Guild Wars Novels

I'm not sure if this is the appropriate area to be asking this question but I was wondering if I were going to read the guild wars novels if I would be completely lost having not played most of the guild wars one expansions.

My friends and I plan on rolling on whatever GW2 server is chosen by the community to be the unoffical RP server and I would like to have some knowledge about the lore before going in and creating my character.

Thanks for the help.

One of the purposes of the novels is to bridge GW1 to GW2. They both take place prior to the start of GW2. I have only read Ghosts of Ascalon, but there are several places in the novel where characters of one race explain how history is seen by their race. A human and a charr will view the same event quite differently.

The books stand on their own even if you haven't played GW. However, if you are looking for a quicker introduction, I would look up Wooden Potatoes Lore series on youtube. The first is here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARZWX51hYYk

Awsome, thank you so much for the quick reply

Both of the first two novels (the third won't be released until January reportedly) stand pretty much on their own. If you have some experience with the game, you'll have a better understanding of some of the characters and events, but the authors take the time to explain the important details. So, I think you'd be fine.