Starting a new character

Sept 2007 update: NOTE! Some of what may have worked here doesn't seem to work that way anymore - namely, you can't stock up on things from Tutorial Island to use later, nor can you advance past level 3 on the island. See the notes at the end of this post for more detail

So, you want to play Runescape, or have played it for a while already but are dirt poor with no belongings and you want to start over. That's cool, stuff happens, sometimes it's just so we can change our names.

You venture over to http://www.runescape.com and click on the "Create Account" button under "Main Features". You agree to the terms and conditions (please read them first), and you select your player name. The system will let you know if your player name isn't available and give you some options for related names to select instead if the one you want is already taken.

Remember, no profanity in the name, or you may get your account cancelled.

When you first connect to the game, you're asked to select a gender for your character (we are all human, no orc, troll, etc races here) configure the look of your online character (aka Avatar) by cycling through the options for the various body parts. You can change the color and the look of your clothing, hair and body. You can change this later in the game but it costs money and requires some looking around to find, so choose carefully!

Once you are satisfied with your Avatar, click on 'Accept'.

The view you're put into now is "the standard view" for the game. At this time it's great to use your arrow keys to see the effect on the view, so you know how to adjust your perspective of the area you're in.

The Runescape Tutorial is designed for all new players, and all new players (ie: any "new character" you create) are required to go through the tutorial completely in order to get into the rest of the "game". Unless you've been through it before, don't rush through this part of the game - you can gather valuable tools and materials that will be tremendously helpful in getting you going once you hit the "real world of Runescape".

One of the clicking challenges of the game is that sometimes there are things in the way of what you want to click - the fire for cooking the shrimp, the various NPC's (non-player characters) you interact with, etc. The simplest solution is to employ the right-click strategy, and instead of left-clicking on something that is obscured, right-click and then select the correct option from the list that appears. This can be especially important when you're sharing your cooking fire and someone stands in the fire to do their cooking (and no, they don't get burned, it's a funny quirk of the game).

There are areas in the tutorial area that could be quite lucrative for a new player starting out - don't be afraid to smelt a bunch of copper bars and smith a bunch of daggers for sale later on.

While killing the rats with the sword, feel free to stick around and kill as many as you can before you exit the cage that first time, as you cannot return. Eat your cooked shrimp and bread to help you heal so you can kill more. You are gaining real experience and can advance skill levels while in the tutorial, and you know you're attacking safe monsters that way as well! Before you leave the cage, be sure to run around and pick up any arrows laying around. These arrows will stay with you when you leave Tutorial Island.

Once you get your bow and arrow set, don't waste your arrows killing more than one rat at this time. You can't get back into the cage to retrieve the arrows, and you want to bring as many off of Tutorial Island as possible.

Once off of Tutorial Island, do yourself a favor and talk to the Lumbridge Guide. Read all he has to talk about, but especially the information about where to find a bank. As a new player with very few belongings, you want to protect your belongings by banking everything you don't need to be carrying around with you. Even as a high level player, I keep my inventory small and focused on the specific task at hand.

Visit the bank in Draynor Village, following the directions the Guide offered you, and stow away everything but your bronze axe. Whatever you do, don't go into battle until you've stowed away your items! Without money you can't purchase replacements, and NOBODY likes beggars. It's important to be self-sufficient and that includes being able to go on without great pain if you die and lose everything you were carrying.

Now your inventory is ready to be filled with logs that you can store in the bank until you can find a player willing to buy the logs. And for 100 logs, you should be able to get 3,000-5,000 coins! That kind of money will be great for buying armor for your upcoming battles.

You're off to a great start!