¶
¶ Let's Get Started!
Welcome to the Quick Start Guide.
This guide is intended to be a quick introduction of mechanics and necessary information to get you started on your space odyssey.
Don't forget to read The Rules before you get started.
This is a W.I.P, the information here is in the process of being peer-reviewed.
¶ Character Creation
¶ Pick your Archetype
Before you get started, you'll want to figure out what kind of character you want to play. Force Sensitivity, or your character's ability to access the Force is determined at character creation. With DM permission, some characters can transition from Standard to Force Sensitive later, through means of awakening to it via roleplay, and in even rarer instances a character can transition from Force Sensitive to Standard via other means. Force Sensitivity is necessary for playing a lightsaber-wielding, force-magic using character, while Standard characters have access to a broader range of tech-skills, like Devices and First Aid, as well as Weapon Skills that Force Sensitives do not get. For more information regarding builds, you can read the Character Builds Guide.
¶ Playable Races
Below is a list of mechanically implemented races. All races are mechanically identical with the exception that non-humans learn their respective language automatically and Droids cannot be Force Sensitive. There are non-mechanically implemented races which will be listed further down.
- Human
- Bothan
- Chiss
- Zabrak
- Wookie
- Twi'lek
- Cathar
- Trandoshan
- Mirialan
- Echani
- Mon Calamari
- Ugnaught
- Togruta
- Rodian
- Kel Dor
- Droid
- Nautolan
Any near-humans that can reasonably exist can be made with the human race mechanically and have colors and such changed to represent them better in-game. There are also a number of blindfolds and head coverings for Miraluka.
Below is a list of non “near-human” races with heads available by modifying helmets:
- Arcona
- Chadra-Fan
- Devaronian
- Gamorrean
- Jawa
- Kaleesh
- Karkarodon
- Tuskan
"With all colors unlocked for customization, players are allowed to choose to have their character be a separate near-human or “hybrid” race, such as Pantorans, half-Twi’lek, and other similar races that can be easily represented in such a way. However, under no circumstances will any such races be granted any mechanical or roleplay capabilities above and beyond what the mechanically supported races possess." -DM Announcer
¶ Builds
The SWLOR server boasts a totally unique class and progression system from any other NWN server. Check here for cookie cutter builds and write ups for information on how it all works.
¶ Attributes
SWLOR has 6 attributes.
| Attribute | Description | Primary Skills | Effects |
|---|---|---|---|
| Might | A measure of how physically strong a character is. | One-Handed Two-Handed Martial Arts Smithery Gathering |
Improves damage dealt by regular melee weapons. Improves damage dealt by heavy melee weapons. Improves damage dealt by throwing weapons. Improves item harvest acquisition. Increases Fortitude saving throws. Reduces critical hit chance against you. Increases carrying capacity. |
| Perception | A measure of the character's situational awareness. | One-Handed Two-Handed Martial Arts Ranged Fabrication Devices |
Improves accuracy of regular melee weapons. Improves accuracy of heavy melee weapons. Improves damage of finesse melee weapons. Improves damage of ranged weapons. Increase Reflex saving throws. Increases chance of dealing a critical hit to a target. |
| Vitality | A measure of the character's physical toughness. | Armor Smithery Engineering |
Increases max HP. Improves physical defense (reduces damage taken). Improves natural HP/FP/STM regen. Improves rest recovery. |
| Willpower | A measure of the character's strength of will and mental fortitude. | Force Fabrication Agriculture First Aid Piloting |
Increases max FP. Improves force defense (reduces damage taken). Improves efficacy of First Aid abilities. Improves efficacy of Force abilities. Improves efficacy of ship combat modules. Increases Will saving throws. |
| Agility | A measure of the character's quickness and nimbleness. | One-Handed Martial Arts Ranged Engineering Piloting |
Increases Max STM. Improves evasion. Improves accuracy of finesse weapons. Improves accuracy of ranged weapons. Improves accuracy of throwing weapons. Improves efficacy of ship combat modules. |
| Social | A measure of the character's social grace and force of personality. | Leadership Agriculture Beast Mastery |
Improves GP acquisition. Improves credit rewards. Improves XP gain. Improves XP debt on death. Reduces ship repair bills. |
All attributes start at 10.
You have the usual 30 points to spend on increasing your attributes. Each point of raised attribute costs 2 points.
(Most people choose a 16/16/13/10/10/10 distribution for their build, depending on what they want to do.)
¶ The Character Sheet
The character sheet in SWLOR is different than what you will find in other NWN servers. By pressing C you will open a large black box which can be freely resized and moved around the screen.
- Character's Name
- Portrait
- Change Portrait (Allows you to change your own portrait at any time)
- Archetype (Force Sensitive or Standard)
- Current/Max Health Points (In red), Current/Max Force Points (n blue), Current/Max Stamina (in green)
- Accrued/Max Skill Points and Attribute Points
- Character Attributes (Might, Perception, Vitality, Willpower, Agility, and Social)
- Character race (mechanically speaking, since there are many playable races not represented in character creation)
- A readout of your current Main Hand Damage and your current Off Hand Damage (determined by equipped weapons)
- Attack (dictates the amount of damage dealt in addition to your weapon's physical damage and your weapon's primary damage stat.)
Accuracy (dictates your chances of landing attacks.)
Evasion (dictates how difficult you are to hit for enemies.)
- Phys. DEF (dictates how much damage you take from physical sources.)
Force DEF (dictates how much damage you take from Force sources.)
Elem. DEF (dictates how much damage you take from elemental sources.)
- Control (dictates how much quality progress you make in crafting.)
Craftsmanship (dictates how much creation progress you make in crafting.)
- Sav. Throws (Dictates your saving throws against skills and powers, from left to right they are Fortitude, Reflex, and Will).
- Side Bar- Has various buttons. From top to bottom, they are
- Skills - (Lists all of your skills in the game and allows you to lock a skill from degrading, as well as allowing you to spend RPXP on skills and languages.)
- Perks - (Lists all of the perks in the game, allowing you to spend your SP on various perks to learn new abilities or gain access to various gear.)
- Quests - A journal of sorts to keep track of all NPC quests and Guild requests.)
- Appearance - (Allows you to customize the visuals of your character, weapons, armor, helmet, and cloak to personalize as you wish.)
- Recipes - (Lists every recipe available to craft in the game, as well as the requirements to craft them.)
- HoloCom - (Allows you to make or answer HoloCom calls to other players. Remember to /endcall to make sure the call ends.)
- Key Items - (Lists key item flags tied to your character that do not show up in your inventory, such as keys and access cards.)
- Currencies - (Lists your various refund tokens.)
- Achievement - (List of achievements in the game, such as killing x enemies, crafting x items, or exploring certain areas and completing quests.)
- Notes - (Lets you keep various notes. Multiple separate note entries can be made, allowing for organization.)
- Open Trash - (Opens a trade window with an invisible NPC that will delete any items you leave in the inventory at the top, permanently. Use cautiously.)
- Settings - (Allows you to toggle whether you are notified of achievements, toggle holonet visibility, Turn on subdual mode to prevent killing other players when reducing them to 0 HP, toggle visibility of hourly reset reminders, toggle whether you gain Force XP from melee attacks with lightsabers and electroblades.)
¶ The Setting
¶ Current Timeline
SWLOR is set in the year 3956 BBY in the Legends timeline of the Star Wars universe, currently experiencing the events of KOTOR 1. The main community hub and planet for roleplay is Viscara, a small planet in the outer rim that was once home to some ancient Sith that are now nothing more than ruins and crumbling architecture. Viscara is also a Force Nexus, allowing for a high concentration of Force Sensitives gathering in one place.
¶ Factions
There are several playable factions available on the server.
NPC Factions: Factions ingrained into the setting that are driven by NPC leadership and DM's.
- The Viscaran Jedi Order
- The Viscaran Revanite Sith Enclave
- Republic Navy Fort Hope
- The Mandalorians
- The Hutt Cartel
- Czerka Company
- Malak's Sith Empire
Player Factions: Factions that are more player driven with less NPC and DM guidance or propulsion.
- Smuggler
- Gimpassa
- Celestial Phantom
- Redmoon Hall
- Blue Diamond
- Jal Shey
- Worker's Respite Township
- Cadence
¶ Joining A Faction
All you have to do is approach a member of any faction in character, either through tracking them down In Game, or through the Holonet. Your character can start with a pre-existing history with the chosen faction, so long as it is as the lowest rank (i.e Jedi Initiate/Sith Aspirant/Republic Private). You can pursue in character to ascend the ranks and grow towards higher ranks.
Some factions, such as Jedi, Sith, and Mandalorians, acquire DM items at certain ranks. For Jedi/Sith these would take the form of Lightsabers, something your character will make when they are taken as a Padawan or achieve the status of Acolyte. For Mandalorians they receive Beskar with their promotion to Verd, instead. Beskar is a unique lightsaber-resistant armor that is incredibly durable.
Sith/Jedi should log their training for the DMs to track their progress. To do so, open a ticket via the discord and post a short blurb explaining what your character learned/trained and with who. Written short-stories on the forums about your character training/practicing will also be considered.
Attaining Faction Rank 2 (Jedi Knight/Sith Inquisitor equivalent) will take some time, so be sure to enjoy and invest plenty of your energy into the training and learning of your character as they work towards it.
¶ Quick Start Tutorial:
Upon entering the game your character will find themself in a shuttle heading to CZ-220, the landing point for star ships entering the planet Viscara. Here, you can edit your character's appearance by pressing C to open the Character sheet, and then clicking “Appearance”. From the Settings button in the window, you can also adjust your character's height. Please be responsible with designing your character's look. Tomfoolery will be addressed by the DMs.
Talk to the Twi'lek at the back of the ship to proceed into the tutorial zone, CZ-220.
¶ Welcome to SWLOR!
After making your character you will spawn into the welcome area! There are various NPCs around who will talk to you about various mechanics present in the game, such as the pilot speaking about learning Piloting or the bounty hunter speaking about how engineers make droids. Others will speak on factions, like the Force sensitive civillian who speaks of the Jedi and Revanite Sith.
Make sure to stop at Sal Vulcano's shop (the Gamorrean on the left as you exit) to get some basic clothes and a helmet so you can set up your signature look before setting foot onto the server proper, and don't forget to save it to your outfits slots!
To change your outfits open the character sheet with C and click Appearance on the right.
- Appearance Tab - This allows you to customize your skin color, hair color, eye color, tattoo color, and body parts separate from your clothing.
- Equipment Tab - This allows you to customize your armor, helmet, cloak, main hand weapon, and off hand weapon appearances.
- Settings Tab - This includes the ability to toggle visibility of your helmet, cloak, and to increase or decrease your height.
- Color Target - This changes what is being colored accordingly, such as hair, skin or tattoo on Appearance, or Leather 1, Leather 2, Cloth 1, Cloth 2, Metal 1, and Metal 2 on Equipment.
- Part Target- This changes what part of your body you are changing, such as your head, hands, torso, and so on.
- Color Picker - This is where you select the color to be applied to your color target.
- Part Picker - This is where you pick the model to be applied to your part.
- Part Cycler - For quickly moving to the next model in the Part Picker list without having to scroll and click.
In the equipment tab you can select the drop down bar highlighted on the left to access the list of modifiable equipment. This will only apply to equipment currently equipped to your character. On the right is the Outfits tab, where you can store an save up to 25 outfits.
Once you've spoken to all the NPCs that interest you and set up your new outfit, speak to Captain S'luuk to be sent to CZ-220, the tutorial area of SWLOR.
¶ CZ-220 and Selan's Request
After landing you will arrive in the hangar. Once you've spoken to the NPCs you wish to interact with here head straight ahead into the main section of CZ-220.
As soon as you enter you will be greeted by Selan Flembek, the NPC with your first quest! Speak to her and accept her quest to continue.
Note: If you have done Selan's quest once on your player handle, you won't need to do it again to leave the zone, though the credits may be valuable early on.
She will ask you to aid 3 of the NPCs around the space station:
- Halron Linth - He will ask you to kill enemies in the lower levels. First mynocks, then droids, and finally a mini boss experiment creature.
- Avix Tatham - He will ask you to gather ore, then ask you to refine it. (Be aware, there is a bug that consumes ores left in the refinery window if you close it before refining them.)
- Crafting Terminal Droid Operator - They will task you with gathering items from crates and scrap piles and then with crafting, crafting a bedroll, or crafting a knife.
Each NPC has it's own quest to give you. You only need to do the first quest for each to satisfy Selena's quest. Once the quest is complete, the shuttle to Veles will be available.
Other notable NPCs in this area include:
- Darryn Beto, by the Crafting Droid; who will sell you all of your starting gear and provide you with all the things you need to survive.
- Dario Breto, by the front desk; who will sell Training Weapons. These are much weaker versions of their respective weapons, but require no perks to equip. Good for roleplay and for disguises!
- Cheriss Ordo, just past the desk and Dario in the bar; who has a datapad you can retrieve from the experiment room and return to her for a reward.
- Frank, in the cooking pots area; Will sell you roleplay prop items like cigars, cigarettes, cups, and goblets.
Once you've completed the requests and spoken to Selan to get your shuttle pass, it's time to head to Viscara and enter the open world of SWLOR! Don't worry, you can come back to CZ any time. Speak to Galtea Allerti in the hangar by the shuttle when you are ready to exit.
¶ The Open World
¶ Veles City Highlights
This section of the guide is only a recommendation and may not be accurate for all builds. The best way to grind and level is to interact with other characters and make friends who can help you level.
There is much to do in Veles, the main city of Viscara, owned and operated by Czerka Corporation. But there are some key quests you may wish to do. Be warned, some of these should not be addressed immediately unless you have help, so feel free to level up a bit or ask around for someone to help you with these (particularly the mandalorian facility).
- Taxi Terminal Repairs - Given by Dessta Bocktorb, a blue twi'lek directly to your right after you exit the Starport. This will unlock the taxi system and let you get around Veles much easier.
- Kath Hound Part Collection - Given by Szaan Synko just in front of the Starport, by the central square.
- Kath Hound Hunting - Given by Moira Halaz, just outside of the central square headed south, towards the exit to Veles.
- Weapons for Krystalle - Given by Krystalle in the far north-eastern area, in the refugee section in a back alleyway.
- Package for Denam Reyholm - Given by Roy Moss in the same alley as Krystalle, unlocks the ability to respec your character. This quest will take you into the mountains which is a bit harder, so make sure you can handle the area first.
- Locate the Mandalorian Facility - Given by Tal'gar Meyne by the market terminals directly north of the central square, this quest chain unlocks a fairly important spot to grind for lower levels before leaving the planet. That being said, you should wait until you are struggling to grind from the rest of the planet to go here, and may still wish to bring a friend.
After completing some of these quests and their follow ups you should check in with Irene Colstaad, north of the market terminal (just in front of Czerka tower), and Harry Mason, whom can be found right next to Roy Moss.
¶ Viva La Viscara
At first you will likely want to stick to the Wildlands, just outside of Veles. You may also want to purchase the first tier of the skill Dedication, regardless of if you plan to fully spec into Leadership, as it gives you a flat experience boost and levels leadership on its own, giving you faster access to attribute points passively. As the Kath Hounds and Warocas become less fruitful for XP, venturing into the sewers beneath Veles may be helpful. Your next stop once the sewers stop being profitable should probably be the mountains to the east of Veles, though be careful here as you will have difficulty fighting more than one of the Nashtahs or Carinmogs here at a time, even once you have tier 2 weapons and armor.
If you are feeling very bold you can attempt to head west into the forest, but beware the deadly Gimpassa, horror of Viscara. You will not be able to pierce their shells with tier 1 weapons or even most Tier 2 weapons, unless you have a relatively high damage stat. You can largely avoid them by not going close to the river, though. You can also find some Mandalorians in the forest near their compound. The ones outside are far easier than the ones inside, so be wary of feeling bold enough to enter. You may even wish to wait until after you are strong enough to leave Viscara and return at another point, unless you can bring friends to back you up. Feel free to progress the quest up to the point of unlocking the front door, however. Once you are situated in Tier 3 weapons and core armor (as in not including cloaks, belts, and accessories) you should be able to handle the Mandalorian facility easily by yourself.
Here is a guide to finding the keycards in the Mandalorian Facility:
- Blue Keycard can be found on the first desk if you take a right from the entrance. Fight through the first room then take a left. As you enter the larger open room, hug the right wall until you find a keycard on it. This is the blue keycard.
- After passing through that room straight ahead, there will be a dead end hallway directly in front of you. Go down that dead end to find the Red Keycard on that table, past 3 more Mandalorians.
- The final keycard can be found by either completing the loop or going left from the rest area and continuing straight ahead. You'll come to a room that forces you to turn right. There will be three Mandalorians in front of a computer terminal. The Yellow Keycard is on the floor in front of the terminal.
After Viscara you can head to Mon Cala or, if you are so inclined, Korriban.
¶ Mon Calan Grindset
Once you are at around 20 armor/weapon skill and have appropriate gear, you can likely handle at least the simplest of creatures such as the Vipers on Mon Cala. Beware the Amphi-hydrus' Force Drain that will sap your health and heal them for a large chunk of their health every round, when activated. Likewise, Aradiles are extremely durable and those with lower damage stats may have difficulty punching through their exteriors. It would probably be wise to not venture deeper than the two beach areas on your first visit to Mon Cala, as the Eco Terrorists can be tougher and come in larger numbers than some enemies on later planets, which are in the next area past the beaches.
Once you can reliably kill the Vipers and Hydrus quickly and at last handle the Aradiles feel free to move on to Hutlar. (For me this was around 25 armor/weapon skill.)
¶ Chilling on Hutlar
The Qion Tigers here will likely provide not much difficulty, but the Slugs are surprisingly durable, proving to be this planet's equivalent of the Aradiles and are even more durable when you first arrive. It is probably best to just avoid them and focus on the tigers, if possible, which means keeping any pets or droids you have on a tight leash. You will likely run out of resources trying to deal with Slugs this early, unless you're a very damage focused build, in which case you might find much more success.