ganymede i did tell you to take what i said very much with a grain of salt because i'm not actually going to pkill someone when i'm helping players out.
you're also taking everything i say and drawing it down to its basic level, i.e. "we want new players butchering people and going on murdering sprees".
did you actually read what i wrote there, or are you just making these insinuations to make us sound worse than we are? how do you know we're credible? it's very simple, players are set into categories in discord: helper, staff, builders, online. i am one of the credible sources - in fact, pretty much everybody is credible, because we're not here as players to make you as a newbie feel unwelcome. we're welcoming you -into- an unwelcoming world. whether that means you get introduced to it at the point of the knife, or donning the brown hooded military aba of the t'zai byn, or the armpatch of the arm of the dragon, well, that's up to you and how you play, and a small bit of luck.
never once did i ever say i wanted newbies butchering and murdering new people in that context. i didn't even say i was going to pkill anyone (in a serious manner) when i was helping someone. go back and reread everything i wrote. the words "well roleplayed" and "take this with a grain of salt" were in some manner used. if a newbie just goes randomly murdering people, they're going to get caught and butchered themselves. there has to be roleplay behind it - good roleplay. good justifications. i personally played a pc who butchered people - who went on a murder spree. a few players died. before they died, they got a great scene.
this is mu*soapbox, not mushsoapbox. we're advertising for mudders, and maybe for mushers who want to play, to show them a new world. a dangerous world, where consequences can be immediately dire, or where the benefits can be outlandishly good depending how you play the cards you're dealt.
now, to arkandel. so, here's how it works. we have a karma system, as you know. this karma system serves a dual functionality - it allows you to play more powerful (i.e. magickal) characters, and races (i.e. half-giants, muls, who all have very in-depth documentation on how they should be played).
it also serves the function of allowing you (for now via request, until the chargen system is updated to reflect it) to bump up your skill points by a very set level, to reflect some kind of prior experience. all new players, and all characters who DO NOT apply in this manner start at the same skill level as everyone else - at the bottom. i'm a 8 year veteran of the game, i've done a lot in the game. if i were to roll up a new character, right now, and choose nothing but the basic subguild and races and guild, i would come in with the same skills as Newbie McChaltonboots who just rolled into the game and has NO IDEA what he's doing.
i have no advantage, other than knowledge. some of my knowledge i can use, because maybe my character has done things like hunting the area around allanak, so he knows a bit about that. some of it i don't use, such as where all the best spots are to get things i need, how to get through dangerous territory alone, where to find WATER which is so very necessary to survival. a new player "shouldn't" roll into the game as a grizzled veteran, for the simple fact that they - as a new player of the game - lack the required knowledge to actually put that veterancy to use and survive.
that's why many new players are icly told to join the t'zai byn. they're new, they're just stepping into the world, their character has bright clean blue eyes - and we're going to stain them the muddy, gritty brown of the byn. we want them to enter the byn to learn to fight, to roleplay, to spar, to survive, to make friends. to drink and laugh and have sex with strangers and band together when some elf says something nasty to one of their comrades.
it's not that we don't want to help a new player play as a grizzled veteran warrior, but they - like all of us - have to earn that. i still have to earn it, and the earning it is the best part of it for me.
