This FAQ is intended to answer many of your questions about PaxLair. We are attempting to make the questions and answers as comprehensive as possible. This should help you in gaining the full enjoyment of PaxLair. If your question is not answered here, please ask your question to someone by posting on the PaxLair messageboard or to any of the city officials, citizens, or regular visitors in PaxLair itself.
GENERAL INFORMATION
PaxLair is a role-playing player town on the Chesapeake Shard. The city is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You are more likely to find people in PaxLair on Monday and Wednesday nights when weekly events are held at 9pm EST. PaxLair is a gathering point for many players throughout the shard.
Q: What is the goal of PaxLair? What are you trying to do here?
Our goal is fairly simple: To create, operate, and maintain a realistic "virtual" city within the UO gaming environment. Through this goal, PaxLair seeks to add to fellow players' enjoyment of UO and enjoyment of playing together in this multi-player environment.
Q: This sounds like a lot of work. UO is just a game. Why should I be interested in this?
There are various people who have the vision of building a virtual community using the UO gaming environment. It is a challenge as well as extremely fun to work together. The basis of the virtual community is fictional in nature, yet can present aspects found in a real community. PaxLair is an effort to go beyond the main gaming aspects of the UO game and delve into the seriousness and playfulness of role-playing. Becoming involved in PaxLair, is an opportunity for people, old and young, to experience the dynamics of a community of people. The UO game adds an element of dealing with fictional situations and a mixture of realistic and fictional solutions. The city of PaxLair itself can be operated like nearly any real-life city. The main exception is everyone is a volunteer.
Q: What is the best way to experience PaxLair?
The best way to experience PaxLair is to actually visit the city on the Chesapeake shard. Nearly all of the activity of PaxLair actually takes place in the city and if you do not visit, you will not get a true feeling of what PaxLair is. It will take more than one visit to get a true impression of the city. It is much like a city in real-life. You can drive through a real-life city and stop in one restaurant or tavern. You experience a bar room brawl, quickly get in your car, and drive out of city swearing you'll never return. As you leave city, you notice a ceremony, a museum and library, and a carnival. You think to yourself that just maybe you might return to see what else the city has to offer. PaxLair certainly has this type of realism.
Q: Does PaxLair have any rules?
PaxLair rules, laws, and cooperation are based on two tenets: Peace and Role-playing. PaxLair Laws can be found here. These laws are the foundation for Peace, Justice and Defense in PaxLair. These Laws apply to all who dwell in, and visit PaxLair.
Q: What about role-playing? How does that fit in?
PaxLair is first and foremost a role-playing town. City officials, citizens, and visitors gain the best experience by role-playing their characters within the city. Years worth of effort have gone into establishing PaxLair with a rich history and destiny. Role-playing is not easy. A starter "course" on the essential elements of Role-playing, proven to work over decades of experience by role-players, is Role-playing 101. Role-playing is not simply the use of "thee's and thou's", but acting out a role of a character and thinking from your character's point of view with consistency.
Q: What if I just want to play UO as a game? Can I still participate in PaxLair?
Yes, of course you can. While PaxLair is a virtual community involving more than 100 people on a regular basis, there are still many purely gaming aspects to the city. There are shops to purchase items, regular monsters spawns in the local area, PvP tournaments held at various times, weekly events that all are welcome to join.
PaxLair is not owned by any single person. Some people own buildings in PaxLair to run a shop or an establishment. The Mayor manages several of the main buildings offering their use to many players.
PaxLair is located in the northern forests of Britannia. It is west of the desert crossroads between Yew and Vesper. You can find directions here.
PaxLair is not a guild. The role-played government consists of people from many different guilds and backgrounds. People may become citizens, city officials, shopkeepers, and regular visitors or friends of PaxLair without leaving their regular guild.
Q: Can anyone come to PaxLair?
Yes! PaxLair is known to be a major crossroad for many players on the shard. It is open to all.
Q: What services does PaxLair offer to the characters and players?
PaxLair has a variety of services to offer to citizens and visitors. Some of these include: a city website, a city messageboard, an online library archive, an in-game messageboard outside the doors of the PaxLair saloon, an in-game library located on the second floor of the Paladin's Tower, various city and group guild stones used for role-playing and friendship/warring status, support for various events, the PaxLair Survival Shop, arbitration services as a neutral party, a city council, and various in-game shops, taverns, arena, and more.
This is not an easy question to answer. Much depends on how you deport yourself while in PaxLair. The situations for banning people from the game are purely decisions by OSI, and private matters between OSI and the player involved. When you come to PaxLair to harass, kill, etc., you must keep a few things in mind. Counselors, Seers, and GMs might frequent PaxLair more regularly than other places on the shard. You also may not know that a character sitting in a tavern having a drink is one of these people. You should have no problem if you stay within the OSI terms of agreement and harassment policies. The mechanics of player-killing is allowed in PaxLair, as it is allowed in any wilderness area. Indiscriminate PKing is frowned upon in PaxLair, from a role-playing point of view. There have been situations, however, were individuals or groups "camp out" at some of the PaxLair buildings for days and weeks. PaxLair follows the guidelines for towns or places of interest on the UO site in such situations. The Mayor of PaxLair is the single and sole official spokesman for the player town when dealing with OSI on these matters.
PaxLair is not role-played as a democracy. PaxLair is role-played as a monarchy with the sovereignty vested in the Mayor. The power of the Mayor as sovereign is not absolute, as it would be in despotism. The culture and traditions within PaxLair have limited the Mayor's role in his influence over society. At the desire of the people of PaxLair, a city council was formed to become more involved in city government and open more opportunities. This city council has certain authorities over some aspects of the role-played town. It also serves as advisory body to the Mayor.
The Mayor is not elected. The Mayor was originally selected through an emergency city council meeting. Each succeeding Mayor has been appointed by the retiring Mayor, with a majority of the City Council's approval. Over time, people volunteered to work with the Mayor as city council members, and citizens, providing services to the general public.
The Mayor and City Council work closely together to make laws, resolve disputes and other problems you might find in any thriving city. If you have a proposal, or idea, you would like to see working within the city, you are welcome to make your proposals known at the City Council Meetings held every Monday night at 9pm EST in the North Tower.
Q: How do I become a City Council Member?
The Mayor and City Council carefully selects City Council members. To become a member of the City Council, you must gain the full trust of the Mayor and City Council members over a long period of time.
Q: How do I find a Councilperson, or the Mayor?
You can usually find the Mayor and Council members present on Monday nights at 9pm for the City Council Meetings.
The Mayor does not intentionally ignore anyone. The usual cases where the Mayor does not respond to someone is in large gatherings or she is engaged in conversation with someone else. Sometimes the Mayor has three or four conversations going on at once. She also may have several pigeons (ICQ) on her shoulder at the time. Another factor that particularly occurs in large gatherings, is a problem in hearing people at a distance. This is particularly the case when your character is not using the standard (default) UO text font. The unicode font is particularly bad in large gatherings. The best advice is to wait until the Mayor has finished speaking with someone else, then approach her.
Q: Can my Guild form an alliance with PaxLair?
There are no guildstone alliance functions. You can make your guild known as an ally to PaxLair by deeds, actions and declaring your intentions to do so at the City Council Meetings. Formal alliances are rarely formed with the PaxLair government. Because of the neutral nature of PaxLair, we would only seek to have alliances with neutral groups. Sometimes groups and guilds ask to form an alliance with PaxLair to protect against murderers and thieves. This has been done for short durations, but preferably in a role-playing sense. We have generally found that the more defense we have in PaxLair, the more PaxLair becomes simply a battleground for PvP.
Q: My group or guild wishes to form diplomatic relations with PaxLair. Who do I talk to?
Your first step is to talk to a council member. Propose your ideas and ask the council member to bring them up at a council meeting. You will most likely be invited to present your ideas at a council meeting. One of the council's roles is to negotiate diplomatic situations between PaxLair and various groups and guilds. The council will then make a recommendation to the Mayor and the Mayor will make a final decision about the diplomatic relationship.
Q: Are there any regular meetings in PaxLair?
There are City Council Meetings on Monday nights at 9pm EST in the North Tower. There are Wednesday night adventure groups at 9pm EST that meet in the Paladin's Tower. Other events will be posted as announcements at UO Chesapeake Events or announced upon PaxLair's Message Board.
Q: Are there any official positions that are open within the government?
There continue to be more opportunities within the city government. More positions can be created within the "virtual" city. The Mayor also continues to seek dedicated and trusted people to serve PaxLair. New positions can be created, for example, a city justice or a city public relations person. The city council may also occasionally accept new members.
Q: I have some new ideas for the PaxLair government. I think they would be great. What should I do?
Since the government itself is a long-term aspect of the city, the Mayor has responsibility for its framework. Talk to the Mayor if you have ideas.
Several times, people have come to the Mayor with grand ideas to help move PaxLair forward in various ways to include enhancements to the government. The Mayor is always open to these ideas and it is wonderful to see such enthusiasm. Many times though, the Mayor lacks the time herself to make all the ideas become reality by herself. She will outline for you general ideas on how you can move your concept forward and gain her and other people's support. Nine times out of ten though people find that moving large concepts forward is very difficult in a volunteer community. So people are advised to start out small with their ideas and see what catches on.
Q: How can I become a citizen of PaxLair?
The citizenship process is fairly simple. It involves being placed on an initiate stone (PxI) for one to two weeks. This time allows the player to become involved in PaxLair and decide whether he or she really wishes to participate. The character may then be moved to the PaxLair citizens' stone (Pax) by a Councilor's recommendation to the Mayor. Members of various PaxLair groups are also automatically made citizens of PaxLair. Most groups also have an initiation process. The Mayor does not have to approve people being accepted into these individual groups.
Q: How do I know who is a citizen of PaxLair?
This is sometimes difficult to discern. Not all citizens have guild titles, but many do. Current PaxLair guild abbreviations are Pax, PxI, PxK and PV. There are also some people who have been accepted as citizens yet remain with their original guild. We do not currently maintain a list of these people. Also, some people visit PaxLair or work in shops so often that they are considered citizens. Our citizenship is not a strict process, but is one designed to enhance and give opportunities for role-playing.
Q: What do I have to do as a citizen? Are there any obligations?
As a citizen, you're obligated to role-play situations and actions from your character's point-of-view when you are within the city. The citizenship at-large in PaxLair is known to be neutral towards evil and good, but individual citizens may certainly favor good or evil. The citizens seek to maintain PaxLair as a peaceful and neutral place for all to come. If you are a citizen and have not been seen within the city for a very long time, you may be administratively dropped from the citizenship stone.
Q: If I'm a citizen, can I get friended to some of the buildings?
Yes. You will, at least, be friended to the PaxLair Inn. Being friended to other buildings depends greatly upon the role your character plays within the city. There is no obligation for the owners of shops and even the main public buildings to offer you friendship. A level of trust must be established within the community.
Q: What is the difference between a group and a guild in PaxLair?
A group in PaxLair is a role-playing-based grouping of people with similar interests or goals, such as the Kobolds, Knights, Wizards, and Orcs. A group is typically less formal than a regular guild. Leadership is normally a product of the whole group, not an individual or guild master. Membership requirements are not usually as stringent as regular guilds, but role-playing ability and focus is a strong requirement for membership. A group has a guildstone to indicate its members.
Q: How can I start a group in PaxLair?
You can easily start a group in PaxLair. Pick a role-playing theme that does not already exist by other groups and start generating some interest. Purchase a guildstone and recruit members. If your group becomes popular in PaxLair for a few months, the City Council and the Mayor's Office may accept your group as one of the groups of PaxLair and might even offer a house in the city to place your guildstone.
Q: How can I join one of the PaxLair groups?
You must talk to a member of the group. You can contact them in PaxLair or by posting a message on the PaxLair messageboard. Each group has slightly different requirements for its membership. The basis for all memberships, though, is a sincere dedication to respect and role-playing.
Q: What is an affiliate of PaxLair?
An affiliate of PaxLair is a role-playing guild or group which frequents PaxLair and has a role within the culture of the city. Generally, affiliates are designated so people may know which guilds can be trusted in role-playing events and situations. An advantage of being an affiliate of PaxLair is that various role-playing guilds sometimes use the affiliates list to help them find guilds to be involved in quests and activities.
Q: How does my guild become an affiliate of PaxLair?
It is a subjective decision by the City Council or the Mayor's Office to accept a guild as an affiliate. Much depends on how well the City officials know your guild. Your guild can be good, evil, or neutral. It simply needs to be respectful of role-playing guidelines and maintains a focus on in-character realism and storyline.
Q: Do you have guards in PaxLair?
At one time, we had a player guard force, which is now disbanded. We found that a major focus on guarding the city brought many undesirables and unwanted battles, which eventually reduced role-playing, while demanding high sacrifices from our guards. Currently, we have no "official" guards in PaxLair. Be cautious, as you would in any wilderness area.
Some people in PaxLair may help you get re-equipped or gate you to the nearest bank. Some people will chase after the one who killed you. No one is obligated to put themselves in peril when attacks occur. We always advise that you do not bring precious items to PaxLair. PaxLair is in unguarded territory.
Q: I'm labeled a murderer. Will I be attacked if I come to PaxLair?
PaxLair is in the wilderness area and still subject to the laws of Britannia. Just as no one is obligated to put themselves in peril to protect the innocents that are attacked, they are also not obligated to put themselves in peril to protect a murderer. Any past transgressions in the City may not be easily forgotten and even the most penitent murderer should be aware that other visitors, or citizens, may choose to exact retribution, just as other visitors, or citizens, may choose to help a "peaceful" murderer. All visitors and citizens are encouraged to remain mindful of PaxLair's tenets of peace and role-playing, but are free to act on their own behalf and make their own choices with regard to any criminals or murderers.
Q: Can I assassinate the Mayor?
Yes, it is possible to kill the Mayor. While the Mayor will react to any role-played situation, the "assassinate the Mayor" scenario has been over-used in the past. If the assassination attempt is done at random, she will tend to not cooperate and simply leave, shrug off the verbal rhetoric, or find the nearest healer. The Mayor carries little with her at any time. Also, assassination of the Mayor is a grave attack upon the ideals of the City of PaxLair, and many people may not forget such an attack for a very long time. Such notoriety may be the intent of the assassin, but do not come to PaxLair later and expect to sit down and have an ale. The assassin will most likely be attacked or apprehended for trial. Such are the ways of Justice.
Q: Does PaxLair have a Justice system? A court?
No. Currently, there are only immediate forms of justice in PaxLair. A trial could be arranged though, if the Mayor and City Council deems it necessary.
Q: I attack all "reds". Is that against PaxLair Law?
No. PaxLair is subject to the laws of Britannia, but please try to uphold peace above all else, if possible.
Q: My guild wants to attack the city and take it over. Can we do that?
At times, guilds attack the city with the intent to take over PaxLair. Sometimes this has been attempted in a role-playing sense. For example, an evil empire has a meeting with the Mayor and declares that they are going to take over the city. Generally, these kinds of role-playing situations have not been supported by the official government within PaxLair. This is because PaxLair is a neutral city and one that should stimulate interaction between groups and not specifically against the entire city of PaxLair. A quest involving the takeover of the city of PaxLair would require a great deal of time and effort to make such a quest realistic. The PaxLair government simply does not have the resources and people at this time to devote energies to such a massive quest.
Q: What are the boundaries of PaxLair?
The boundaries of PaxLair are never set in stone. The boundaries constantly change as people add to or subtract their buildings from the city. The PaxLair map shows a general layout of the city and thus the area considered part of PaxLair.
Q: Can I place a house in PaxLair?
There is limited space in PaxLair. Space only opens up when a building decays.
Q: I placed a house in PaxLair and it was deleted by a GM. What gives?
Sometimes people place buildings in locations that are considered festival areas or roadways around the main part of city. In these cases, the people of PaxLair try to contact the owner to get them to move their house and if this is not successful, people will contact the interest department at OSI. It is then, purely the decision of the Interest GM to decide the fate of the house.
Q: Are buildings in PaxLair ever sold? Are there any restrictions on selling houses in PaxLair?
Sometimes buildings in PaxLair are sold. The only buildings available for sale though, are those that are not enhanced by the Interest GMs. Enhancements include the placement of special items not available to regular players. The sale of such houses or changes in ownership to people who are not part of the PaxLair community must receive the approval of the Interest GM. If approval is not obtained, the Interest GM will most likely delete all special items.
Q: Are there any rules on who I can and can not ban from a house in PaxLair?
Yes, there are some rules. The buildings owned by the City of PaxLair must have limited banning. People who have privately-owned buildings are encourage to follow these same rules so there is consistency throughout the city.. There are two categories of bannings based on who the character is.
Bannings from buildings, including the enhanced buildings, usually happens when a character is disrupting a role-playing event, breaking the laws, or disrupting the peace. Known thieves and murderers may be banned upon entry into the buildings. Since the UO game mechanics do not have a feature to jail a character that is apprehended within a building or the city, the banning feature is used.
Q: How do I get unbanned from one of the public buildings?
You will need to attend a City Council Meeting and convince the Mayor and City Council to lift your ban. They may ask that you atone for your transgressions, before the ban is lifted, or they may decide you will stay on the ban list indefinitely.
Q: Where can I find a vendor selling reagents or various weapons?
The best thing to do is to look in the various buildings, talk to people in city.
Q: Where can I find a rune to a city?
There are many runes and rune books scattered throughout PaxLair. The most notable locations are the Paladin's Tower that has some rune books, the Ladies of the Lair, and the Second Chance Provisioners (SCP).
Q: Can you friend me to a tower/tavern/house?
Friendship to buildings depends greatly on the role of your character within the city. There is also a matter of trust between you and the house owner. Talk to specific shopowners, or Councilmembers.
First of all, it is not a good idea to store valuables within any house in PaxLair. If you lose items you will need to talk to the other people who are friended to the house. Some of the shops have good security procedures and know the people who are friended to the house very well. This is not generally the case though, for the more public buildings directly controlled by the Mayor's office. The buildings controlled by the Mayor's office, such as the Twin Towers are used for a variety of events and situations. Sometimes these situations require additional people to be friended to the Towers.
Q: I've set up a house nearby and want to make it a part of PaxLair. How can I do that?
The first step to doing this, falls in your hands. You need to establish the role-playing flavor of your house. If you wish it to be a shop, you need to give it some history and draw interest by the various people in PaxLair and the realm. Once you have done this, you may contact the PaxLair city council who will then make a recommendation to the Mayor.
Q: Can I place a vendor of my own in one of your houses?
In general, a large number of NPC vendors are frowned upon within PaxLair. Each house, building, and shop will have different rules for NPC vendors. If a "friend" of the house, building, or shop places a vendor, without permission from the owner, the owner may start removing friends until the vendor is removed from the building. Contact the shopkeepers, or Councilmembers for more information.
Q: I want to run an event in PaxLair. What do I do?
You may run an event in PaxLair at anytime you wish. The buildings are open to the public and you can use them at anytime. If you wish to have the assistance of building owners, you'll have to contact them by posting on the PaxLair messageboard. We intend to improve this process as soon as we get more volunteers to help people hold events.
Q: Why doesn't PaxLair run a lot of events?
There are actually quite a few events in PaxLair. Many are not publicized because most events happen naturally, or as part of a quest. The realistic nature of PaxLair lends itself to spontaneous events. Such events may not be publicized nor reported in the news. The intent of the PaxLair government is not to hold a lot of events, but to help stimulate and organize the city environment so many people can hold events on their own.
Q: How do I become involved in a quest in PaxLair?
Many quests are spontaneous. The best way to become involved in a quest is to visit PaxLair. There are usually many story lines talked about by various people in the city. You may also learn of quests that involve PaxLair and the entire shard by reading the UOC quest page .
Q: I have an idea for a quest or event that might involve PaxLair. Whom should I talk to?
The Mayor, or a City Council member. If you do not require help with your quest, you can simply show up in PaxLair and start laying the groundwork for your quest. Many citizens and visitors enjoy this type of spontaneous quest. If you are thinking of running a quest that will alter the history, or the future of PaxLair as a city, you should speak to the Mayor as well.