
Performing tasks for village elders means your standing with the village increases, which means that you have a better chance of recruiting troops from the village, or better trading relationships with the village. The more quests you perform for people, the better your standing with them becomes. Quests are simple "go here, do that" affairs which range from delivering letters to executing convicts, but it's who you perform the quest for that matters.

Nearby is a training ground where you can hone your battle skills and a castle to trade in and get some quests under your belt. Once you've finished fleshing out your character, you are dumped in the middle of the map and what comes next is up to you. Still, you very rarely get to see your character up close and personal, so you won't be looking at Rooney's ugly mug for long thankfully. There are a huge number of options available when designing your look, however the models are quite basic in terms of polygon count, so all our characters ended up looking like variations of famed potato-head, Wayne Rooney. For example, adding points to your trade skill will enable you to be able to assess and pick out the best trade routes later on. Whether you want to fight battles or become a trader, you'll need to choose and nurture the skills appropriate to your chosen career path. You'll need to be fairly careful here, and consider how you want to play Mount & Blade. Once you've chosen your background, you then get to allocate skill points in true RPG style. Guess they weren’t big readers back in those days. Your choices affect your starting stats, so choosing to go to university will mean you have a high intelligence score, but will adversely affect your renown score for some reason.

Your upbringing is decided with a few questions, such as your father's occupation and your own chosen career choice before you decide to explore the big, wide world. GameplayThe game starts with you deciding your upbringing and background, as well as your looks.
