Looking for Adventurers!

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Pek
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Looking for Adventurers!

Post by Pek »

Hail and well met!

I have been thinking about this idea for a long time and after speaking to a friend, I have decided to go ahead with my plan to go old school. Warning, this is a long post, so if you are not interested in the idea of starting a new, powered down character and role-playing a little, then carry on and keep farming gold :D

The Idea
This idea comes from my desire to play UO as I did when I first started back in 1998. I love this server and how much customized content there is, but the fantasy book reading side of me wants more than just being uber powerful and farming gold. When you can instantly heal damage and have no fear of dying, you lose a sense of adventure; no risk and all reward. And so, the idea of starting a new character and role playing a certain archetype - like you did in the original UO - appealed to me as the perfect compromise.

The Concept
As a great man once said, simplicity is the key to brilliance, and with that in mind, the concept for this old school rework is thus:
1) Choose an archetype; be it mage, warrior, ranger, healer, tamer, bard, miner, blacksmith etc. And try to keep your character's skills and actions to that role - hence the 'role play'.
2) Only use gear that is naturally provided by the game. So in effect, no relayers, leveled weapons or shard quest gear. This will provide a hard limit on our character's power level and will force us to do what UO did so well in the first place - play together.
3) Seeing as people can choose to be a crafter, crafted gear is OK.
4) Lastly, no insurance, powerscrolls (skills only went to GM back then) or elixirs, scripts or convenience aids are to be used. Keep it as old school as you can! We want to emphasize the risk vs reward nature of UO.

This list is not set in stone and merely serves as a guide line to how we can limit our characters from becoming too powerful. By being weak/weaker and specialising in a certain role, we have to rely on other people to survive.

Why Should I?
This might sound like rubbish to some people but hopefully others are intrigued by this idea. It's not for everyone but if you are a little bored of bank sitting and want to try to find that sense of adventure again, then this might be the start you need.

The whole idea of going old school revolves around group play. My most cherished memories of UO (and other online games) are the ones of me being undergeared but fighting a super powerful monster with a group of friends. We would die and rethink our approach, and after what seemed like endless attempts, we would triumph and the sense of achievement was worth more than the loot. I want that again on this shard and I hope there are others who feel the same.

The Vision
Drawing upon my experience as an end-game raider in World of Warcraft (WoW), I envision a group of people forming to clear out a dungeon or go on a self appointed quest, for example, end the orc menace by attacking the orc fort or destroy the nest of undead creatures that plague the town.

After almost a decade of playing WoW, the reason I believe it was so successful, was because of it's clearly defined party and raid roles. People had a specific job, and that purpose allowed them to excel in that role and therefore be an integral part in helping the party achieve victory.

Using the WoW template, a basic party would need;
A tank - a warrior in plate or a pet who can soak up damage.
A healer - either magical or bandaids ( a wandering healer type).
Damage dealers - melee, ranged, magical or tamer.

This way the party is able to support each other by overcoming each other's shortcomings. Also we need not restrict ourselves to the cookie cutter party template - why not have two tamers and their pet tank, while two mages cast fireball and support heal. The combinations are only limited to our imagination.

Ultimately, I see a player run town where people have certain roles to fulfil; a blacksmith will repair weapons for a small fee, a bowyer has to fulfill a commission for 500 arrows, or a ranger, scouting an enemy location in preparation for a raid. Imagine a mining expedition into a monster infested area where an armed escort is required!

The town centre could also have bulletins where people can put up quest or commission requests. Anyone who has read Fairy Tale manga will be familiar with the idea of a quest board.

Additionally, the lack of instant healing, will bring into play under utilized skills like alchemy, where you might need to drink a cure potion to counter poisons or a quick heal potion in those emergency situations. This is just an example of how things could play out and again, it is only limited by our imagination.

If this idea takes off, we could take it one step even further and have everyone under the one guild. This will allow for guild wide communication, but more importantly, it will allow PvP! I am sure there will be some players who want to take their role playing further and become bandits who prey on others or even start an opposing faction to attack the town! Imagine a call to arms to push back the invaders.

Conclusion
To me, this concept presents the ultimate community driven freedom of Ultima Online. If you have managed to read the entirety of this post and are still interested in starting a new character, then please get in touch with Drizzt in-game.

Remember, you are starting a new character. You will still have your main character and continue to farm gold in readiness for the new facets, but in the mean while, if you want to start over again and have some fun running away from dragons, then join me in being a noob again!

Regards,

Drizzt
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Wil
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Re: Looking for Adventurers!

Post by Wil »

Greetings,

I apologize if you answered this and I simply missed it. After reading your idea, my main question is: why here? There are entire servers dedicated to Ultima Online: The Way It Was. What makes this server a better choice than one that's well tuned for that play style?

Regards,
Wil
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Entora
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Re: Looking for Adventurers!

Post by Entora »

For someone who has never been on OSI, and UOEX as my first UO experience, I am very dedicated to this server and more likely no-uoex-then-rather-no-UO, so changing play styles once in a while to refresh the experience sounds like something very fun to me. (In my case, I haven't changed much for the past 5 years)

There is no harm for some RP since no one is actually doing that anymore so why not. I have never been into RP or PvP since I was focusing on becoming immortal and powerful. Once again I will be able to look forward to meeting more people, laughter from running away in ugly-way just to stay alive, and to actually visit people vendor house and negotiate the price face-to-face (in-game ofc) instead of just BCs SOTs bods etc (you get my point, right?).

I always have this dream to run my own neighborhood friendly vendor house but due to reasons that I don't think I will be able to maintain a magnificent one plus all the gold to keep the worldtele up. Maintaining a couple of vendors in my own houses, watching players passing by while I drink tea sounds like a very lovely scene to me. The door will stay unlocked too!

I will definitely sign up!
*Sorry for my bad English.

Cheers~
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Pek
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Re: Looking for Adventurers!

Post by Pek »

Hi Will, great question mate and one that I did not address in my over-long post. There are a couple reasons for staying on this shard versus starting fresh on a dedicated old school shard.

The most important reason, as Entora mentioned, is I consider this shard my home. I love the community here (it's active and helpful) and the admins actually care about the server. Additionally, as most of us have done, I have invested a lot of time and effort into my character. I want to stay around and see Elysium/Touria but while we wait, why not start an alternate character and do something different.

We are also very familiar with Excelsior and the amount of customization it has. By starting a new character on a heavily customized shard like Excelsior, we can moderate how old school we go and therefore have the luxury of choice in deciding our play style, instead of being forced to learn the rules of a new shard.

The simple aim of this old school idea is to build an in-game community, whereby like-minded people can take a step back from trying to be all-powerful (that's your main character's job) and explore the game's lower tier together. I understand this isn't for everyone, but you don't have to be into roleplay, and you don't have to speak ye olde english. All you need is the desire to see this wonderful shard in a new light and experience things that you can't with your overpowered main. :dance
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Pek
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Re: Looking for Adventurers!

Post by Pek »

Thanks Entora, very well put and I can't wait to see a player run town and inn where we can sit and chat :wink:

My character Drizzt finally hit GM Swordsmanship today after slaying the denizens of Despise. He even managed to take down a Titan after many hit and run attacks. I died a lot but it was great to have that excitement of exploring again and hussle back to my corpse before it decayed! Now I can finally take my revenge on those nasty Liches and Frenzied Ostards! :evil:

I have decided to make Drizzt as close to his book counterpart as I can. He will wield a scimitar when I find an appropriate one, favour light armour and speed over strength. He won't use magery and the few spells he uses are Chivalry spells that he learnt from a Paladin who became his ally is the pursuit of justice. I'll also have a pet panther when my taming gets high enough :D
#RPNerd
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Deadwerd
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Re: Looking for Adventurers!

Post by Deadwerd »

I am absolutely fascinated by this idea. I believe more role-playing on Excelsior would help keep the community a true community. As of right now, all the big role-players talk to very few others, due to the fact that they do not want to be judged or sucked into a powerhouse character, like they are purposely avoiding.
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Johnny Warren
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Re: Looking for Adventurers!

Post by Johnny Warren »

Pek wrote:He will wield a scimitar when I find an appropriate one
I have a lvl 100 sword of the stampede type changed into a scimitar and unidyed, blessed and renamed that might be appropriate. It' a good wep so I'd probably have to charge 500ed for it unfortunately.

If thou wouldst like to purchase such a weapon, you can seek out ye ol' John Warren in his abode Northwest of ye ol' township of Yew.
JOHNNY WARREN!
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Pek
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Re: Looking for Adventurers!

Post by Pek »

@Deadwerd
Awesome bud! Feel free to start a completely new character and let me know what you decide. At the moment, we have myself as a melee ranger, Entora (unsure yet on character) and you. We potentially have another person joining us. I will setup a Discord for party chat. The more the merrier!

@Johnny Warren
Thank thee for the kind offer Johnny, but unfortunately that scimitar is far too magical for my humble character. Coincidentally, the orc mage I was killing earlier today dropped a scimitar for me - a flashy one with Strength Requirement 25 and Physical Damage 100% :P
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Johnny Warren
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Re: Looking for Adventurers!

Post by Johnny Warren »

Heh, tbh I was just trollin' ya.

btw, although I've been out of touch, still happy to help u with ice wyrm if/when we find time if you still need it.
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Pek
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Re: Looking for Adventurers!

Post by Pek »

Yeah I picked up on it Johnny. Good old Aussie humour :)

No rush with the wyrm mate, it's not going anywhere. Cheers though and I'll definitely hit you up later.
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Pek
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Re: Looking for Adventurers!

Post by Pek »

Bump. Still looking for low level character adventuring buddies. If you haven't read the very long first post, here is a TL:DR version:
1) Start a new character
2) Role play that character's background - mage, ranger, pirate, drunk dwarf blacksmith etc
3) No custom gear (relayers etc) or powerscrolls - intentionally keep characters under-powered
4) No insurance - highlight the risk vs reward factor and reliance upon team work

The emphasis is to rely upon other people, keeping in line with your character's background as we adventure through Ultima's lower tier together.

Here's my lowbie toon, Drizzt. He is based on the R.A Salvatore books and is a scimitar wielding Drow ranger who has a strong sense of honour and justice. In keeping with his book character, he doesn't use magic spells, so no magery or chivalry. Nor does he wear a hat and prefers to run everywhere.

At the moment I am working my way through Despise, slowly leveling skills and stats and would love to have companions to join me in exploring the world. See what crazy character you can come up with! Thanks and PM Drizzt in-game if you are interested.
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PapaVirgle
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Re: Looking for Adventurers!

Post by PapaVirgle »

Howdy! I played this shard many many years ago and one of my Sons still does. My Son sent me a link to this ... me and a few of my kids play uo rp shards for about the last 10 years. How is this working out for you playing RP uo on a non rp shard ...... I have done that before and had roleplay breaking griefers hang around .... is that a problem so far?

What is the main thrust of your vision for the RP.... like a community that develops a functioning economy based on hunting mobs or several communities that develop rp tensions between players?
Do all races get along .... are there Pantheons... or is that background stuff that never plays a part of the rps?
Is there a GM that will help out with fostering rp's with playing opposing NPC's or placing mobs and things?
I love uo rp and the custom shards for rp but realistically they don't last more than a few years most of the time because they are small admin team things and the admin teams get burned out so the main draw here for me would be that it is a long running shard but the con to it would be if there is no player verses player combat there may be little consequence for some rp actions.
How many folks are usually around for the rps these days?
I always play a woodsy character Druidy tamer mage or shifter (lycanthrope) named Virgle Jack.
The idea sounds great I hope it is working out well.
Warm regards,
Papa Virgle
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Re: Looking for Adventurers!

Post by Nick »

Dad, all you roleplayers make your own guild, you can attack/raid each other if need be, and have your own in Game chat via [g that only your fell guildies can see. I doubt very much there would be ANY trouble with griefers on this shard. if you guys went and adventure in the lost lands of felc you would likely never see anyone but each other.

I will bankroll a guild house/stone and gear for you guys if needed, I'm not a GM but I (think) can buy you anything you need to get started/maintain on here. I'll even buy your "gathered resources" or "products" or Roleplay the "English towny you deal with" if need be. I would LOVE to see you come here and play with your weird Roll playing friends and (you might even make an alt account that is "normal" eventually) this place is the bomb-dot-com.
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Pek
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Re: Looking for Adventurers!

Post by Pek »

Hi Virgle,

Thus far this is but an idea, with only myself and one other having started new characters. I would love to have more people involved, so would love to have you and your friends on board.

As you said, most RP dedicated groups die out after a while hence the decision to try and start something on this shard. It is very long running, has dedicated admins (whom I've yet to speak with regarding RP things) and a stable player/economy base.

Ultimately, I envision a community/guild of RP players, specialising in certain elements of the game. My character is a ranger/hunter, so he would be able to keep the township safe from roaming monsters and help escort crafters when they go on gathering expeditions. The possibilities are endless.

I remember playing UO in 1998 and having to pay mages for gates and buying suits of armour off actual players who hawked their wares. Something like that again here would be great but right now, I'm just happy exploring the lower end tier of this game.

@Nick, I think a guild is ultimately what is needed, because as you stated, it will allow us to communicate easier and organise PVP to really get into the RP side of things. Hell, you could have one faction RP an orc tribe and have them at war with the humans.

Let me know what you guys think and I'm eager to put role play back into RPG. Cheers!
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showxxl
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Re: Looking for Adventurers!

Post by showxxl »

Me and an IRL friend tossed around a similar idea, new characters starting in the wild, small player town (self sufficient). After two days of hard searching, we were unable to find any open land for even two small houses, let alone a town. I could take down my current home to make space but we still would be surrounded on all sides by other players. So we kinda gave up on the idea. We are still interested if you get things worked out.
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