Today marked the official launch of Runes of Magic; a free to play MMO that looks a lot on the surface like World of Warcraft.  I am not about to start a debate about how good RoM is or how it compares to WoW, I am just saying the developers made it a point to make RoM feel a bit like WoW.   Of course while it looks like WoW, it is not WoW and has several game mechanic differences some of which I have listed below:

1. Currently the only race you can play is human. Don’t let that bother you,there are plenty of options with the class system to keep you busy.
2. Even though its short and does not cover a lot, I suggest doing the tutorial the reward you get from it is worth the time. Make sure you open the reward bag every time you level up.
3. XP: used, like other games, to level your class up. Levels are perquisites for abilities and each new level grants you some stat bonuses.
4. TP: you gain these with quest completion and with every NPC you kill. Unlike XP these points do not help you level your class, instead they are spent to level up abilities. If you don’t level up your abilities you are nerfing yourself.
5. You can learn all the trade skills, you can only master one. Though at the low levels this means once you learn the gathering skills you can pick up all the different resources types.
6. Resource nodes can be gathered from multiple times.
7. At level ten you gain access to your second class and when you switch to it you will be level 1 again. Thus I suggest holding off turning in some quests until you have swapped classes, this will help you bootstrap a few levels.
8. In the second town you will have access to your house. A house is a separate instance you can furnish and decorate, and doing so can provide your character with bonuses; in fact the first bonus you get is some extra storage space. Of course from what I can tell most of the housing functions require “energy” which comes with a real money cost.
9. Rental mounts. In Runes you get access to mounts almost instantly; they can be rented for in game gold and purchased for real money.
10. Some helpful dual classing forum threads and a couple of handy videos from “A Wall of Text” explaining some game systems

• Secondary class FAQ
• Class-Combo ELITE Skills List
• Secondary Skills List (All Classes)
• Player Housing and Inventory
• NPC Search and Auto Movement
• Runes, Focus Crystals and Arcane Transmutor