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First off, I highly recommend Galdrog's
Role Playing 101 site. It has a lot of great information on creating
a character and being a character.
Step 1. Give your character a background
All characters should have some information on what they did and where they
were from before they began their current life in UO. The same holds true
for evil characters. Some basic info you want:
- Parent's names and occupations
- Place of birth
- Brothers / Sisters
- Early lifestyle (rich kid, street urchin, farm boy, etc)
- Attitude towards life (and why it is that way)
Evil characters have one more piece of info that good characters do not:
- Why your character strayed from the straight and narrow
That last piece of information can make all the difference in how you play
your character. If your character started stealing as a means of survival,
they might be a rogue from necessity not desire. This type tends towards
generosity and only taking what the bare minimum they need. On the other
hand, a character who was abused and tormented by other children might turn
into a bully who attacks anyone weaker than themselves and runs at the first
sign of danger.
Step 2. Decide what your criminal activity is going to be
Do you want to be a street thief, picking pockets and robbing shelves?
Do you want to be an assassin for hire, tracking down and killing victims for
a price? Or do you want to be a crazed serial killer who targets anyone wearing
an orc helm and cuts them to their smallest pieces and leaves their bodies in
bags in front of the local fighter guild?
There are a lot of possibilities for being a criminal that do not necessarily
use the "rogue" skills in the game. In fact, the most enjoyable
characters will probably use a blend of skills that might not be the most obvious
choices. Here are some suggestions:
- Highwayman - use hiding and fighting skills to ambush victims on the road
and force them to hand over their gold or kill them for resisting
- Pickpocket - use snooping and stealing to "borrow" items from
your victims.
- Assassin - Alchemy, poisoning, tracking, fencing, tactics are all useful
skills for the murderer-for-hire
- Mass Murderer - fighting pure and simple. Do try and be more refined
than the boring "KilLEr duDE". Have a creative way of killing
your victims or some catchy phrase you shout right before you whack 'em.
- Serial Killer - fighting is going to be your primary, but you are going
to have some unrelated secondary. Serial killers are very picky about
their victims and have a "ritual" for either the killing or dealing
with the corpse.
- Evil mage - classic fantasy villian. Magery, resisting spells, inscription
are the obvious skills. You have a lot of room to create havoc with
this type.
- Spy - Hiding and tailoring would be good choices. Plus a wide variety
of other skills so you can be a valuable addition to any and all guilds.
- Mad scientist - alchemy, poisoning, magery are likely. Purple potions
are going to be your weapon of choice (and a good choice 'tis) You also
have healing potions, strength potions, all the other better living through
chemistry toys.
- Con artist - sell tamed animals that are not yours. Use key blanks
to fool people into buying ships you do not own. Claim to have found
a book on how to make some new potion no one else knows about. Make
up your own stories to seperate the fools from their gold.
- Leech - Hiding and your own wits make this character a success. Hide
during fights and as soon as one person or the other falls, grab whatever
loot you can from the corpse. Be prepared to spend a lot of time running
from upset customers.
- Rogue - My personal favorite. A blend of all the non-killer types.
As quick to con his clients as pick their pockets as beat them into submission.
This list is by no means all-inclusive. In fact, it's possible to twist
ANY character type into a villian.
Step 3. Equip your villian
Once you decide what it is you are going to do for a living. Pick out
items that will help you. Con artists are going to need several different
outfits. Alchemists need lots of reagents and bottles. Assassins need
poison or at least bottles, a mortar and pestle, and nightshade to make their
own.
Your choice of equipment will help influence how you play your character.
If you are a highwayman who fights with bows, you are probably going to also
pick up lumberjacking and bowyer/fletcher skills. If you are a pickpocket
in town, you are generally going to want to keep most of your equipment stashed
in a hidden cache since getting killed and looted is part of the job.
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Stratics Central
