This collection of questions and answers is meant to help players who are new to the guild and the ERPA community. It consists of a variety of information useful to avoid misunderstandings. If you have other questions that should be added here, please contact me:

1. What is the meaning of the following terms?

   • OOC = "Out of character" -> This means anything that has to do with the 'real world', game mechanics or anything else your character wouldn't know of. This includes skill numbers, lag, client crashes, the new graphics card you bought, your girlfriend yelling at you in the background, etc.

   • IC = "In character" -> This means to act as if your character is actually living in Britannia and behaving appropriately to the role you chose. For your character, this is not a game called Ultima Online, it is the real world. Always keep that in mind!

   • Pigeon = ICQ message -> This refers to the widely used instant communication program "ICQ". You can download it here for free. It is used for OOC communication throughout the community.

   • Whispering circle = UO party -> This refers to party communication in UO. If someone asks you to introduce him to your whispering circle, then he asks if you could add him to your "party". Party talk is the only in-game communication used for OOC-talk!

   • Taking a nap / Falling asleep = AFK (Away from Keyboard) -> The roleplaying terms to indicate that you (the player) are away from the PC for a moment.

   • Mud = Lag -> The roleplaying term to indicate that you experience lag ("Quite muddy today!")

   • Emoting = Expressing gestures by describing them with text -> Emoting is a method to simulate gestures of your character that are not graphically implemented in UO. To "emote", simply use ": " in front of your written text. More information about emoting can be found here.

   • Hunting = A simple paraphrase for "Monster bashing".

2. What general guidelines exist in the community?

   • Always stay IC! The only in-game OOC communication is "party talk".

   • You have to read and follow the ERPA rules. You can find them here.

   • In case of any trouble with other guilds - examples include: "They broke ERPA rules!", "They offended me!", "They act OOCly!", "They fight unfair!", "They stole things from me!" etc. - first inform your GM or AGM. It is their job to solve problems like this. They will contact the GM of the other guild and find a solution.

3. Some characters in the ERPA community behave very odd - what is it about those?

   • When meeting a character in UO for the first time, read their character profile! Every role-player has normally some information in that profile describing the looks of the character. When reading the profile, you avoid wondering why a "human looking character" starts meowing at you due to the fact, that IC this character is a cat (which just looks like a human because UO doesn't offer character-graphics of cats).

   • The ERPA community offers a variety of different races with different history and behavior. Here are some examples:

     1. Elves: Normally created after the JRR Tolkien paragon. Good aligned, long living, pointy ears, speaking a non-human elven language.

     2. Drow: Normally created after the AD&D paragon. Evil aligned, dark skin/ white hair, living underground, ruled by females, speaking a non-human drow language.

     3. Drow outcasts: Similar to Drow in all aspects but where cast out of the underdark and left the path of following the spider queen Lloth. They do not necessarily live in a matriarch.

     4. Necromancers: Mostly human looking. Evil aligned. Undead with strong magical powers. Few actual necromancer exist - most follower end as undead minions.

     5. Orcs: Normally created after the JRR Tolkien paragon. Evil aligned, humanoid, ugly and filthy. Speaking a nearly-human orc language.

     6. Pixies: Small, fragile humanoid creatures - mostly with wings. Chaotic good aligned, mischievous, very much associated with nature.

     7. Savages: Human-like, nature connected, neutral aligned. Home to Ilshenar. Normally decorated with white/black body paint.

     8. Vampires: Mostly human-looking. Evil aligned. Can possess special powers. Under normal conditions, you wont recognize vampires as what they truly are.

4. I am bored! What shall i do?

   • Become active and organize something! Organizing events/hunts/quests in UO is far easier than it might sound. You can be sure that your GM and AGM will hand you any support or information you might need for this. Always remember that if every member of a guild would organize something, then there would be no boredom in UO.