A New Player And His Friends

You should be able to start off already knowing each other and being friends. The only cases in which this would be a stretch, is if half of your friends play barbarians, and the other half mages. That would a little odd, but not impossible with a well developed story. There are plenty of combinations of classes, and races that it would not be awkward for you already to be an established group of adventures.

If you do decide to full time NPC first, just keep in mind it is almost a totally different experience than PCing.  Some like it allot, some not so much, but in general its a different experience. Another option would be to PC, but to NPC the first shift.

Welcome!

I npc'd the first shift and it really helped me get a understanding and feel for the game. PCing is by far my favorite though.

You will certainly get a feeling for combat if you NPC a "monster."

Hey Mark.  I'd just like to echo what James said there regarding NPC'ing  first shift.  I highly recommend it for a number of different reasons.  The first of which is to get yourself accustomed to the rules and some of the combat system.  Also, it gets your shift out of the way, so you can get right into character for the rest of the weekend.  I actually recommend this to anyone that comes to the event for the first time that has a character concept in mind and wants to PC their first event.  We're all great people here, and more than happy to answer any questions you have.  Hope to see you soon.

I will also echo what has been said regarding first-shift npc duty.  I come into the game with a background in a different larp.  Being able to npc right away helped give me a feel for the game and how the combat system works, s well as how people interact with each other.  Plus, since it was my first event and I wanted to pc my character, it meant I got to stay immersed in character for a longer period of time, which I find to be most enjoyable.