I've often found that I am inspired by reading about the events and clever ideas other roleplayers have used in-game. To that end, I thought I'd start a thread to share some ideas and props that I've used in events. My hope is that others will post here as well and contribute their own clever ideas.

To begin, I thought I'd start with something simple and easy that I use and that's a bag dyed true black. One use for these dyed bagballs are as a hole in the ground like so:


I've used it to represent a shallow grave where I placed the remains of an unknown adventure (obtained from Ant Lions) within. I've also used it in the wild to represent holes dug at an archaeological dig site, laying shovels and picks in the vicinity as dressing. Within the bagballs, I placed vases and statues which represented the artifacts that were being unearthed.

In other events, I use the dyed bagballs to represent a hole in a dungeon which leads to another area. There was an event I ran where the players had to journey to the lichewoods and Solen Hives south of Yew. The stories goes that the liches were emerging from underground ruins in the area and that a passage to these ruins could be found in the Solen Hive nearby. The players were required to befriend the Solen and thereafter, I had a character I was roleplaying as a Solen lead them to the passageway to the liche ruins, stating that the liches protected it with some magic that would have to be overcome in order to pass.

The passage was a bagball which contained a rune within. The players would have to recall off the rune in order to pass through the barrier the liches had installed. The rune was marked for a corner in the licherooms in Covetous, though the players roleplayed that they were actually ruins beneath the lichewoods.

I've also used bagballs to represent cave walls as shown below.


It might not be readily apparent where the bagball is from this shot, but I post it to show how it blends in. The bagball is located here:


One could place hidden treasure chests or other props within, representing these treasures being buried underneath loose stones.

Well, the Stygian Abyss announcement has been made and gargoyles are confirmed (yet again, actually). It's nice to have an Ultima race on the way and one that ties back into the old series as well as Ultima Online. During the time of speculation before KR and SA were officially mentioned, there was plenty of speculation on the new race. Many UO races were bandied about like Meer, Juka, Ophidians, and Terethans. One of the other races I thought about were the Solen and personally, I'd love to see them all introduced in time. I do love variety.

At any rate, before elves were introduced, players roleplayed elves using nothing but their imaginations. So it is with races other than humans and elves (and soon to be gargoyles). In my previous post I mentioned an event involving the Solen hive and during that event I needed a Solen. While planning the event, I lamented at not having a solen race available, but then I got to thinking. With a little imagination on the part of all participants, perhaps I could roleplay a Solen anyway.

Thus was born Surootcha, a Solen Queen who is quite intruiged with humans.


Again, it takes imagination, but to play Surootcha, I had her ride a fire beetle in order to represent her ant-like Queen's body. I then dressed her in royal ember leggins in an effor to blend her legs into her body. For her torso attire, I went with red dragon armor which I thought somewhat mimics the features of Red Solen. Voila, I have a Solen character I can roleplay. I went and accomplished the Solen Quest and now the adventurers in the can find her peacefully hanging out with the rest of the Red Solen clan.

So this is Surootcha, the Red Solen, but one could roleplay a black solen too, using black dragon armor and a normal giant beetle. None of these forms are perfect, but it's all about imagination and roleplaying. One could roleplay a Terethan as well using a normal giant beetle and a green dragon suit.

We've also used other spell forms to RP other creatures. One can use Polymorph, Reaper Form, and Necormantic forms for different character races. We also use dog form and wolf form to represent races of dog, coyote, and wolfmen. So if you have an idea for a race, don't get down that it's not included in UO. Just find a way to represent it and roleplay it.

A couple of neat ideas. I guess you would also write a description in the paper doll scroll (the far left one that you double click to open), explaining that Saroochka is a solen and her torso is joined to her solen body in the same way as centaurs.

That reminds me of a time a couple of years back when someone rode their horse into The Trinsic Rose Tavern on Europa. I thought it was a non-roleplayer at first, not bothering to leave the horse outside. It threw me and I didn't get it for some time, but it turned out he was roleplaying a centaur. Of course it would have helped if the player had the rider matching the horse, like wearing no outer clothes and with matching skin and hair colour, long hair, emoting neighing and so on, but even so it was a good idea.

With Surootcha in particular, I did make it a point of typing up a description in my profile scroll. I also included it on the guild title. I tried to do the same on our Cynamolgus character as well, but ran out of room for the rest of his pack.