Siege Perilous Overview

Siege Perilous Overview

“The truest test of a player is one in which their true character is weighed and measured.”

Siege Perilous is that test. Those who survive it pursue a truly skill-based environment where success requires forging allies, communicating, and trading with others. Players who choose to make trouble for others will quickly find themselves in logistical peril, and may struggle to survive.

Core Rules

• 1 character per person
• 700 skill cap
• 225 stat cap
• Publish 13.6 (UO:R-era) combat mechanics

What Is Siege Perilous?

Siege Perilous is a shard hosted by Adam Ant using a special ruleset where players are limited to one single character per person.

On the test shard, players may have access to test functionality such as setting skills or stats via speech commands (e.g., “set swords 100”). See Commands for more information.

Compared to Angel Island, Siege Perilous allows mounts, with the trade-off that Recall (including scrolls) is disabled as part of the ruleset. Gate travel remains available.

Combat-related systems are configured to be era-accurate to Publish 13.6. Siege Perilous uses UO:R mechanics such as Special Moves (e.g., Crushing Blow, Paralyzing Blow), and includes bonuses to certain spells if you have Inscription or Poisoning.

Note: Any launch-date or test-server availability details should be kept current, or moved to a dated announcement page.

Siege Perilous History

The name “Siege Perilous” references Arthurian legend and the idea that only the most worthy can succeed on a challenging server.

The Siege ruleset is designed as a throwback to early (pre-T2A) Ultima Online, before many later-era systems were introduced. Over time, the Siege ruleset developed a devoted following of players who appreciated its unique challenges and sense of community, and regard it as a classic UO experience for players looking for a more authentic and challenging version of the game.

Factions vs Alignment

In the Publish 13.6 era, the original town control Factions system existed. However, it was determined that a complex town control system detracted from the early-days feel intended for this ruleset. In place of Factions is a simple, notoriety-based Alignment system.

Guildmasters can choose from 9 different alignments (e.g., Orc, Militia, Order, Chaos, Undead). If you are aligned, you are at war with the other 8 alignments, and their members are freely attackable anywhere in the game.

Note: A guild’s alignment can only be changed once per 7 days.

The Siege Perilous Ruleset

Character

On Siege Perilous, you are limited to:

• 1 character

NPCs

• NPCs will no longer train characters.
• NPCs will not purchase items from players.
• NPC prices are 3× higher on everything, except housing which is 10× the regular price.
• The cost to hire an NPC is also 3× higher than normal.

Skill Gain (RoT)

Character development is intentionally constrained to fit the one-character ruleset and prevent rapid build-swapping via macroing. Siege uses Return Over Time (RoT) to level the playing field so player skill matters more than character development speed.

• Skills over 70 gain at a limited rate, with a cooldown between gains (increasing further at 80 and 90).
• You can only gain 6 total stat points per day (e.g., 1 STR, 2 DEX, 3 INT).

Learn more: Return Over Time (RoT)

Magic

• Recall does not work as part of the Siege Perilous ruleset.
• Mark does not work inside dungeons.
• Gate does not work inside dungeons.
• Telekinesis does not work on locked or trapped treasure chests.
• Magery works in town.

In-Game Justice System

• Murderers may enter towns.
• Healing a murderer makes you a criminal, but town guards will not attack.
• Wandering Healers may spawn as murderers and will resurrect murderers.
• Thieves Guild members may commit murder without being kicked out of the guild, and there are no join requirements besides the 500 gold fee.

Skills

• Bard tools and various other tools wear down with use.
• Fishing yields fewer SOS bottles and does not allow fishing up treasure maps.
• Traps on treasure chests must be properly removed before opening.
• Failures for Tinkers and for identifying poison potions via Taste Identification can have dire consequences.

Monsters

• Monsters that are also lower-level tameables will not drop loot.

Factions and Hero/Evil

Introduced in December 2000, the Faction System promotes organized player conflict through contextual interactions and mechanics intended to support a wide array of play styles.

The Factions

There are four factions:

• Minax: Followers of Minax seek revenge against Lord British and ally with various monsters and beasts.
• Council of Mages: Rooted in Moonglow, the Council took up the banner of war after conflict and trials by those loyal to Lord British.
• The Shadowlords: A faction within Minax, comprised largely of undead and would-be necromancers, threatening both good and evil.
• True Britannians: Loyal to Lord British, opposing Minax and the Shadowlords, and resisting threats to the throne.

Faction Strongholds

• Minax: Fortress carved in Dragonhame Mountain, southeast of Skara Brae.
• Council of Mages: Old Parliament Building in the southeast corner of Magincia.
• The Shadowlords: Crypts in the Deep Forest, east of Yew Moongate.
• True Britannians: Castle Britannia in the center of Britain.

Joining a Faction

To join a faction, use the faction’s Join Stone at the entrance of their base.

Kill Points

Earning Kill Points

• The killer takes 10% of the victim’s kill points (rounded down).
• If the victim has 0 kill points, the killer still receives 1 kill point; the victim gains 1 deficit point.
• If the victim has 6 deficit points (-6 kill points), the killer no longer receives kill points.

Kill Point Decay

Kill point decay may occur once every 47 hours.

• If you have killed an enemy factioner within the 47-hour window, you are “active” and do not decay.
• If inactive, you lose 10% of your kill points (rounded up).
• Lost kill points are redistributed among active factioners in the same faction.

Friendly Fire

Killing a member of your own faction results in a loss of 50% of your kill points.

Faction Ranks

Kill points determine rank. The top 1% players with the most kill points attain the highest rank in their faction.

Rank	Score	Minax	Council of Mages	Lord British	Shadowlords
1	Below 20%	Defiler	Mystic	Defender	Servant
2	20%–39%	Defiler	Mystic	Defender	Servant
3	40%–49%	Defiler	Mystic	Defender	Servant
4	50%–59%	Executioner	Diviner	Sentinel	Keeper of Lies
5	60%–69%	Executioner	Diviner	Sentinel	Keeper of Lies
6	70%–79%	Executioner	Diviner	Sentinel	Keeper of Lies
7	80%–89%	Warlord	Luminary	Crusader	Bringer of Sorrow
8	90%–94%	Warlord	Luminary	Crusader	Bringer of Sorrow
9	95%–99%	Dread Knight	Archon of Principle	Knight of the Codex	Agent of Evil
10	99.1%–100%	Avenger of Mondain	Inquisitor of the Council	Knight of the Codex	Purveyor of Darkness

Temporary Stat Loss

When slain by an enemy factioner, you suffer temporary stat loss. All skills are reduced by 33%. After 20 minutes, skills return to normal.

Town Conquest

There are 8 cities that can fall under faction control, each with a townstone and town pedestal:

• Britain
• Skara Brae
• Magincia
• Delucia
• Minoc
• Moonglow
• Trinsic
• Yew

Faction System Murder Reprieve

The faction murder reprieve is a one-time reduction in murder counts when a murderer who has not previously received a reprieve first joins a faction. If the character becomes a murderer again, prior counts are restored.

Additional restrictions may apply (e.g., some factions may be inaccessible depending on murder status and logistics of reaching join stones).

Hero/Evil

Around the target era (Publish 13.6), Factions and Hero/Evil were merged:

• True Britannians and Council of Mages are “Hero” factions.
• Shadowlords and Order of Minax are “Evil” factions.

Killing members of your own faction incurs penalties (kill points loss, lifeforce loss, and possible murder reporting), with exceptions for sparring with guildmates or self-defense.

Lifeforce accumulation:

• Gain lifeforce equal to 20% of the lifeforce of a killed character (victim loses the same amount).
• Gain 1 lifeforce per faction enemy monster killed.
• Maximum lifeforce is 100.

Players may spend lifeforce on Hero/Evil powers (armor coloration, detect alignment, summon familiar, special steeds, holy/unholy shield). Additional rules apply regarding hues, aggression, and flagging.

Differences Between Angel Island and Siege Perilous

Shard Variations

Feature	Angel Island	Siege Perilous
Total accounts allowed	3	1
Characters per account	5	1
Mounts	No	Yes
Recall	Yes	No
Gate travel	Yes	Yes
Item insurance	No	No
Trammel facet	No	No
Factions	Kin System	Classic factions
Resource drops	Normal rate	Halved
Skill and stat gains	Normal, difficulty-based	Return Over Time (RoT)
NPC skill training	Yes	No (except Cartography and Lockpicking from 0–10)
Animal taming difficulty	Normal	High-level taming is significantly more difficult
Blade Spirits / Energy Vortex	Normal	Weakened
Telekinesis	Normal	Does not work on trapped or locked chests
Item wear	Normal	Many tools and weapons degrade with use
NPC shopkeepers buy items	No	No
NPC shopkeeper prices	Normal	3×
NPC resource sales	No	No
Hireling fees	Normal	3×
Housing prices	Normal	NPC prices are 10× higher
Balanced Buyback System	Yes	No
Murderers allowed in town	No	Yes
Healing murderers in town	Criminal flag + guards	Criminal flag only
Instant logout / housing ban for reds & greys	Yes	No
Poisoned arrows	Yes	No
Thieves Guild rules	Standard	No removal for murder counts; no skill/time requirements
Stealth mechanics	Normal	Reduced auto-reveal range
Weapon enchantments	No	Yes

Take Back Sosaria Event

“An evil swarm of wretched gargoyles swooped in during the night and captured the various cities and towns. We have secured Britain, but the rest of our world has been completely overrun. I pray thee, citizens of Britannia, come join the war effort to defeat this evil presence and Take Back Sosaria!!”

— Errol Pantzike, First Lieutenant, Militia

Siege Perilous launches with an event called “Taking Back Sosaria.”

The event has two primary goals:

1. Shrink the usable map without introducing a custom map
2. Provide a fun initial experience that encourages teamwork

An army of gargoyles has captured most cities and towns, with Britain remaining under Lord British’s control. Venturing into captured towns alone is difficult and dangerous.

Tips, Tricks, and Strategies

Gargoyle guardians appear in zones within cities. If you clear a zone, the gargoyles do not return—this is the strategy used to secure Britain.

Zones appear to run north-to-south. Attacking from east or west is recommended, then working north/south to finish the zone. Cities may be divided into several zones.

Players receive feedback in the form “(N of M kills)” for the current zone. If you take too long, guardians may respawn and progress resets—team up so effort is not wasted.

Suggested Initial Strategy

Start near Britain, then band together to reclaim other cities as you establish a foothold. Target each city and town, reclaiming zones one by one, focusing on strategically important areas (banks, forges, and other valuable resources).