So, you've finally decided to embark upon the adventure of your life. Congratulations. You'll enjoy yourself, we're sure. To that end, here are some useful pieces of information that will assist you during those first tentative steps into the unknown:

• When you connect to Frontier, you will be presented with a prompt asking for your player name. Choose a player name and, if that name is currently not in use, you will be told it is new. If it is in use, simply try again with another name. Your gender is also entirely up to you to choose.

• Once you have created a character for yourself, you may want to choose one of the available races. Although there is no rush to do so -- you can remain at "Newbie" race until Level 5 -- each race offers various strengths and weaknesses. It will be up to you to decide which is the best for you.

• You will arrive in Frontier's town church, one of the safest places to be. From here, there is only one obvious path into town (north) so it is very unlikely you'll get lost. The church has a nursery attached to it for newcomers and there you can find some useful information and free items to take with you on your explorations. We recommend beginning those in the town park; you'll see that the directions to it are easy to find.

• Communicating is done primarily through three (3) commands:
  1. "=chat" will send a message to Frontier's global chat channel.
  2. "say" (or the apostrophe "'") will only send a message to those in the same room as you,
  3. "tell" (and "reply") will send a message to a particular person, no matter where they might be, and
  4. "shout" will send a message to everyone in Frontier.

• There is plenty of online help available through the "help" command. You may want to take a moment to pause and read any interesting help pages to familiarize yourself with the commands that will be available to you.

• Look at anything that is visibly presented to you for the first while. For example, you may see a clock in the church but if you don't take the time to look at it, you may not notice the time. Often, details concering how to use or operate something will become apparent only after you "look at" it.

• Be sure to wear your armour and wield your weapons at all times. Although the town of Frontier is safe, the park within it and the outside world are not and you will find surviving an attack much easier if you are suitably prepared.

• If you are hurt, you will require time to heal. However, this time can be shortened significantly if you eat food or consume alcohol. And don't be shy: get as drunk as you like then do battle with a horde of Orcs or giant Dragons. You'll probably live longer for it.

• Death in Frontier is not permanent. You will suffer a bit of torture at the hands of the Grim Reaper, but do not despair: someone will rescue you and you will be able to resume your explorations. One of the first things victims often do -- after praying in the church to leave behind their ghostly form -- is to find where their body has fallen to reclaim any lost inventory or gold before someone else can.

• As you gain experience, you can increase your Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, and Intelligence at any rate you desire. As these rise, so too will your ability to achieve higher levels and take on more difficult quests. The ultimate goal is to become a wizard and to expand the world of Frontier in almost any way imaginable.

• Finally, feel free to ask someone in the game for some help, even the wizards. If you send a message such as tell ploi help! or tell johanne help! you should get enough assistance to see you on your way.

Above all, have fun!