Welcome to Atys and I hope you have Fun
First let me tell you that Ryzom isn´t like WoW.
No Item drops, except for one notable exception. Almost no Quests that take you by the hand and lead you through the Game and to Gear, XP and Money.
Except again those on the starter Island, meant to be a turorial and an example of how gear can work.
So you will get good gear by getting to know other players. Crafters, diggers, a good and friendly guild will mostly be on it
And PvP is entirely consesual. There are of course Duels, One on One.
Then there is Outpost Battle, Guild vs Guild, Faction vs Faction. All out PvP to rock the joint. Consensual too, for you get to choose to participate on defender or attacker side or stay neutral and omit from the fighting.
Faction vs Faction can be activated at all times by activating your PvP Tag.
Then it´s kill or be killed by those who participate in that. Others who are not "tagged up" are not attacable.
PvP Zones: Some special Areas are PvP the whole time. Mostly it´s in locations where valuable materials are hidden and may be fought over by players.
Ah, and as far as I know, there are no real rewards for PvP, appart from said materials and the ownership of an Outpost, wich brings its own "rewards".
Ok, I hope I havent forgotten anything, but someone else will surely correct me if I did.
CU
Acridiel