TRAINING GROUNDS

Map of the Training Grounds

What are the Training Grounds?

The Training Grounds (TG) is the place where you arrive when your character is first created. It's referred to as the Academy because it's a place to learn and become familiar with the Dragon's Gate gaming environment. Within the TG, you'll find small samples of many of the things you'll come across throughout the entire game. You'll learn how to hold a weapon, cast a spell, shop at a store, attack a monster, and learn new skills, and many other things as well.

Some Important Tips ...

Here are some tips to remember as you adventure through the TG.

1. Read the room descriptions. - The room descriptions are written with the newly arrived player in mind. If you have a question, there's a good chance the answer is right in front of your eyes.

2. Ask for help. - If you don't understand something or feel stuck, ask for help. Most players are very willing to do whatever they can to make sure you have a good time while you're here. If you can't find someone to help you, you can always use the command ASSIST to call upon a member of the Dragon's Gate Staff.

3. Try out different characters. - It may be a good idea to create a few characters and spend some time with them in the TG. This gives you a chance to learn the differences between each class and race. Also, you might learn how two characters, of the exact same race and class, can differ in many ways. Doing this allows you find the right character to play in the long run.

What is the Spur?

While in the TG, you'll hear many say they are heading to the Spur. The Spur is the central city in Dragon's Gate. Once your character leaves the TG he or she will start their new life in the Spur.

When will I know I'm Ready to go to Spur?

All in all, it's a personal choice. The TG allows you to train in almost any skill, with no charge, up to level 5. Some player's feel they must reach level 5 in certain skills and be ready to train again before making the trip to Spur. Others will take their character to the Spur almost immediately. No one will force you to leave, or stay in, the TG; you can stay as long as you wish. Just consider that the TG has something offer. Take full advantage of everything that's available to you here and when you feel ready, move forward.

Test your character's roleplay ...

While you're in the TG, this is a perfect time to get in to your character's head. How would he or she react to certain situations? Do they have any personal likes or dislikes? Spend some time and try to get comfortable with being your character. This will help you in dealing with the many unexpected things that will happen when your character leaves the academy.

Directions for Logging in and getting started.:

To Create a Character:

The Beginning of the Rest of Your Character's Life:

Map of the Training Grounds

[New Arrival Platform.]

***
REMEMBER: Do not engage in any illegal/aggressive activities against other players (or friendly NPCs) if you wish to remain covered by the 80 hour grace period!
There are no exceptions and the Elders cannot return it to you if lost.
Enjoy the game!
***

Welcome to the world of Dragon's Gate! Abandon all preconceived notions, ye who enter here. This may look like someplace you've been, but Dragon's Gate is unique unto itself and holds many hidden surprises. Prepare to enter an ever changing fantasy realm where Dragons soar through the skies and magick is a part of everyday life. As a new adventurer, you will begin your journey in the Training Grounds. This area is designed to allow those new to our world a chance to master the basic commands and skills needed before venturing forth to the realms of Aradath. To continue onward, type NORTH.

• The first line is a generic description of the "room"that your character is in.
• The next lines describe the room in more detail.
• Any items that exist in the room will be shown at the end of this detailed description.
• If there are any Non-player characters (NPCs), they will be listed next, followed by any Player characters that are in the room.
• Finially, you are shown the obvious exist, which will always be listed by cardinal directions ( North, Northwest, West, Southwest, South, Southeast, East, Northeast ).

Type LOOK, or L. This will show you the room description again. You can also type LOOK AT BACKPACK, which will show you the backpack that you are carrying.

Type INVENTORY, or INV. This will show you what you are carrying, including your backpack.

Type OPEN BACKPACK to open your backpack. You can now LOOK IN BACKPACK, which will list the items the backpack is currently holding.

Type TAKE RATIONS OUT OF BACKPACK (or GET RATIONS FROM BACKPACK) to take the rations out of the backpack and into your inventory. After this, you can type INV and you should now see your rations shown on the inventory list.  Eat a bit of the rations by typing EAT RATION or EAT RAT.

Type PUT RAT IN BACK to put the rations back into your backpack.

Type SAY This is a fun game. You will then see your character say "This is a fun game.". SAY is the command that lets you communicate to other players.

Now move north (the only obvious exit in this room) by typing NORTH or N.

The next several rooms contain important information about what is and what is not permitted in the game. Take the time to read each of these room descriptions so that you are aware of what is acceptable.  Continue moving north by typing NORTH or N after you have read each description till you come to a room that has various portals.  Each of these portals corresponds to the races of Dragon’s Gate.  Choose the portal of your race by typing GO FLERIAN, for the Flerian race.  This room details some of the characteristics of the race you have chosen.  Once you have read this information, you may type GO PORTAL to leave this room.

You are now in the "center" of the Training Grounds.  From here, move south twice by typing SOUTH, SOUTH or S, S.  This will take you to the Adventurer’s Outpost, where you can purchase food, equipment, and other items.

To start, your character is going to want armor and a weapon. The equipment in the outpost is free, so you do not have to worry about making money to get what you need out of it. Type SHOP LIST ALL to all the items the outpost carries. You need armor for protection, so lets get a bit more specific by typing SHOP LIST ARMOR. This will list all the available armors to you, which should look something like this:

We want to buy the suit of bark training mail, so type SHOP BUY 14.  You will see that the outpost merchant accepts the amount you owe him (nothing, in this case) and hands you the armor over.  Type INV to look at your character's inventory again, and you will see another item in the list.  Hopefully, it is the armor you just bought.

Put the armor on by typing READY TRAINING.  Various items won’t have the keyword you might expect, so try different words in the description until you get the hang of it.  You will see that you put on the armor, along with how long it takes your character to put it on. Your character will not be able to do certain actions while he/she is "in delay", while most Roleplaying commands will work just fine.

Now you need to buy a weapon, so type SHOP LIST SHARP. This will list out all the sharp weapons the shop carries. It should look something like the following:

Buy the dagger by typing SHOP BUY 16, next equip it by typing READY DAGGER.

Type STAT. You should see a listing, which shows what items your character, has readied which should be the armor and the dagger.

Now move to the target room by typing N, N, N, N, N, N, N then E, then SE, then GO DOOR. This will move your character into the target room, where you can begin to practice using your dagger.

[Target Room.]

A thick layer of dirt and straw covers the wooden floor of this small chamber, as determined adventurers slash and whack away at stuffed canvas targets, practicing their new moves.  A haggard looking veteran mercenary keeps a watchful eye on the new blood, taking great care to make sure that each adventurer takes this training seriously and doesn’t daydream.  A blackened steel door.

This room is illuminated.
You see the 1st practice target
Obvious exits: north*.

It is possible there will not be a target in the room, or there might be multiple targets. If there is not one, just wait around - one will eventually show up.

Type SKILL. You will see something like the following:

Each row on this display is a skill that your character has learned. To effectively use the dagger you have purchased, you need the Sharp Weapons skill (this does NOT mean that if you don't have the skill you cannot attempt to use it.   It just means that you will be highly ineffectual in doing so). The number in the Remain column is the number of times you must successfully use the skill before you can see the trainer to raise your level to a higher one. The number in the Level column is a reflection of how skilled you are. The highest level you can obtain in any skill is 41.  New skills can be learned at any training center, although which skills will depend on which training center your character is at.  Each new skill takes one hour of real time to learn, meaning you cannot play the game with that character while he/she is "in training".  Raising a skill up one level will also take time, although how much depends on the level you are raising it to. Levels 5 and below will take no time, while every level above 5 will take 1 hour of real time for each level above 5.  So to train to level 10 in any skill will put the character "in training" for 5 hours real time.

To swing your readied dagger at the target, type KM TARGET. KM stands for Kill Monster, and is one of the many ways to attack something or someone in Dragon’s Gate. K, ATT, ATTACK, or KILL will all do the same thing.  If there is a "2nd practice target" in the room and you wish to attack it, you would type KM 2 TARGET. You should see something like the following:

You swing your short simple dagger at the practice target!
[5 sec. delay]
The swing is a well-delivered blow to the right arm.

Of course, the above display will vary depending upon if you hit the target or not, and what skills you are using.  If you hit the target, you can type SKILL again, and you should see that the number under the Remain column has gone down, possibly even by as many uses as 3. The number of "uses" (i.e. the amount that the Remain number drops by) that your character receives will very widely from skill to skill, and level to level.

Type HEALTH or H. This will show you something like the following:

You appear to be in perfect health.

HP: 120/120 Ftg: 37/ 39

This shows your Hit Points (how healthy you are) as well as your fatigue points (how tired you are).  Notice that more than likely, your character has lost a fatigue point or two.  This was caused because you swinging your dagger at something, which tires the character slightly.. Most actions will require that you have at least 1 fatigue point, and some will actually cost fatigue, such as swinging a weapon or casting a spell.  You regain fatigue points over time based on your race and your Constitution statistic. You can also recover them by typing SLEEP, or via a spell or potion.   There is also a healer shop available to health your wounds and fatigue.  From the Target room, type the following:

GO DOOR, NW, W, S, S, S, S, W, NW.  Once there, type SHOP HEAL ALL.  The healers work tirelessly to keep you healthy for your stay within the Training Grounds.

The area that your character is in is called the Training Grounds. This small section of the game is built such that you can learn the mechanics of the game and gain the first couple of levels without making it unduly difficult on you and preserving the "in character" feeling of the main part of the game. When you leave the Training Grounds (or TG as some folks call it), you will enter the central city, which is referred to as "the Spur". While you are in the TG, you will only be able to raise your skills to level 5. To get any training beyond that, you will need to go to Spur.

For the first 30 days of your character's existence, you have what is called the "Novice" title. This basically means that your character is PvP off for the time you are a "novice". You can lose this status by either attacking someone or getting any one of your skills to level 10.

And so the game begins.

Now that you have familiarized yourself with the commands of Dragon's Gate, its time to go look at the Quick Start Guide or the Manual and do some reading. You want to pay attention to the races, classes, and religions of the game so that you can better decide what specific character you wish to be. Perhaps you want to play that Human fighter who follows the god of Battle. More perhaps, a winged Anthian Forester. Maybe even a shifty San Elf thief, or a Penthanian RuneMage who follows the God of Magic. You have the choice now of what role you want to take in the world of Dragon's Gate, and it is an important one since the choices of race, class, and religion will determine how your character will generally fit into the game world.

When rolling your character, make sure you watch for the statistics of your character. The details of these can be found in the manual or quick start guide, and also should be paid attention to. They will have a very large affect on your character as you move about the game and interact with the other players and monsters of the world.

Note that while this tutorial deals mostly with the mechanics of the game, the staff would like to stress that this is primarily a Roleplaying game. You can, if you chose, spend your time working skills as high as you can to be the most powerful player in the game. However, we would like to stress that the real joy of Dragon's Gate game comes from the interaction with the characters other people are playing, and the situations that you will find yourself in because of your actions and the actions of those about you.

Also keep in mind that when you are in the game, it will be stressed that you stay “In Character” (referred to as IC). That means that conversation and activities should revolve about the characters and the game world, not about the coolest new CD or who the winner of the Super Bowl is going to be. If you need to talk to someone about something “Out of Character” (referred to as OOC), do it outside of the range of other players, in the OOC Café (rooms made for OOC talk in the game just off of Town Square), or in whispers.

If you ever get stuck on a command or find a system problem that you cannot solve, type ASSIST and a guide will come and try to help you through the problem. Guides are players who volunteer their time to assist other players, so be nice to them. They are there to help.

If you have any questions on this tutorial, the game, any other part of the web site, the company, or anything else concerning Dragon’s Gate, send an email to Dune@dragons-gate.com or Gia@dragons-gate.com. Form there it will get referenced to the appropriate person to answer whatever questions you might have.

And now, let the adventure begin...