>Thanks so much to everyone who's replied. I didn't expect
>such promptness, and was afraid I'd appear stupid, but the
>community proves robust. I'll definitely be checking this
>out.

It's a community that's equally willing to answer questions in a forum like this and show no unwarranted mercy in character. You've been warned.

>One of the reasons I took an interest in this game was because
>of the presumably more-level playing field that you folks have
>alluded to--I was a little sick of the insurmountable
>dominance of veteran players in other games, so it seems like
>this might be the game for me.

Don't get me wrong -- this is a game with a decently steep learning curve. If you're a new player playing a storm giant paladin and you run up against a human necromancer whose last character was a storm paladin, odds are you're trying to fight someone who not only knows a lot more about what their character can or can't do, but also knows a lot more about what your character can or can't do. That's a tough advantage to surmount. Add in area knowledge they'll have that you won't, etc., and it's a lot to pick up.

But all that being said, veteran players have advantages because they're veteran players, not because their character is older than sin or spent more time grinding than you did. Equally, there's no shortage of examples of people who were cabal leaders, tattooed members of a religion, awarded unique skills, etc. on their first or one of their first characters on CF.