Good place to start

[Tazar Yoot]

Hello, just stumbled across Sryth earlier this week and it's exactly what I was looking for. I wanted a gamebook style game that I could take with me and play on the go on the iPhone and this has been working out great.

I consider myself a pretty big gamebook fan, I'm assuming there's some other people out there who also enjoy gamebooks? Fabled Lands, Bloodsword, Fighting Fantasy, Lone Wolf, etc. Also open to any suggestions for books I should check out.

Anyway, I'm just posting to say hello and introduce myself, as I can forsee myself coming to these forums quite a bit to get answers to random questions regarding Sryth, such as why can't I drop my stupid granite key :P

[psychoadept]

Welcome! Glad you're enjoying the game, and I'm sure we can provide many answers. The granite key, though is one of those things that just is...

[Elrond]

Hello, just stumbled across Sryth earlier this week and it's exactly what I was looking for. I wanted a gamebook style game that I could take with me and play on the go on the iPhone and this has been working out great.

I consider myself a pretty big gamebook fan, I'm assuming there's some other people out there who also enjoy gamebooks? Fabled Lands, Bloodsword, Fighting Fantasy, Lone Wolf, etc. Also open to any suggestions for books I should check out.

Anyway, I'm just posting to say hello and introduce myself, as I can forsee myself coming to these forums quite a bit to get answers to random questions regarding Sryth, such as why can't I drop my stupid granite key :P

Welcome to Sryth, Tazar Yoot! It looks like we have another dedicated member on hand! The more the merrier!

[wetheril]

Welcome Tazar! :) The forum is a great place to ask your questions, since people tend to respond in a timely fashion. Another good place to start looking for answers about a quest (or quest items) is the Sryth Wiki (http://sryth.wikia.com).

I certainly hope you will be sticking around.

[Zedalion]

Hi Tazar,

Just wanted to say hello, and mention that I was (and still am) a huge fan of the old Lone Wolf gamebooks, and I can certainly see the similarities with Sryth!

[Doolipalally]

Welcome Tazar! Hope you continue to enjoy the game, and good to see you on the forums.

[Tazar Yoot]

Thank you all for the very warm welcome.

The game has been hitting very close to home with my appreciation for game books (and I won't lie, it's nice having the stats and dice rolls all done for me) and it really is exactly what I was looking for, not to mention it's so nicely executed. I learned earlier today that the GM is just one person, it's very schocking to think just one person is responsible for all this, I'm impressed.

I have looked over the wiki and found it very informative, however I'm really trying to hold back and avoid too many spoilers. I want to experience the game for the first time without ruining the suprize. However at the same time I don't want to cripple my character or miss out on anything major. I rolled my character with all 19s and one 20 for stats. Will my character be crippled if I don't go hunting for all the skills and powers? Any suggestions for a beginner in these regards?

[wetheril]

I have looked over the wiki and found it very informative, however I'm really trying to hold back and avoid too many spoilers. I want to experience the game for the first time without ruining the suprize. However at the same time I don't want to cripple my character or miss out on anything major. I rolled my character with all 19s and one 20 for stats. Will my character be crippled if I don't go hunting for all the skills and powers? Any suggestions for a beginner in these regards?

There's a couple reasons to have all the skills and powers, and if you're AG (I assume you are)? These are probably the biggest advantages:

1. Quickstone daily bonus is higher: There are many quests that give exp to "All Skills & Powers". The more skills/powers you have, the bigger your 10% exp bonus at the end of the day for running the same quest, as it tallies up exp earned from each individual skill and power on top of general exp earned. More exp rewards = a good thing!

2. Proving Grounds: This is probably a more "necessary" reason. There are many situations where you DO NOT need to risk a roll, when using a skill or power can give you a "higher chance" of succeeding in the scenario, as well as experience for using that skill or power. And since proving grounds gives the maximum reward in ATs ONLY if you pass with 100%, it really is very important to get the max reward since ATs are so precious and limited in this game. More skills and powers = more options, and less risk.

That said, I can see that not having all skills and powers might be fun for role-playing. Even so, having all skills and powers shouldn't really take away that much from the role-playing element (as you can ask some of the regulars in the roleplaying section). If you want to be powerful and not miss out on anything, I would advise you DO get all skills and powers. The character start-up guide is a good resource and well-put together, but there are some parts of it I don't agree with. It is only a guideline to helping you build your character, so just keep in mind you don't have to follow it to the T, and there's a lot of flexibility. :)

[thingirl]

As for RPing your Char if he/she has skills that don't fit, get those skills, but keep them at 1. That way, you'll gain XP (and it'll go into your QS), but you won't have the skill from a RP perspective.

[Tazar Yoot]

Thanks for the advice I'm starting to lean towards the idea of hunting down the skills only to maximize the efficiency of exp gain. I guess my only question would be, is finding the skills through out the natural course of gameplay ideal or would it be hard to find them all without using some sort of guide?

[thingirl]

Well, if you chose the right skills at startup, you can get all skills in game except Weaponry:Staves, which is gotten fron the Adventurer's Collective.

[wetheril]

Thanks for the advice I'm starting to lean towards the idea of hunting down the skills only to maximize the efficiency of exp gain. I guess my only question would be, is finding the skills through out the natural course of gameplay ideal or would it be hard to find them all without using some sort of guide?

It is possible to get all the skills without the use of the Character Guide, but you might not get it in an efficient manner. What the guide does is tell you a more efficient way to acquire the skills, since some of them will cost you gold or exp--in in some cases, be more "expensive" to acquire depending on when you get them.

If you don't want to end up "losing" AS&P exp gained from quests, I'd suggest you can take a look at the quest list (http://sryth.wikia.com/wiki/Quest_List) and specifically avoid quests that give exp to all skills and powers UNTIL you have collected all the skills and powers, or come close to collecting them all.

Edit: And I agree with Thingirl. Choosing the right skills and powers at startup are a big help, since some of them are start-up only (like Necromancy). As an AG member, you can always pick up skills and powers you missed out at the Adventurer's Collective, but they will cost you 2 AT and a certain amount of gold depending on how many skills/powers you have at the time.

[Tazar Yoot]

I might be getting ahead of myself what what is adventure collective? I guess my only fear is if I look up all the skills and powers and get them early on I won't have anything left to give me that sense of leveling up and strenghtening my character, is that a silly fear? Is there plenty to gain exp/gear wise to keep the sense of acomplishment fresh? Also I forgot to meantion that I am AG.

[zmflavius]

I might be getting ahead of myself what what is adventure collective? I guess my only fear is if I look up all the skills and powers and get them early on I won't have anything left to give me that sense of leveling up and strenghtening my character, is that a silly fear? Is there plenty to gain exp/gear wise to keep the sense of acomplishment fresh? Also I forgot to meantion that I am AG.

There is an infinite amount of xp in the game.

[wetheril]

I might be getting ahead of myself what what is adventure collective? I guess my only fear is if I look up all the skills and powers and get them early on I won't have anything left to give me that sense of leveling up and strenghtening my character, is that a silly fear? Is there plenty to gain exp/gear wise to keep the sense of acomplishment fresh? Also I forgot to meantion that I am AG.

From the Wiki (quoted, as I can't find a better way to describe it myself): The Adventurers' Collective is a place reserved for Adventurers Guild members. It can be found in Trithik, behind the green door in Blade Square. Its function in game (and even more in roleplaying and fanfiction, both in the forum) is to allow all adventurers in the realm to encounter with other adventurers and generally have a good time.

You can also do this: just play the game without the guide. Before you get too far, you can always reset the character and follow the guide after trying it out for a bit. It really does not take too long to rebuild a character (up to a certain point). I seriously think there is quite a fair amount of content, and new challenges that you'll never run out of. The bar is as high as you want to set it at. :)

[Tazar Yoot]

From the Wiki (quoted, as I can't find a better way to describe it myself):

You can also do this: just play the game without the guide. Before you get too far, you can always reset the character and follow the guide after trying it out for a bit. It really does not take too long to rebuild a character (up to a certain point). I seriously think there is quite a fair amount of content, and new challenges that you'll never run out of. The bar is as high as you want to set it at. :)
This sounds like solid advice thank you I will be doing just this.

[Oldschool]

Sound advice from Wetheril.

Also, in the past I always said if I had it to do over I'd probably run a secondary first to help with the learning curve then my main. However in hindsight, for me at least, I don't think that strategy would work. I think that first raw experience you get with that first character is what makes him/her your main - had I ran a different character first I think I'd be sporting a different character as a main. Still that's something to consider.

Anyway the rest of my two cents.....

Tazar Yoot most a lot of the wiki is spoiler tagged but there is still potential in there for spoils. Also the forum itself is a great handicapper.

I dislike spoilers myself. When I ran the quests the first time I would usually near the end of them and with an abandon screen still available check the wiki to see if I fouled anything major up before committing myself to it. Actually for most quests it isn't necessary to have an abandon screen up as long as you don't save the results but I found it easier that way.

As far as skills/powers it is definitely a benefit on getting those you can free or on the cheap without going to the Collective or Grey Circle.

The first post in the hints section details it nice and concisely and is what I consider a blueprint for maximum skill/power development. It details which ones and where/how you can get them without resorting to high costs of xp, gold or ATs.

It's very specific but I myself consider it more of a strategy and not spoilerish since it doesn't deal with specific game content other than gaining certain skills/powers.

Psychoadept's links in the same section are a boon of information but what I would consider more spoilerish. The quest checklist not so much as the character guide however.

Lastly as has been mentioned the wiki is a wealth of knowledge - again spoilerish potential is high especially when viewing specific quest pages.

Here's a link to the hints thread of the help section which starts off with the copied and pasted skills/powers strategy so expertly done by Joddelle, the artist formerly known as Nearvirgo. ;) No offense Joddelle as I give you and Scarbrow as well as some other forum and wiki folk credit for the early rapid development of Hawk and thereby all my other characters as well.

http://www.srythforum.com/showthread.php?t=99