I entered my quest via a door to which the NPC had directed me. When I clicked the door, I saw a pop-up menu that told me the level of the quest and about how long I could expect it to take. There were also difficulty options: normal, difficult, and elite. While playing solo in the newbie area, however, the normal option was the only one available to me.

The game communicates your progress through a quest via the Adventure Panel, which directs you to each stage and checks off each of your accomplishments for you. As I expected, my first quest was a simple one. I learned to interact with objects (open doors, throw levers, flip switches, smash crates, climb ladders, collect items) and perform simple combat.

After completing my first task, I spoke to the barkeep, who gave me another chore to do, this one slightly more challenging. While moving through the mission, the game's omniscient dungeon master (DM) added flavor through text that appeared on the center of my screen. Sometimes it described my surroundings and invoked a mood; other times it gave important clues about impending danger.

Soon, I found myself in combat with some kobolds. While these beginner quests offered nothing too harrowing or difficult, I found that standing in front of a monster swinging away on auto-attack wasn't advisable. If I didn't want to lose precious hit points, I had to block and dodge, and use feats like intimidation. And I had to be aware of where my hit points were going, because they wouldn't recharge on their own; I would have to regenerate at a rest shrine or a tavern, use a potion, eat food (and potions and food aren't free, of course), or heal myself through magic. But, naturally, spell points don't recharge on their own, either.