Where will my character start out?
Your character will start his/her adventure near his/her racial capital, with little more than a name, some basic equipment, and a neutral alignment.

There’s alignment in Darkfall?
Yes there is. You start out with a neutral alignment, and based on your actions, this alignment changes. Turning evil is easy, although it doesn’t make for an easy life. Killing other characters unprovoked will get you there fast and this will make most guards, clans and other players attack you on sight. Changing your alignment towards good is a challenging and difficult process.

Will I need to level?
There is no leveling in Darkfall. Our advancement system is 100% skill based. If you want to learn to use the sword for example, you pick up the swordsmanship skill by learning it from an NPC or from another player and you advance this skill with use. You become a better swordsman over time and with practice, by actually using your sword while hunting or in combat.

What about character classes? How does character development work in Darkfall?
The rule is that there are no traditional character classes, or templates. We want to give the players total control of what and how they want to play. Customize your own character to suit your playing style best, without traditional templates to limit you. If you want to be an axe wielding Dwarven fighter you simply pick up the Axe skill, Axe Mastery, Parry, Dodge, Cleave and other linked skills. If you later decide that some magic would be nice as support, you pick up a few magic skills and spells as well. The same goes for trade skills. Want to be able to create weapons? Pick up Smithing and Weapon Crafting. Want to make clothing or work as a tailor for a while? Pick up Tailoring. No need to re-roll your character.
There is no way to "gimp" your character by picking the "wrong" skills or spells.
Get what you want, play as you want.
That being said - There is an option available to follow a class system: the Prestige classes described below.

What are the Prestige classes?
Prestige classes are special classes, like Paladin, Assassin, Gladiator, Enchanter etc. and it’s an optional path that you may choose for your character to follow. Picking a prestige class will in most cases give you a few special skills, a few special spells, and you will have a certain status. There are limitations, tradeoffs and restrictions playing a prestige class character. Druids for example may never use metal armor after they are initiated, and Paladins have to give half of their earnings to their church.

Prestige classes may be interesting to some players, and some classes may give you an extra reason to role-play, or maybe give you an edge in combat or crafting. There will be many interesting prestige classes for you to try out.

Picking a prestige class is not final - you can change class later, with some minor penalties. The easy route would have been to make picking a prestige class final, but we want to keep Darkfall as open ended as possible.

Can I customize my character’s look?
There are many ways you may customize your character to give him a unique look.

What happens when my character dies?
When your character dies he drops his items that remain on his corpse until looted, but the good news is that he’s resurrected at a spot you’ve previously selected.

How many races are there that I can choose from?
There are six main races that you may choose from: Elves, Dwarves, Humans, Mahirim, Orks and Alfar. You can read more about the different races here.

Does each race have unique properties?
Yes they do. We’ll speak more about these at a later date.

Will my character be able to swim?
Your character is capable of swimming, if he learns how to swim.

Does my character age?
There is no character aging in Darkfall.

What effect will eating or not eating have on my character?
We don’t want to add too many mundane everyday issues to Darkfall. However we do think that eating, or not, should affect your character. This means that if you are starving, your stats and skills will take a small penalty, and you will regenerate hit points, stamina and mana slightly slower than if you weren’t starving. Nothing big – you can’t die from hunger - just enough for it to make sense to have some food in your backpack.

We have trade skills such as farming, setting snares and hunting animals, and we are serious about having useful trade skills in Darkfall. Therefore eating is in the game, and players that enjoy farming, setting traps, baking, cooking, fishing, hunting, etc. can sell their wares to other players and actually be useful to others.

Will there be player owned houses?
Players will be able to set up houses of various sizes and design, ranging from small cottages to huge castles and citadels.

Can I design my own house?
Yes you can.

Will wearing armor affect running and swimming speed?
Yes. If you are wearing heavy armor, you will run and swim slightly slower than if you are wearing no armor at all.