inkering has always been the 'orphan child' in UO and at one time was good for very little save trapping lockable boxes/chests (well ... that's not strictly true — you could make carpenter and smithing tools — be still my heart!), and everybody and their cousin in The Land were either making or having made trapped boxes/chests and forever leaving them lying about for newbies to blow themselves up with. There were variations on the theme: leaving them on monster corpses, trapping dungeon chests or

"Hey want a box?"
"Sure!"
"Oops! I left something in that — could you take it out and hand it back?"
"Sure!"
BOOM!!!
"OOOoooO!"
Loot, loot
"You sux!"

Great sport that, no doubt, and thoroughly enjoyed by cretins on their way to becoming gang-banger Pk'ers. But it was also a good education for the newbies withal and cheap into the bargain. But what possible profit anyone could gain from robbing newbies has always escaped me — hence the term 'cretin'. But those shenanigans soon stopped when utilizing such things for other than protecting one's house, earned the perp a murder count. There were tons of reds dashing about in fear of their lives soon after until they either cracked wise or macroed off the count (or deleted their character). Tinkerings light faded somewhat soon thereafter.

Then the Great and Powerful and All Good OSI (bow, scrape, grovel onto the max) favored his citizens with House Add-Ons and expanded the What-you-can-make-with-the-nearly-useless-Tinkering-skill list. Which made the skill slightly more useful but still not worthy for a stand-alone character. Just how many Heater Stands will people buy? Especially since there are no flasks, alembics or anything else to use them with? Hence Tinkering is a skill best used in combination with others.

A good combination character is the Tinker-Lumberjack-Carpenter-Tailor (TLCT — try pronouncing that acronym).

"I can!"
Lonnie the lizardman

Here the Tinker supports the carpenter by making tools and the Tailor by making sewing kits. Same with the Tinker-Miner-Smith-Carpenter (TMSC) mule.

"I can pronounce that too!"
Lonnie the lizardman

Or knock yourself out with the Tinker-Lumberjack-Carpenter-Tailor-Miner-Smith mega-mule (TLCTMS).

"T'lu sst'm'ess!"
Lonnie

I leave it to you to look up what you can make with any of these combinations.

For someone starting a new mule character, these are the attributes I recommend:

• STR -- 35
• INT -- 20
• DEX -- 10

Whether this is a primary or secondary (mule) character makes no difference in choice of physical attributes (STR;INT;DEX). The primary attribute for a Tinker is DEX but don't neglect INT. Since I suggest a character with additional Tailoring skill, I'd pretty much follow the guidelines I laid down in that essay with variations in starting skills depending on what emphasis you wish to place on the character.

Unless you're in a hurry to make trapped chests — I'd make a Tailor/Mage/Carpenter (as in the Tailoring essay) and buy Tinkering and Carpenter skills. You stand a better chance of making some coin so as to be able to buy ingots and other wherewithal to support your tinkering habit. Tinkering can keep you in Carpentry tools and after putzing around with those two skills you'll soon be able to make small lockable boxes. I'd then get a vendor deed and start looking for a place to place him/her ASAP. Once you are able to create Potion Kegs and other house addons you're in business.

Tinkers with sufficient skill can make items of exceptional quality. Items that have limited uses, such as tailor kits and carpenter tools will last longer if they are of exceptional quality. Also Grandmaster Tinkers will be able to place their Maker's Mark on an exceptional quality tinkered item. Wow! Imagine using "a tailor kit crafted by TinkerMule [exceptional]" to create those skullcaps... Note: Jewelry cannot be marked

Most of the Merchant Guilds/Conglomerates have web sites whose URL's are available off Stratics or through UOM and usually have places to put a vendor.

Anything that appears on the menu — if it's not there you can't make it. It doesn't seem to matter what you make either, frankly, though some say that Spy Glass is the hardest. That may be true but it doesn't seem to make any difference in terms of skill gain. The key? My advice is simple: get a bunch of ingots and make keys — lot's of them. Or knives. These only use up 1 ingot apiece and wastes materials only now and again.

Why is this the case? Probably because OSI feels the way I do about Tinkering and hasn't bothered to fix it beyond adding some 'makeables' and a new menu. Enjoy!