AFK= Away from Keyboard

LOL= Laughing Out Loud

msg = Message

alt + b = (hold Alt key down and tap the B key) This will allow your on screen persona to Bow.

alt + s = (hold Alt key down and tap the S key) This will allow your on screen persona to Salute.

alt + j = (hold Alt key down and tap the J key) This opens a scroll that will float on your screen. With it you will be able to track and read all <Public> conversations in game.

alt + r = (hold down Alt key and tap the R key) This opens a small floating map. Read further down for more information on this item.

:) = *smiling at you* - *a big grin* - *happy face*

:))) = *lots of smiles* - *Very happy*

:( = *sad look*- *unhappy face*

:P = *raspberry sound* - *sticking my tongue out and making a funny face*

;) = *wink* or *winking at you*

@>---->------ = *A rose for you*

Avatar = The image of your on screen persona. Usually referring to the walking and talking in-game you.

Gump = The special images you see in game, such as the "Paperdoll" image that represents your Player Char. in a one dimensional way or the coffin that represents the "body" of a dead player or monster.

PC = Player Char. Your on screen image that walks and talks in game. (also known as an Avatar)

NPC = Non-Player-Chars. These are persons or monsters which are generated by the server for in-game play. Some will sell items to you, some you may steal from, some you can kill and some are for Quest's or special events only.

BOD =Bulk Order Deeds. An item that an NPC will ask you if you'd like to help them fill. Once you have made or found all the items requested on the scroll, return it to the NPC who gave it to you. They will reward you with gold or special items or resources. There are many different types of BOD's in game.

Ban, Banning, or Banned = The act of having your account with our Realm wiped out so that you can no longer play in our world. All items from the account (including houses) will be removed from the server and all accounts associated with the same IP address will also be removed.

Bless or Blessed = Usually an item that has been magically set so that upon death it will remain with you. It can't be stolen or lost. The item will say "Bag - Blessed" or "Robe - Blessed". If you see the word Blessed on an item it will return to your backpack when you are healed from the death state.

Camping = Hiding or hanging out in any area where monsters or special creatures come to life. Usually to kill and take that particular monsters loot and not allowing other players the chance to kill or loot it. Or 'jumping in" on an other player who is attempting to kill a monster and killing it before the original player can, therefore depriving the original player of the monsters loot or special items. This is a bad thing to do and not tolerated.

Champs or Champ Spawns = Very hard monsters to kill, usually with very high or unusual loot to be had. Most generate a great amount of other killable monsters with less loot on them, but they must be killed to gain the 'boss" monster and his loot or specialty item.

Decay = The amount of time allotted for items to "disappear" in our world. If you die and do not return to get your items off your corpse, the body and ALL items will begin to decay and then disappear from the Realm. Once the body is gone or decayed, so are the remaining items on the corpse. This goes for NPC and monster corpses also.

Emote = Allows you to use emotions for your on screen persona. Can be generated by using the [emote command. Usually it is started by the star keys (**). Or you can simply type in the ** in your messages in chat. Example: *smiles at you*

Lagg = Generally refers to time when the game 'freezes' up. It's like being caught and frozen in mid-step or action. Usually this happens due to large swarms of monsters or during a Monster Bash or Event. It is actually the period of time it takes for your Internet connection to catch up with the Server connection and for both of them to come back into synch.

Loot or Looting = What a monster or special NPC carries on their "body". By double clicking the dead body of the monster or NPC you will get a coffin image. This image is where the loot can be taken from and added to your own backpack by just dropping them on your Avatar or PC, or dropping it in your backpack.

MIB = Message In a Bottle. This is a specialty of the Fishing skill. It's a set of coordinates that will take you to a special fishing spot. Once your in that special spot you can fish up some pretty neat things, like a painting or body parts.

Moongate or Gate = A magically made opening in the fabric of the world. It allows you to travel from one spot to another without having to walk or ride there.

Monster Bash or Bash = A special event or happening that Staff has set up for the players to enjoy.

Page or Paging = The act of sending a message to the server asking for help from in-game Staff, if any are on at the time. You can find the Page button on your Paperdoll or Help bar. Just type in your message, keeping it short and sweet and hit the Accept or Send button on the gumps console. It will be sent to any in-game Staff who are on.

PvP = Player vs. Player combat

PvM= Player vs. Monster combat

PKing = The act of killing another Player without Staff or the players consent. Also known as "ganking". This is a BANNABLE offense.

RezKilling = Is killing a player over & over after they rez them self. And like PKing is a BANNABLE offense.

Radar or Map = By using Alt+R (hold down the Alt key and tap R) the game will generate a small floating map of the area around you. You are the little white blinking dot on it's screen. If you wish a bigger version, just double left click the Radar image. To close it use your right mouse button. Very useful item to know about.

Rez/Res = Short for Resurrection. The act of going from "dead" to alive. In game NPC Healers, other Players and Staff, as well as some special stones, ankhs and moongates, will 'rez' a Player upon their death. However it's up to you to get "Rez-ed" and recover any non-blessed items from your corpse.

Server = This usually refers to the machine or web service that hosts our world. Where our world resides.

Spawns = Monsters or other items that come to life in the world. Mostly used to refer to a single area or spot in game on the world map where monsters are "born".

Skilling = The act of using your skills to make items of a useful nature in game. Such as: Blacksmith, Tailor, Carpenter, Cook, Tinker.

Tile = This is a term for the "spaces" that our Avatar’s cover when walking or riding in our Realm. A tile is equal to one stride of your Player Char.

Quest or Questing = Specially set up NPC's or Events where Player Chars. have items to find or other NPC's to find and or kill. These are alot of fun and unusual items are often awarded to the PC for their endeavors. Will also allow you to have fun in exploring and learning about the Realm. Staff also hold special Quests or Events for players.

[c = Chat - This brings up the Chat interface of the game. There are actually several parts to this interface. The first part allows you to speak directly into what is refereed to as the <Public> channel. After you type the [c use the space bar and then type in your <Public> message and hit the Enter key. Example : [c Hi everyone!

This will be seen on yours and anyone else in-game screen as:

Most chat takes place in the <Public> area of the game. Our chat interface will take some getting used to. It's a very large system and includes a private mail box, private messaging, color and speech changes, signature area and alot more. The following will give you a short break down on what the different areas of the interface are:

On the top-left are small arrows. Use these arrows to change the number of player names that will appear on the online players list. It will go from 5 to 15. On the right you will see buttons with "P", "Q", "M" and "S". The "M" is for the main menu. This button will open on the right of the chat box. It will give you a listing of all the available channels, allow you to join them or just view them. Here you may also find your Mail and Friends listings, and allow you to change many of the options available on this system. "S" is for searching. This is not active at this time on the server. "P" button is for setting up a ‘signature’ for the chat interface. It will bring up a gump. If you click the arrows on the upper left side and under the small picture, you can cycle threw the many neat little items to make an unique signature. Lastly, "Q" gives you tiny little buttons next to each name for fast access to features like Friend, Ignore, Pm (private message), and much more. Next check out the little stoplight looking image. By pressing those buttons you can change the look of your listing interface. You can cycle through the different backgrounds, text colors and add in transparencies. This allows you to make the chat system uniquely your own. Explore this chat system, it has so many layers that it’s impossible to name it all.

These are commands that you may type on screen to use the chat system:

[c = public speech - will be seen by all persons online and in-game.
[g or [guild = will be seen only by those in your guild.
[A or [Ally = will only be seen by those in your guild alliance.
[F or [Faction = will only be seen by those in your faction.
[Pm or [Msg (Followed by a player’s name and text of the message) = private message to the named player

[Ma or [Mail = to check your in game Mailbox through the chat interface
[F or [Friends = will give you a list of all your current friends
[St or [Staff = will give you a list of all online staff (maybe :P)
[Va = View All will give you a list of all online players

[AFK or [afk = This allows you to send your Avatar into AwayFromKeyboard mode. It is a fun way to let folks know that your not present at that moment. You can also add a message to your AFK. Example:[AFK Checking on my dog…back in a few.

* * (star) keys. (As mentioned in the In-Game Terminology section) Enjoy this feature of our world, but do becareful as some of the Emotes can be taken as insults by other players. Be courteous to others please.

[claim or [cl = This is a command that we require you to use. It will allow you to clean up your kills and glean the gold and other items off dead monsters and NPC's. It will give you a cursor. With the cursor target the dead NPC, monster or body and the gold will automatically be placed in your backpack. As long as you are carrying your Gold Ledger, Token's for Trash and Bank stone on your Avatar, you can clean up a kill area fairly quickly and safely. Some items on the dead will have to be hand looted. Cleaning up your kills and looting the body's helps keep down lagg.

[grab or [gr = This is another command we require you to use. It will allow you to "grab" all gold in a square of tiles 6x6, with you in the center of the square. It is very useful for cleaning large gold spawns or heavily spawned areas. It loots only gold. Again, using this command will help keep strain off our server and allow your game play to be as smooth as your and our Internet connections allow.

[dump = Allows a player to dump everything from one container to another. You can dump from your main backpack into a bag or other container inside of your main backpack. (You will receive in-game prompts to follow with all these commands.)

[sort = Allows a player to sort items from one container into another container. Giving you the ability to sort your items into different containers within your main backpack. You can also sort your different items by using the following key words: gems, wands, regs, scrolls, armor, weapons, clothing, potions, hides, jewelry and help. Help will give you a complete list of the keywords. So the on screen command will look like this : [sort gems you will then get a cursor to target the items from your main backpack to sort into another container within your main backpack.

[moveitems = Allows you to move items of a specific type from one container to another. This is similar to the [sort command but rather than using a keyword, you can target an item directly. Container must be in your main backpack or an other container within your main backpack OR a locked down container in your home. Example : You want to move all spools of thread from your main backpack to a chest locked down in your home. Type [moveitems ... target your spools of thread in your main backpack, then target the chest that is locked down in your home and where you want the spools of thread to be moved to, and they will go into the locked down chest.

[moveitems exact = Will allow you to move all items of that exact type. Example: [moveitems exact.... target Mystical Bow This will move ALL Mystical Bows but not a regular bow.

whatismystatus = Allows players to view their current online time, when they joined, fame, and karma. Just type whatismystatus into your game window as if you are speaking.

I wish to lock this down = This allows you to place items in your home and keeps them from decaying. However, others will be able to access a container unless you set security restrictions. Do this by single left clicking on the containers, choose your security setting and right click to close the gump. Items will not be movable once locked down in the home. You can make sure it is locked down by running your cursor over the item in question. You will see a message such as: Clock - Locked Down

I wish to secure this = Makes any container secure. Only the owner of the house can open a secured container.

I wish to release this = Makes a locked down item movable again. Make sure to lock it back down once it is moved, or it will decay.I wish to place a trash barrel = This will place a trash barrel in your home. One note here, make sure your standing Exactly where you want the trash barrel placed. If your not, the barrel will place wherever you are standing. If you happen to misplace your barrel it will require you to get an ax and chop it up and try again.

If your already in game you most likely won’t need the following tool. The tool is ConnectUODesktop, and can be downloaded at htpp://runuo.com. You will find the link for it on the right side of their home page. For those of you just out shard shopping this tool will make connecting to Free Shards much easier. This utility is fully supported by the RunUO team and will keep up with current standards on the Ultimate Online client side. It is the ONLY connection utility with this support. UOGateway (UOG) is unsupported at this time and the word is it will remain so. UOG is only good up to Ultima Online client 5.0.6e. Any client patched over 5.0.6e will NOT be able to connect to shards running the higher clients or server numbers. Want to know what client your running? Under your password, on your log in screen, you will see a string of numbers and a patch number. The first string of numbers is your client number the second set is your patch data. Example: Client Version 5.0.9e (patch 47) So you would be running Client Version 5.0.9e Patch 47. Now you know :P.

http://uo.stratics.com - This link will take you to UOStratics which has a lot of tips and hints for UO players. Even though we are a "free shard", a lot of our database comes from the original Ultima Online game platform. You could say that Ultima Online was our "birth mother". Though we are not exactly like Ultima Online, we do have similar maps, items and gumps. However, for the most part we have become a totally custom universe thanks to RunUO. UOStratics offers new players a place to go for more information on the game, tips, tricks, interesting articles, notes and playing advise. Enjoy, it’s well worth a visit.

At UOStratics players can also find some wonderful add-ons that make ones game time a bit more fun and productive. Sadly one of our favorite tools is no longer being supported. This is UO Auto Map, also fondly known as UOAM or to die hard UO’ers as UO in the Morning. The creator, Steve Blanding, has been supporting UOAM for almost 11 years now. The UO Auto Map can still be downloaded from the UOStratics site and is still world compliant for most free shards. It opens up our universe in a very different way. Get it while you can.

At UOStratics you will also find a nice little tool called InSideUO. Ever wonder what makes our universe tick? This is a stand alone program that allows you to see every piece of art, hear every sound and see the animation that goes into our "living" online world. A great little program for folks with curiosity. Go check it out.