Cassie:

For 8 yrs, ever since Sonoma has been in existence, I have tried to provide Sonoma players with unique things to do ingame.

I formed PAS (the People's Army of Sonoma) partly as a roleplay tool, mostly as a guild where all good players would be welcome (it was hard to get into many guilds back then, u had to know someone to get into them), and where good players could band together to fight the rampant red pks (and griefers, who are not always red, nor always pks).

PAS joined in the OSI scenarios early and stuck as close to our story line to determine which side we were on (it wasnt always "good vs evil").

PAS provided all 6 shard wars to Sonoma, where all guilds and players could join and have fun. They were given opportunities to roleplay their characters and guilds, or they could just join the pvp fun. I encouraged rp stories after each ingame battle, that led to the next battle, etc, so that the outcomes of the various battles determined where the next battle was waged, etc.

I provided Gold Caravans, where PAS would load up 200k gold each week (for 20-25 weeks at a time, once per week) on packies, and then we would announce where we were starting, where we were headed, and the path, and challenged reds to "come get it" .... we even would go so far as to flag grey once out of town to encourage the fighting to begin.

I have done "King of the Hill" events, where PAS would declare in advance that we would attempt to hold a particular hill in fel, and dare others to "come knock us off it" (which they sometimes did, and sometimes did not).

I do the same sort of things for PAS, internal events, along the story line that I developed to explain who this KingDavid was, why he was in Sonoma, and who and what he was fighting for.

Why did I choose to be the King of Sonoma for that roleplay? Well, my RL name is David, and my RL nickname has been KD (KingDavid) for many yrs.

Why? I knew a family that played computer games. The mom knew 3 Davids, and she gave a nickname to each so she could easily remember who we were. "Our" David was a kid that worked for their computer company. "Useless" David was a client that never played computer games, so he wasnt handy to them. And then I came along, and the first months we became friends, I helped the mom and son through King's Quest over Christmas, and she labeled me forever as "King David".

I guess Im lucky I wasnt "Useless" David, that would have been a really crappy rp to play out hehe.

Anyways, now Im adding the Trial of Lord British to the shard events I have provided. Does everyone need to play? Nope, I treat this like I do PAS events. I provide events in PAS as opportunities. I tell our players to come to the ones that sound fun, try them out at least once, then go to the ones you enjoy. With 180 players in PAS, we typically get 20-35 players for events (we do at least one event every night), and its never the same folks each night.

I expect the Trial of Lord British to be the same, its an opportunity.

I have thousands of friends on Sonoma, I have had over 7,000 people on icq in 8 yrs, and the old saying is "Everyone knows someone that knows KD". My rp and my pvp friends have been screaming for something to do for the last year. it took me awhile to get this set up because it had to play itself out ingame for PAS first (we chased him for a long time hehe in ingame quests that were fun for our members).

Finally we caught him, and instead of executing him, as KD should have done *winks*, he's giving LB a chance for a fair trial.

So far, a number of very cool people have gotten involved. The trial is just starting, and PAS has ingame served 2 subpoenas, and we will do more soon, in support of the trial.

I set the players up, and now I simply am a player along with them. The judge has total control now how this will play out, along with the other players. LB might be set free, he might hang, or anything in between. The outcome is at the mercy of the players, as all good rp fun should be.

Im even trying to get the reds involved in this through our Wed event this week, the prisoner transfer to the court. PAS will move LB and we expect to get ambushed .. our goal is to get him there for the trial, no matter who shows to attack us.

The goal of all of this is to provide opportunities for rpers and pvpers to get involved with something unique.

Does it follow the LB story line from OSI? Nope, Im a rebel, Sonoma is unique, we are the only shard to have a self proclaimed King (that Im aware of). So now we put LB on trial, and all his supporters should get involved to help him, and all his critics should do what they can to help imprison him.

What crimes did he commit other than the KD story line? Ask around, and you would be surprised at how some players feel LB left us high and dry as players, abandoning his people. He instituted insta kill guards, so no one gets a fair trial like hes getting. He was never seen ingame, so many felt he was too "important". KD, on the other hand, is from the people, he was a "commoner", he was a smith like his father before him, Avatar, the man which legends were written about.

It all fits rather well if u ask me, but then again Im biased.

I know this is an incredibly long answer, but I hope I was able to give you the background of KD, PAS, and this latest shard wide rp effort.

I still hear people talk about some of the shard battles we had in the old days ... and I hear people say "I wish I had taken part". For newer players, imagine being in a battle ingame where 60-70 players on each side took part. They were absolutely incredible ....

So I urge everyone that ever wanted more out of UO to consider taking part in this. Try it out, if u dont like it, then u lost an hr of time. if you find u like it though, it might open up a whole other facet of UO for you.

KD
PAS Rocks Sonoma!