Hello again SS. Wow, big response. I'll try and make my reply somewhat brief answering most of your questions if I can.
Firstly though, just about NWA in general. The forums are locked until you have made it out of what we call "immigrancy". This is our roleplay time for a person to learn about the game, areas, guilds, religions and political structure. There are many help files that you can go through in creation and a question channel for asking guides, staff, and players about aspects of the game.
Creation is setup for both the new player to the game and the new player to MUDs entirely. You can't really make mistakes there, I would say forget about perfect, create a character, take a tour (read help tour), use the question channel and like most brand new players restart if you find you want to modify your character slightly.
PVP and PK (player vs player and player killing). PVP is very broad in the game and PK happens and revolves around roleplay. A brand new player probably won't get involved in this until you are in a guild because of the politics and laws of the areas they are in (this assumes you don't start in the southland which is very harsh and you could be killed for looking at someone the wrong way. Not recommended for new players). Because of the size of the game social status is almost more important than your level or powers. All this is learned after you spend some decent time playing and are in a guild. It is why so many are "hooked" on NWA. Conflict seems to be a constant.
You asked about breaking character. On some games this is not allowed at all and you have to go to IM or an IRC with your buddies or their forums to break character. I find this silly since what is the difference between talking on IM while you play in one window and talking on an OOC channel in one window while you play in the other? So there you have it, NWA has 3 channels for OOC conversation plus private and public areas to go to do so as well called "customs". Most notably you would use the CHAT channel to talk while playing the game. Many hard core roleplayers tune these channels out as well as any IM/IRC's so they can immerse into the game. It's really up to you though. I think you will find the game incredible if you choose to plus you can keep CHAT untuned and talk all you want without bothering those that want to block that out, this makes your rp tag unneeded and if you want to talk to your buddies only, just take them to the chat lounge in customs, have a coke and talk smack all you want.
Again, you really don't have to be an expert roleplayer to play on NWA. You just need to stay in character and in genre. After playing awhile you will learn why this is important and why it is so amazing. No one will fault you for not being a perfect roleplayer.
You asked about mature experience. NWA requires you to be over 18 to play and to play maturely. A key ingredient to the quality of roleplay and another reason many like it: No kiddies!
You ask about other "non RPE" games that are fun. Here are two to try though it is a shot in the dark as game enjoyment is subjective:
4 Dimensions (very fun quests and brain twisters) and Materia Magica (robust world with ascii style mapping). There are others, but many have the things you don't like.
Wow that was way longer than I thought it would be. I didn't answer all of your questions here or go into the detail I'd like, but hopefully this is some more information for you.
If you do come back to NWA I'll try to look for you and any of the staff, guides, or even some players would be happy to talk to you in customs for as long as you like and answer all the questions you have. Make it through creation and take a tour friend, you likely will not be disappointed.
Good Luck!
