. Everyone who had any kind of skill with picking didn't bother disarming these because you could just pick around the trap without disarming. No xp back then for picking and disarming, so it was just wasted roundtime.

Sagan was hunting in Cavers (Cave trolls) with Artuero, Gremlynn, Dec and his wife Snow. He was always the master locksmith so whenever a box dropped, he picked it, even though there were three other rogues with us. So a box drops off of a caver, he stows his weapons to pick the lock and...Hmmm...what's this? There's two metal rods in this lock. Wow, what's this. Everyone was buzzing about it in the group...all the rogues had to take a look at it...finally Dec said "Screw it, just pick around it Sagan...let's kill more" So Sagan pops out his lockpick...settles into picking the lock...and becomes fried to a crisp, leaving nothing but a smoldering pile of Dyari (I was a Dyari or Dhe'nar back then).

Thus began my ultimate fascination with traps in the lands ;) Whoever created those first round of 3 or 4 new traps hooked me for life on locks & traps, and inspired me to make all of the nasty little ones you see killing people today.

Too many great memories over the years from the magic in GemStone. Those are two that really got me hooked in the early days, though.

[Ilvane]

So much..I have to think about it.

I started playing a long time ago. I remember the first time I ever had time with a GM, and thought it was incredible. I was sitting in the Parlour in Mule right after my bard got her title, and in came Uxbri, who carved a beautiful locket for her, and for her husband at the time. It was awesome...

I also met Thurfel way back then, as he was burning down Icemule a bit..:grin: It was me and Skyfawn hiding in the cave in Mule, hoping they wouldn't find us. (She was young back then!)

When I first started playing Ilvane, I met a lot of incredible roleplayers. I am definately thankful for that.

Arimantis who is Ilvane's husband is a huge influence on my roleplay, as well as a good friend of mine, who played Valentrus.

-A

[AnticorRifling]

Death crits are one great feature of the game. They paint a picture. I'm also fond of the random deaths I get from GM's dropping fireballs, lightning, etc on me. Keeps it fresh.