Frequently Asked Questions ~ edited 09mar2015 by kirthag
Come for the Roleplaying. Stay for the Loot!
Roleplay by definition:
To act out or perform, either consciously or unconsciously, in a particular way which differs from a person’s typical behavior pattern in a social environment.
Just about every person that partakes of UO is - in some form -a Roleplayer [RPer]. Even our most notorious Player Killers [PKers] are role-playing in their own ways – after all I’m sure they don’t go running around their local parks hacking at people with swords (or if you are in the SCA, maybe you do)! Despite all the smack talk that can be found between players on these forums who enjoy PvP, the person who is most described as an RPer is the one that changes his or her behavior, actions and even personality to fit into UO’s environment – medieval fantasy. These players do not always run around spouting thee’s and thou’s, but they do have a different air about them and typically can be spotted relatively quickly in a crowd.
At one point in time, you couldn't move your toon through the shard without bumping into any number of RP-ing players. Be it at your favorite bank, the deepest dungeon or the farthest wilderness. A pirate here, a merchant there, a vampire, an elf; all before game mechanics would give us sea battles, malls, necromancy and races. Some players would even disguise themselves to play some part in our shard that many would enjoy – and many denizens of Napa are actually still at it today.
“But where ARE the RP-Guilds?”
To be blunt, there are not many right now that are seriously active. A few players are sprinkled about the lands that do adhere to their personas, but as an organized movement, alas! Not so much. When stumbling across them it could be a very pleasant surprise! Even in Felucca, there is the chance of spying a character or two milling about who will NOT charge after you with sword drawn. This is the Spirit of Sosaria and it doesn't die easily. If you’re reading this, maybe YOU could help start the next big RP movement!
Historical RP-Guilds
The number of RP-Guilds that thrived on Napa are too numerous to list, but a few outstanding guilds do garner mention for they helped to shape the history of this shard.
Order of the Sacred Rose [OSR] which became City of Mith [CoM]
http://www.mith.com
The OSR was founded by Shaar and Shaaria Barastl . Several members of the OSR built their homes on what is officially dubbed in UO as Horseshoe Island. The guild’s dedication to the community and role-playing earned them several gifts from the Seers and Counselors who helped to moderate events in the earliest days of the shard. This resulted in the collection of houses being dubbed the City of Mith, the first “blessed city” in UO. Although almost all of the original members of this group are gone, periodically some activity can be had on what is commonly called the Island of Mith which is accessible via an invisible gate in the city of Trinsic of Felucca.
Guardians of the Undead Lords [GUL]
[cannot post link for it will violate Stratics’ TOS]
This guild, formed by Adam Ant, was known for its purpose of protecting the liches south of the Yew Crossroads. As the guild grew, so too did its activity which spread into several dungeons where the undead lurk. Many a player was trounced, chased out, or slain for venturing into the areas the GUL guarded. Only if you would pay a fee (which varied), promise NOT to kill any liches, and wore a red bandana could you roam the GUL’s territories without mutilation. Most times you wouldn’t know this until you went back to your slain body to find a book with this message and the bandana on your corpse.
Village of Virtue [VoV]
[no link]
Another group of people who built houses together in a close proximity to each other, the members of the VoV were more interested in community and knowledge than hacking and slaying. With a library called the University of Virtue and a watering hole called Liquid’s Pleasure, again these two were blessed by the Seers and Counselors and both still stand today. Many of the other houses are gone, but the decorations for the village will pique the interest of anyone traveling far west of Felucca's Trinsic.
Vampires of Carafax [V*C]
[no link]
Before necromancy was a valid skill, before sampires ran amok, there was a stalwart group of RPers who portrayed themselves to be “real vampires”. They would hunt in and around the jungles south of Trinsic, calling the area “Bloodwood”. Their specialty: using fencing weapons and the weaken spell to overcome their prey.
Clann Marrach Faol [M^F]
www.marrachfaol.org
Perhaps the last of the great Role-Playing Guilds in Napa. At one time this guild held the number one spot for UO’s Veteran Member Rankings with 150 unique veteran members. Formed by Aediwulf, this guild was very popular and well known for the Player Events it would host. From dungeon crawls to plays and contests, limitless were the ideas spawned by the members of M^F. Sub-guilds were formed for various purposes, namely the Bear Clan, members of which were other toons of M^F members who wanted to partake of the RPvP action in Felucca.
Other UO-RP Related Links of Note
The UO Roleplaying Community: www.uocommunity.com
A wiki-format guide and resource for Roleplayers and their establishments across all shards of UO. Maintained by community members.
Travelogues & Adventurer’s Guide: http://www.aschulze.net/ultima/
Although no longer being updated, a valuable resource for many UO players.
Stratics Primers & Features: both links are broken, but clap harder and believe more - they might get fixed!
http://uo.stratics.com/content/rp101/rping.shtml
http://uo.stratics.com/content/rp101/lesson1.shtml
Other Role-Playing Resources
http://www.wikihow.com/Roleplay - a basic introduction
http://www.wikihow.com/Roleplay-Online - a little more specific for Online RPing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roleplaying - Roleplaying (defined)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Role-playing_game - Roleplaying Games (old-school)
http://journalofroleplaying.org/ - a more academic viewpoint of Role-Playing
Not Really Role-Play
http://www.uoguide.com - another playguide resource
http://www.mine-control.com/zack/uoecon/uoecon.html - a 1999 whitepaper by Zachary Simpson, Origin Research Fellow (REALLY interesting reading!)
http://www.mine-control.com/zack/uoecon/slides.html - 2000 outlined follow-up by Zachary Simpson for the Computer Game Developer’s Conference of that year (another interesting read!)
In Closing
The motto for our chosen shard says it all! Napa is host of many a player’s fantasy and through the years has gone into cycles of relative calm and hyper activity. Over it all, one thing stands true: Napa is a lazy server with a hardcore heart hard to find anywhere else.
Special thanks go to Lady Mana, the team at Stratics, Aediwulf (Founder of M^F), Sha'ar & Sha'aria Barastl (Founders of Mith) Otis & Snakeman (for letting me edit this info - again - you guys are da bomb-diggity!) and all the RPers, RPvPers, PKers & Players of Napa.
Come for the Roleplaying. Stay for the Loot!
Roleplay by definition:
To act out or perform, either consciously or unconsciously, in a particular way which differs from a person’s typical behavior pattern in a social environment.
Just about every person that partakes of UO is - in some form -a Roleplayer [RPer]. Even our most notorious Player Killers [PKers] are role-playing in their own ways – after all I’m sure they don’t go running around their local parks hacking at people with swords (or if you are in the SCA, maybe you do)! Despite all the smack talk that can be found between players on these forums who enjoy PvP, the person who is most described as an RPer is the one that changes his or her behavior, actions and even personality to fit into UO’s environment – medieval fantasy. These players do not always run around spouting thee’s and thou’s, but they do have a different air about them and typically can be spotted relatively quickly in a crowd.
At one point in time, you couldn't move your toon through the shard without bumping into any number of RP-ing players. Be it at your favorite bank, the deepest dungeon or the farthest wilderness. A pirate here, a merchant there, a vampire, an elf; all before game mechanics would give us sea battles, malls, necromancy and races. Some players would even disguise themselves to play some part in our shard that many would enjoy – and many denizens of Napa are actually still at it today.
“But where ARE the RP-Guilds?”
To be blunt, there are not many right now that are seriously active. A few players are sprinkled about the lands that do adhere to their personas, but as an organized movement, alas! Not so much. When stumbling across them it could be a very pleasant surprise! Even in Felucca, there is the chance of spying a character or two milling about who will NOT charge after you with sword drawn. This is the Spirit of Sosaria and it doesn't die easily. If you’re reading this, maybe YOU could help start the next big RP movement!
Historical RP-Guilds
The number of RP-Guilds that thrived on Napa are too numerous to list, but a few outstanding guilds do garner mention for they helped to shape the history of this shard.
Order of the Sacred Rose [OSR] which became City of Mith [CoM]
http://www.mith.com
The OSR was founded by Shaar and Shaaria Barastl . Several members of the OSR built their homes on what is officially dubbed in UO as Horseshoe Island. The guild’s dedication to the community and role-playing earned them several gifts from the Seers and Counselors who helped to moderate events in the earliest days of the shard. This resulted in the collection of houses being dubbed the City of Mith, the first “blessed city” in UO. Although almost all of the original members of this group are gone, periodically some activity can be had on what is commonly called the Island of Mith which is accessible via an invisible gate in the city of Trinsic of Felucca.
Guardians of the Undead Lords [GUL]
[cannot post link for it will violate Stratics’ TOS]
This guild, formed by Adam Ant, was known for its purpose of protecting the liches south of the Yew Crossroads. As the guild grew, so too did its activity which spread into several dungeons where the undead lurk. Many a player was trounced, chased out, or slain for venturing into the areas the GUL guarded. Only if you would pay a fee (which varied), promise NOT to kill any liches, and wore a red bandana could you roam the GUL’s territories without mutilation. Most times you wouldn’t know this until you went back to your slain body to find a book with this message and the bandana on your corpse.
Village of Virtue [VoV]
[no link]
Another group of people who built houses together in a close proximity to each other, the members of the VoV were more interested in community and knowledge than hacking and slaying. With a library called the University of Virtue and a watering hole called Liquid’s Pleasure, again these two were blessed by the Seers and Counselors and both still stand today. Many of the other houses are gone, but the decorations for the village will pique the interest of anyone traveling far west of Felucca's Trinsic.
Vampires of Carafax [V*C]
[no link]
Before necromancy was a valid skill, before sampires ran amok, there was a stalwart group of RPers who portrayed themselves to be “real vampires”. They would hunt in and around the jungles south of Trinsic, calling the area “Bloodwood”. Their specialty: using fencing weapons and the weaken spell to overcome their prey.
Clann Marrach Faol [M^F]
www.marrachfaol.org
Perhaps the last of the great Role-Playing Guilds in Napa. At one time this guild held the number one spot for UO’s Veteran Member Rankings with 150 unique veteran members. Formed by Aediwulf, this guild was very popular and well known for the Player Events it would host. From dungeon crawls to plays and contests, limitless were the ideas spawned by the members of M^F. Sub-guilds were formed for various purposes, namely the Bear Clan, members of which were other toons of M^F members who wanted to partake of the RPvP action in Felucca.
Other UO-RP Related Links of Note
The UO Roleplaying Community: www.uocommunity.com
A wiki-format guide and resource for Roleplayers and their establishments across all shards of UO. Maintained by community members.
Travelogues & Adventurer’s Guide: http://www.aschulze.net/ultima/
Although no longer being updated, a valuable resource for many UO players.
Stratics Primers & Features: both links are broken, but clap harder and believe more - they might get fixed!
http://uo.stratics.com/content/rp101/rping.shtml
http://uo.stratics.com/content/rp101/lesson1.shtml
Other Role-Playing Resources
http://www.wikihow.com/Roleplay - a basic introduction
http://www.wikihow.com/Roleplay-Online - a little more specific for Online RPing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roleplaying - Roleplaying (defined)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Role-playing_game - Roleplaying Games (old-school)
http://journalofroleplaying.org/ - a more academic viewpoint of Role-Playing
Not Really Role-Play
http://www.uoguide.com - another playguide resource
http://www.mine-control.com/zack/uoecon/uoecon.html - a 1999 whitepaper by Zachary Simpson, Origin Research Fellow (REALLY interesting reading!)
http://www.mine-control.com/zack/uoecon/slides.html - 2000 outlined follow-up by Zachary Simpson for the Computer Game Developer’s Conference of that year (another interesting read!)
In Closing
The motto for our chosen shard says it all! Napa is host of many a player’s fantasy and through the years has gone into cycles of relative calm and hyper activity. Over it all, one thing stands true: Napa is a lazy server with a hardcore heart hard to find anywhere else.
Special thanks go to Lady Mana, the team at Stratics, Aediwulf (Founder of M^F), Sha'ar & Sha'aria Barastl (Founders of Mith) Otis & Snakeman (for letting me edit this info - again - you guys are da bomb-diggity!) and all the RPers, RPvPers, PKers & Players of Napa.
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