C.A.R.P.S.

Me and a bunch of my friends were thinking of coming up for a few days, but I had a few questions. I read the rules and for the combat, does the damage only count when the weapon makes contact with the actual person, because the way it was written made it sound like even if the other person blocked it damage was done. This would be me and my friends first time doing something like this, so we would only be doing the basic stuff, so I was wondering if being too basic would handicap us to the point where it isn't fun. Everything about it looks pretty great though so far and we're pretty excited.

Generally speaking contact has to be made to the body to count. There are a few skills which are exceptions to this rule (Crush, Speed of Blade, etc.), but generally speaking you are correct.

Welcome aboard and we look forward to seeing you at our next event.

the only time new players don't have a good time is when they don't interact with older players (I'm really bad at introducing myself, so you will have to come to me) or they don't go out on adventures. Sometimes the NPC staff doesn't have new player plots ready but with giving us a heads up I'm sure we can have a few plots ready for your group to thoroughly engage you.

I can guarantee you that the NPC staff will do their very best to 'engage' all new players and you will not feel left out. You WILL have the opportunity to help, to be helpful, and get to roleplay with many different people. However that last one is the most fun and requires you to be a bit outgoing. You will feel confused at times, you'll feel left out a times on your first visit. You are the 'new guy'. That will fix itself over time and we have a GREAT group of people who will do their best to include you. If you show up, introduce yourself in and out of game, you'll do fine and you'll have fun the first time and more fun every time after that.

Sylas/Todd already answered you on the 'not hitting' rules. There are a very few advanced skills that allow you to do damage without hitting, but 99% of combat is based on you hitting the opponent with your boffer and calling damage. There are is also one fairly 'basic condition' that can change that rule, but it won't affect you unless you use the following...

If you are using 'brawling' or 'claws' then you in general take damage even if you block with your boffer (as your boffer is officially part of your body)