Dungeons and Dragons Online

Using a variation of the pen-and-paper Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 rules and set in Eberron.

Free.

Yes, that's right, it's a world class MMPORPG and it costs nothing to play. Yes, you CAN put money into it, they have an online store, but you you can play all the way to the level cap and pay nothing.

What are you waiting for? Go download it!
http://www.ddo.com/ddosupport/download-ddo

BTW, in case you are wondering, it is a lot of fun to play, MUCH better than the earlier releases of DDO.

Unlimited in one sense, but not in all senses. Still, a fantastic deal for free, and even better if you buy a few points.

Downloading the client.

http://www.ddo.com/ddosupport/download-ddo

The client is huge, 3 or 4 gigabytes, depending on which version you download. This can be a problem, especially if you have a cap on your monthly bandwidth. Many ISPs (Internet Service Providers) have a 5 gigabyte cap for residential accounts.

Before playing DDO you need to create a free account, which requires a unique email. If you have an account that you used with a free LOTRO trial, it may not work, we encountered some difficulties.

You will likely end up installing Pando Media Booster. Pando is a peer-to-peer download client, which will increase your bandwidth usage even more. I researched the product, and it seems to be legitimate and spyware free. As soon as you successfully download the game, I suggest you uninstall Pando. Note my client uninstalled Pando the other day, so it is possible that they are moving away from this approach.

Character creation and optimization

Which server should I choose?
What class should I play?
What path should I follow?
What race should I play?
What stats should I start with?

Gear - selling your loot

There are three or four basic ways to sell your stuff.

Barkeeps and General Vendors

You can sell items to barkeepers and general vendors. This is where most of your junk gear will be sold. To find your friendly bartender, look f0r the green mug on your map: Harbor map fragment

Seems simple enough, but there is a trick to it.

Each area has a quest series to complete, and once you complete it, you get a better sell rate vendors and other buyers in that area.

In the Harbor, the discount quest is Waterworks series.
In the Marketplace, the discount quest is Seal of Shan-To-Kor.

Brokers

The brokers will give you better return for your money. I intend to post the broker information and location here in a bit.

Auction house

You can sell to other players in the auction house. Be warned, the house takes a hefty percentage of your sale, as well as a posting fee for each auction. Expensive, but the advantage is that you can go play while your items sell. You can also find some good deals here now and then, but I suggest you check the brokers first.

Handy auction house tool.

Direct trade

You can use the /trade channel to directy market your items to other players. The pro is that you don't get taxed, you get all of what you ask for. The con is that you have to spend time doing it.

Email

DDO point sales

When the Half-Orc race comes out, I intend to make a Half-Orc barbarian, and play him out a bit. From the sound of this article (local), I might to better to wait for the race to go on sale...