RD's City of Dragons

Inquest Gamer Issue #51 hit newstands nationwide.
www.inquestmag.com
Many thanks to Jeff Hannes of Inquest Gamer Mag in New York City for his time and effort visiting our online city. And thanks for choosing
the Red Dragons for this feature in your magazine. We have received hundreds of emails from people who read this story and have
purchased Ultima Online because of it. My guild has had a surge of new members and all in all the city is booming. -RD Redkiller

	Interview with RD Redkiller III Founder of the Red Dragons by Darius II

*When and why did you make the transition from Quake to Ultima Online?*
	In 1996 Quake was huge, and the Red Dragons were big within the quake community. We had some luck and got recognition by Will Bryant of ID software. I organized RD like a football team, ranks, positions, some Capture the Flag tactics that we practiced and much more. It was a lot of fun. One of my members, RD Uzi, told me to come see Ultima Online. He lived in up north near Lake Superior so I ended up creating a character on that shard named after my Quake character in Septemeber of 1997. I was already well known from quake and many times people in Ultima in Britain would ask me "are you the redkiller from quake?" In that way I found at least 20 old friends from Quake tournaments or some of the Quake servers I was well known on and I recruited them in UO. Keeping the same name between games proved to be wise.
*You guys had been in ID's hall of fame and were well know in Quake, was it hard to leave Quake to come to UO, or did you need something new?*
	We never "left" quake. I still play daily. RD has a group who play and hang out together. www.reddragons.com is for quake and www.clanreddragon.com is for Ultima Online.
*How is the name Red Dragons significant?*
	The name "Red Dragons" was the creation of Jonathon Hackett, the founder of the Red Dragons in Quake. He was a skilled graphic artist and conceptualized the RD logo as a Dragons head and put together the first webpage for a Quake Clan. That story is told on our webpage history link. Once I decided to stay in UO I found the fact that a Red Dragon existed in UO, so I kept the clan name.
*Are their any original members from the Quake days still around today with you in Red Dragon City?*
	The last one from Quake who is active is CD. He was with me from 1996 until now, going on 5 years.
*When you first entered UO, what were you goals that you wanted to accomplish?*
	My first realization was PK's suck. I watched my real life kids get ganked in UO and decided "enough of this crap" and I begin pulling resources together and recruiting and basically by hook or crook I built RD city to be a haven for all who needed shelter from the rampant PK's. In the early days PK mages did awesome damage. And they rode in huge packs all over the shard hunting the innocent. It was not fun. It was not cute. It basically sucked. My goal was to fight back. To sound the battle call for all the fed-up non pk players, the honorable ones, and to have a base to meet and defend from. To a great extent I achieved that goal.
*Can you describe how you got pked for the very first time in Ultima Online?*
	No I cannot. Once I became Governor of RD city a lot of pk's would come. We would fight night after night after night sometimes. Endless battles some of which I have never seen the likes of since.
When did you start creating your dream city, and why did you pick the location that you did?
	This will take a bit of storytelling. I wanted to build a city after realizing that in UO your guild is nothing without a decent house. RD began with a small house located near the Britain Desert. Four early members and myself contributed for it. Mason Marand (now lead artist of www.reddragons.com) Vichy, Vlad Draconis and Uzi. All we had was that small house and we each had a corner to put a box. One day an enemy mage got into our house and marked a rune inside it. In those days you could mark runes inside your house and there were no lockdowns. From that point on our house was useless. I had to ask a GM to move it (which he did). Eventually OSI saw the problem with housing and fixed the ability to mark runes inside and of course later on we all got house lockdowns. The early days were tough. If you lost your house key in battle, you lost your house. There were no banks back then. One day Lady Jacqueline gave me 50k. I had 50k as well. That was enough to buy our first Tower. I wanted to build a city on an island but ended up with "a peninsula" all in all not a bad choice as time would prove.
How did you expand your city from being merely a couple of houses to nearly sixty today?
	I would say by lots recruiting and presenting the concept of a city for all. That is all I did. I offered travelors a home in RD city. Everyone who knows me knows that I always welcome travelors and offer them residence in RD city. Thats my legacy, if there is one. The City of Dragons is "your" City, if you wish it.
What are some of the items in your city that were given to you by GM's?
	I have only 1 large item that was GM given, that is the Grand Pavillion. After the Red Dragons were featured in Inquest Gamers Magazine we got our request approved for blessing.
In UO, would you categorize yourself as a person that role-plays or a person that engages in player to player combat? Why?
	I do not role-play. I take it for what it is. It's a great game and I don't need to fantasize that I'm living in the middle ages to enjoy it.
Before pre:UO:R, all new players seem to be attracted to the Red Dragon guild, why do you think so many people had interest in RD back then?
	In my opinion basic human nature is "good" and I am sure that many, many players out there feel that this is their style of play. There will always be the looter, the "smack talker" and of course the PK. I tried to keep a code for all RD members, basically to help others and to protect the innocent and display honor in-game. To give an example I'll tell you how the vicious war of 1998 between KF Knights of the Faith (Repo, Ashram Van Eyre, Arkon the Noble, Rude Dog, Joyce Brothers and others) and RD began. While minding my own business one day in the liche lord room a thief ran up to me and stole a brand new Silver Spear of Vanquishing. That alone is to be expected by a common thief. No crime there. As I was successfully killing the bastard a guilded member of KF (who previous to this was an honorable guild) ran up and somehow the spear of Vanq was passed to him. After killing the thief I looked in the corpse and realized that the other player, namely Ashram Van Eyre, (who was head of KF) had been working together with this thief. To me, this was simply intolerable. A guild had a reputation of either honor or dishonor in my world. KF had just participated in a dastardly act. What kind of guild who called themselves Knights of the Faith cheat, steal and lie? Not my kind of guild. KF was given two choices, return the spear or accept war. All negotiations failed and KF and RD went to war. It became a bad war. Tons of flaming and name calling on message boards, huge battles both at RD and in Vesper. I have no problem claiming that KF was a tough opponent but RD in the end won. Why? Because KF fell apart. Most members of KF got tired of dying in town while banking and so on. I was approached by Ashram and Arkon and KF undeclared the war technically awarding RD the victory. I took a screen shot of that memorable moment. In time Ashram, Arkon and repo became my friends and even joined RD for a while. Funny isn't it how things turn out.
Who are some accomplished pvpers today that got their start from Red Dragon city way back in the old days?
	I trained so many players when they were newbies I cannot even begin to name em. And I will not claim that RD made them what they are but just for fun I'll name some of the famous past RD members: DD of Writ (joined from his guild Writ of Fyre and Steal) later became known as Deathdealer) Repo (short stint in RD) Ashram Van Eyre (short stint in RD and I helped him become a Companion) Keldon (one of the leaders of GC who later joined RD) Aghan of EE (He quit UO and I currently have his account) Rude Dog (again, short stint but had a lot of fun with Rude) Alabaster of KFG (aka Grimfalcon, still in RD) O'malley (early days PK Good Guy well feared) Juda (also known as Nuke) Lady Jacqueline (an early pk who contributed a ton to build RD city) Mason Marand (still RD to this day but not in UO) The Columbian (currently EI) Ennbeekay (currently EI) Knight Nectar (former Imperial Knight) Miles (has a pk known as Frosty, no longer a friend) Eightball (later turned evil) The Plague (yep, the brown guy who talks smack. He even created a character in my honor named RD-Pirate. Then he became my enemy. shrug go figure. He says he bought UO cause of the inquest story about me and "was" a friend for about a year) Diana (Head of KFG) She was very close friend and led the RD Ladies Division for 1 full year. She also had a 2story at RD which I provided for her. Paul Atreides (Crime Boss, Paul was in an enemy guild when I met him, his name was L'Kbreth and he was in GC, he quit GC and stayed in RD for about a year) Mythagriel (former IB member and later GC) King Mendenbar (the original tamer, he later quit UO and gave me his account) Coeus (still around I believe) Malevolent (he's a red but fights with honor) Nightwolf (my son who now plays King Mendenbar) Joyce Brothers (need I say more) Van Sama (old player with some history on LS now quit UO) Beast II - still a friend but needs an ass-kicking now and then :) Kinnarah (was RD Ardos back then, now with COP) Poopy Diapers (he was incognito in our Chaos guild) Dr Doolittle (Tamer) Gold (seems to have quit WE and quit UO but he was long time RD) Bog (unfortunately, was hacked and quit UO) ProQuo (writes for UO Powergamers.com) Lady Sutanith (CTK GM and close friend) Ontuu (aka Vakabiel, owns clanreddragon.com) Vichy (owns reddragons.com) Nalbray (former KF) Arslan (a.k.a. FUBAR. He got RD Arcanon's old vet account) Martin Longbow (RD for 2 full years then quit UO but very accomplished fighter) Asheron Phoenix (again this is The Plagues character) Issurai (plays from Indonesia, built Kingdom of Lumiere) Pipleline (currently EE) Rodack One Eyed (still a friend of RD but I rarely see him) Ghost Panther (would kill anyone, anytime if they messed with RD, was in deep stat loss) Vecknon (quit UO I believe, was head of CC now known as Black Talons) Xrazy Eyeball (I introduced him to UO) HumVee (on his tamer Flying Chick) Garreth (one of the fastest players on LS for a long time, 2 ping!) Akira (aka Tom Hanks, still a good friend) Glamdring (aka Orcrist, was the boss to all Shard Senior Counselors for OSI. He runs RD Museum and is the Shard's foremost Curator. Technically he did not join RD guild however he joined RD City. There are more but I can't remember all the big guns of LS who once wore RD above their head.
Many people give credit to you for being one of a very few that likes to help new players adapt to the game, is it important to you to help these new players?
	Well I am a father in a UO Family. My own kids needed help, their friends wanted to join UO and they needed help, before I knew it I had Camp Ultima going on at my home with 8 computers and 8 kids on the internet yelling UO stuff across the room to one another.
Is their any RD moment that sticks out to be your most memorable moment?
	Thats simple, the night I was told by Senior Counselor Sonya (Lady Kirah on LS) "be at RD city at 8pm". GM Ironwill showed up to build our pavilion. He started out with a little 8x8 park thing. I humbly asked if he could kinda "stretch it out?" He did and the pavilion was created much larger then originally planned.
Is their any moment outside of Red Dragon city that sticks out to be your most memorable moment?
	When RD O'malley pulled together 3 Capture the Flag war's with GC (Guardians' chosen) around 1998/1999. We had 20 players, they had 20 players. We had the flag (a book on a certain player that couldnt move or we'd be disqualified) It would begin at a certain time and last 3 hours and the winner was either the defenders or the aggressors. Whoever had the "book" or killed all the enemies after it started was the victor. GC usually won. They had better connections and they always snuck in a few extra fighters. But it was fun as hell.
Lets squash all rumors here, how were you able to get a city well over millions and millions of gold?
	Lots of recruiting, and lots of people helping. For example Juda and Jacqueline alone gave me close to 10 million when they left UO. Aghan about 4 million. King Mendenbar about 3 million. Martin Longbow an account with about 2 million. The list goes on. RD city was not built by me, it was built by many, many devoted players who believed in what we stood for and what we stand for today.
You are a Redkiller, that's what your name implies, do you miss the days were their was a red in every crossroads, in Buc's Den, and in popular hangouts?
	"Miss" the days? I see pk's every day at RD. Several just ran by as I was typing this.
What duel would you consider in being your most memorable, why?
	The original Bluette had a character that he was very proud of. I can't remember the name offhand. One day he pk'd my son's character in Shame. I was watching this from behind my sons computer chair. Bluette began boasting he could kill "any 2 RD any time" with just himself. When I saw this I told my son "have him meet you at Silk's Tavern right now" I got on my Dexer-Spear fighter. I entered the arena 2 RD with just bluette's character. My son totally froze up, amazingly bad timing. I fought bluettes' character for 20 mins 1 on 1. In the end he died and was humiliated in front of all his friends. In those days Silks was the hang out for all the punks on the shard. They all watched him get smacked. I enjoyed that. After the duel I was on another character and I saw bluette again, he said "man I just got owned by an RD" heheh He didn't know it was me who just "owned" him.
What was your favorite dungeon to hang out pre Uo:R, what about today?
	I never hang out in dungeons. I always fought people not monstors.
What do you think is the most over rated skill in the game? What about the most underrated skill? Why?
	I just build mage fighters and Dex fighters. A few tamers. I don't fish, mine, tailor, cook, bard, lockpick, treasure hunt or anything else not related to warfare. They are all fine professions but I am a war lord, I just fight.
What makes RD city different from other player run cities, and do you think RD city still is the most popular city in Lake Superior?
	RD city is a hotbed of activity. Usually some form of fighting is always to be found. Factions, PK's attacking, or just sparring and dueling. Always someone around.
Trammel. What are your thoughts on it and why didn't you move your city their like so many player run cities?
	Actually I had plans to build RD again in trammel. I placed 2 castles and 1 keep. After experimenting with trammel we all decided it was not for us. I sold my castles and keep and never went back. I'm glad for one thing about trammel, 4/5th's of all players moved. So, Felucia has less lag.
No more blessed items, no more GM run events, Trammel, what would be the last blow to player run cities in Felucca like yours?
	My city was famous for the RD training academy and tourism. Both are ruined by the creation of trammel. Newbies are automatically generated in Trammel now. That took half my cities life away right there. Tourism is down cause all the "tourists" are in trammel and are afraid to come to Felucia for fear of the dreaded PK.
You were interviewed by Inquest magazine, a very popular magazine when it came to magic cards, etc, how did that interview come about and what was your initial reaction when you saw your city featured in a nation wide magazine?
	The interview came about because I advertised on Ebay and made some waves in the internet gaming world. I was the first or second person to sell on ebay something very expensive from Ultima Online. It was RD's old Castle around 1998 I think. Because the bidding went up to one thousand five hundred dollars 2 magazine editors took notice. One was Time Magazine and the other was Inquest Gamer. Time opted to interview another UO player but Inquest stuck with me.
Do you think the interview with Inquest opened the eyes to many people on Lake Superior about your city?
	To this day people say "are you the Redkiller from Inquest" and "I bought UO cause of you!" I'd say "yes", many people know of RD city because of Inquest Gamer
Is their any event that you have thrown that didn't go as you wanted it to? What went wrong?
	Every event ever done at RD city was plagued with lag. Also severe line of sight problems for the crowds to see what is spoken by the speaker. We couldnt hold auctions due to the inability of players to see. Comm crystals didn't do the job. Events became nightmares.
Around what time do you think that RD was at its prime and why?
	Before Trammel. RD was the "trammel" of Felucia. We offered a haven for anyone seeking shelter and training and just plain friendship.
You have many enemies and many allies, what would you like your enemies to know about you that they might not?
	In the word's of Kevin Costner playing Elliot Ness in the Untouchables "Never stop fighting till the fight is done".
In July 2001, you guys will be celebrating your 5 year anniversary in the world of games, what has been the biggest difference about your clan from 1996 to now?
	Honestly? Not much has changed. Games are for fun and everyone likes to have fun. RD was created for team spirit and camraderie. We still have that. Thats what it's all about.
What can players expect in RD in the month of July? Will there be any surprises or any events?
	July is our anniversary but all things depend on the members who can help out. Summer is here and a lot of players go on vacation.
Did you ever except that Red Dragons would last this long, since most guild/clans only last from a month to about a year.
	Yes I did expect it to last. I haven't tired of Ultima and I hope to lead RD into many more years of fun gameplay.
Who recently sold your account , why did you decide to sell your account?
	That is a rumor, I still have my original account and my first created character. There is a fake RD Redkiller running around LS. He is Greem Mako I'm told, who is an old enemy of mine. His guild is TOS not RD.
Do you regret selling your account?
	Never sold my account.
What would you like see back in today's Ultima Online that is currently not here?
	There is too much to list but I get very irritated casting a spell and having my entire screen rubber band back and forth while the spell processes. I would like to see "running while casting" come back to Felucia.
What is the future for Redkiller in Ultima Online? If you decided to leave UO, will you be going to games such as Shadowbane, AO, etc?
	At this time I have no plans on leaving UO.
Redkiller has been describe as either the most beloved man, or the most hated man, in your own words, what is the legacy of Redkiller?
	I hope to be remembered as the person who inspired others to become all that they wished to be in UO.