Atlantic Roleplay Community Boards

[Ceinwyn ab'Arawn]

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Housing is perhaps one of the key elements to UO that keeps players. It is one of the few games in which you can own a house, let alone design it and decorate it. A house is a great thing to have when avoiding griefers when you are trying to hold an event. You have full control over whether it is public or private, who gets in and who gets out. That said, there are a few very important things to remember about housing in Roleplay.

1. Don't abuse the "Leave House" option.

The leave house option was created for situations when people would become physically stuck in another player's house. It saved GMs a lot of time that would otherwise be spent moving the stuck character to a town.

For obvious reasons, "Leave House" is not usually acceptable in Roleplay. There are a few occasions in which the person(s) have been creative with using this option, but the majority of the time, it just displays laziness on the part of the Roleplayer. I will give an example of each.

A. A good example of creative use of "Leave House":

A being of super natural ability leaps from the roof of the house. Ordinary people had better expect a broken arm or leg, at the least, for jumping from the top of a house. In this instance, the character is usually near to the corner, so it will seem more realistic when they land right below where they jumped.

B. An example of abuse of "Leave House":

Every week at the generic meeting, the same average characters "jump out of the window" instead of using the front door when the meeting is over. These people are amazing. I mean it. In fact, I find myself impressed and amazed at their ability to jump clear across a room full of people, without once touching the floor, and straight out of the window, which they did not bother to open before they emoted *jumps out of the window*. Come on now, even Superman wouldn't be a douche and break someone's window.

2. Don't abuse the "I ban thee" or "remove thyself" commands.

These commands are what make using player houses preferable when trying to avoid griefing. By simply speaking the words, either by normal tone, whisper, or shout, will bring up a target cursor with which the speaker may choose a person to be ejected from the house. The ejected person "lands" under the house sign. This works on animals, too.

Use of these commands should be limited to griefers and other non-roleplayers. People with the intent to harass or otherwise impair your enjoyment of the game. For example, the people that are non-roleplayers that run into the tavern and scream "LOL" and "I R PwN Ju" while being naked or flashing their goods.

It is NOT usually considered okay to eject a roleplayer from a house.

First of all, let's think about the mechanics of it. Like "Leave House", the target is instantly relocated to be beneath the house sign. They do not pass Go, they do not collect $200.

From a Roleplay perspective, the person has just "flown" through any number of walls or windows to arrive at the destination beneath the house sign. This would be physically unlikely in real life, unless you are Shadowcat from X-Men, like me.

Similarly, among roleplayers, being removed from a house in which roleplay is going on is considered very rude. People often wench and complain when it is done to them. Sometimes, it bothers them enough to gripe on public forums, and it sends out the signal "Do Not Come To This House If You Want To Roleplay".

Try to refrain from doing it.

One example of using these commands constructively in a roleplay fashion would be shoving someone from the roof or from a ledge. This is actually believable and realistic.

3. Do not abuse the "Detect Hidden" skill.

Every friend, co-owner, or owner of a house is automatically granted 100% chance of success when using the "Detect Hidden" skill in a house. Hey, that's pretty neat, having grandmaster of a skill I haven't had to train up.

What "Detect Hidden" does in a house is not the same as what it does outside of a house. Inside a house you are friended to or above, using "Detect Hidden" will reveal any and all characters hiding in the house, no matter what floor they are on or how high their hiding skill.

It is generally not considered acceptable to use "Detect Hidden" in a house considered open for roleplay. By house, I mean ANY house where roleplay occurs, be it designed as a tavern, craft shop, guildhall, etc. Obviously, what I am about to say applies to roleplay, only.

Examples that might alert you to the presence of someone else in your house: you see or hear a door open, if your character would be able to smell someone "different" inside the room, or hell even if your character can sense someone else in the room or house. Okay.. so you know for sure that someone is sneaking about in the room or house. You still want to hold off on using "Detect Hidden" right away, unless you have some area effect or special talent at revealing. The average person doesn't.

First of all, if you think someone is in there, sneaking around, go ahead and have a look around in character. Emote checking behind tapestries and under beds. Swing at the air. If you have tracking, you already have an edge. You can see those darn foot prints on the floor where they walked. Go you. Amazing.

Second, hopefully the person hiding passes an internal integrity test and actually emotes being found if you by some chance happen to end up looking in the right place. Be aware though, that usually the character will simply sneak away before you emote searching in that one spot. This type of thing does get old, though, and annoying very quickly. Especially if you were in the middle of something relatively important.

Hopefully, those that pull this little hide and seek game have the courtesy to stop before it gets too annoying and reveal themselves and show the same respect that you did by not using "Detect Hidden". If they don't however, perhaps just leave the suspicious area. Feel free to emote being suspicious or angry, etc. over having to leave.

By the way, did you know that you can reveal someone who is warred to you by dropping a conflagration potion on the area you think they are hiding in? Congratulations. You have now found the person, but now the floor and everything in the area of the fire is reduced to cinders.


Alright, I think I've covered the subject pretty well, so far. if anything else occurs to me I will be sure to post it. Have a great time roleplaying.

[Teh Glouris Lrod Kujabis]

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Very good writeup. Just wanted to add my own two cents (as usual):

Leave House: Implemented because players would set up traps in houses that players could not escape from, generally resulting in the trapped player getting killed by several mages or archers right away (you can dispel one side of a gate so it becomes a one way trip into the trap).

Ban/Remove: Obviously implemented because you have the right to decide who is and is not allowed to be inside of your house. However, Cein covered this already: This was not made with roleplay in mind either. It was made with griefing and harassment in mind, and as such, it would be extremely poor taste to remove or ban a fellow roleplayer from any house unless they were out of character and griefing you.

Full house reveal: Implemented because players would stealth around valuables and pick them up when the house owner released them; this is meant to be used in conjunction with ban/remove in case someone is trying to rip you off.


So, looking through the above, none of them were intended for roleplay. Cein gave examples of using these commands as a roleplay tool. However, keep in mind that in the past, many individuals have slapped a poor roleplay reasoning on these abilities (Generally their house is 'enchanted' to let them kick people out or instantly detect anyone invisible/stealthed in the house) just to justify using them. It doesn't work. Please don't do it unless you are absolutely sure all roleplayers in the area are okay with it (and just because a few roleplayers are okay with it doesn't mean that everyone else is automatically okay with it), and in the case of detect hidden on an entire house, it is probably a very bad idea no matter the context, as you have NO way of knowing if there are stealthers in your house and how many there may be. There are much more creative roleplay avenues one can take towards detecting stealthers than tacking a crappy godmode label on an existing mechanic not designed for roleplay.

Just my two cents on why one should be careful when using these as a roleplay mechanic, if you use it as one whatsoever. Many roleplay events in the past have been tainted by people banspamming or spamming reveal and thinking that it is an acceptable roleplay mechanic. (And, this is also a reason why I am glad none of the members of the community have Seer commands )