Welcome to the board - you will find hours of your life disappearing if you really get into Darkstone
As for your specific question, I am not sure why any skin file should cause the symptoms you describe unless (and this is a wild guess) somehow they are corrupted. Generally a skin will work or not, and there is no effect outwith the chatacters appearance. I would suggest trying the skins one at a time, and then discarding the ones that cause problems.
I use a couple of my own skins and have never had a problem starting a new game.
P.S. This is a wild thought, and please don't be insulted.....you did unzip the files if they were .zip files before renaming them....... [img]graemlins/crazyeyes.gif[/img]
Have fun [img]graemlins/wavey.gif[/img]
[ 11-18-2001: Message edited by: Mouse ]