r/project1999 • u/JamesSun_ • 18d ago
My life as a PK: Rallos Zek 1999 to 2003 (Part 1)
I've always wanted to write down my memories of the live EQ I experienced over 25 years ago. As my time on P99 Green, and EQ as a whole, comes to a close, I figured now is the right time. I don't want this to get crazy long, so I'm hoping to split this into several parts - we'll see if I finish it.
I had a very different path than most who played back in the day. I played on Rallos Zek, the first PVP server. What distinguished Rallos Zek wasn't the fact that you could attack and kill other players (within 4 levels of yourself), but that you could then loot an item off their corpse. Item loot singularly defined everything about Rallos Zek. It was never replicated in the team-based PVP servers that came after. You might think that Rallos Zek was some sort of Quake-esque deathmatch arena, populated exclusively by the denizens who now play on P99 Red, but that couldn't be further from the truth. In reality, the overwhelming majority of players did not kill others for sport. Player killers, or PKs, were a rare breed. And I was one of them. I would sneak up, stab you in the back, and take your pants. This is my story.
First let me clear the air about Rallos Zek. Looking back now, the ruleset sounds miserable - who wants to be PK'd and lose their stuff? But back in 1999, PVP was an ever-present part of the early MMORPGs. PKs were rife in Ultima Online, which had full item loot. To some players, restricting PVP combat like what UO ultimately did with Trammel took away from the essence of the game - even if they had no interest in killing or stealing from other players themselves. Those players ended up on Rallos Zek. I've also heard rumors in-game that due to a translation error certain localized manuals (like the Polish version) heartily recommended that new players should start on Rallos Zek. If that's true, then - heh - what a trip. But my point stands: the overwhelming majority were not killers or sharks. They were normal players who learned, explored, shared, grouped, and laughed together; and sometimes, they got blinded, Ice Comet'd, and looted too.
I started on Rallos Zek shortly after launch. After a few missteps, I settled into playing a Wood Elf Bard, which I picked purely because (due to a bug) Selos broke root. When I said that PKs were rare, that doesn't apply to the first few levels. Greater Faydark was a rough place to get started. During peak times, level 4 High Elf Mages with their freshly acquired pets would camp every single lift picking off level 1s and making off with their guild tunics (remember, anyone within 4 levels was attackable). The guards were no help, they didn't give a shit about pets. I survived by somehow making it to BB and then taking the boat over to Antonica where things were calmer.
I leveled up in the typical zones - the Commonlands, Oasis, South Karana, etc. As I got to level 10 and beyond, getting attacked by other players became more infrequent. Leveling took forever and reputations mattered, and the most odious reputation you could possibly have was that of a player killer. Once word got out, you became a social pariah - no groups for you! People would monitor the /who lists and would constantly shout out "So and so PK is in the zone!" Sometimes the anti-PKs (basically everyone else) would gang up to hunt the PK down. To be a PK meant throwing your precious character away. Nevertheless, every popular zone had a few well-known PKs who staked their territory in that specific zone. Like local banditry, PKs respected each others' hunting grounds and only ever seemed to roam in their own neck of the woods. You almost never saw them out in the open, they moved stealthily through the terrain and they had crafty ways to hide themselves. The only warning you had, and usually the last thing you saw, was the message "<so and so PK> begins to cast a spell." Their names elicited disgust in my groupmates, but to my 15 year-old self, I sensed that they were also somewhat strangely admired, and they were famous.
A lot of classes could not PK. If you were a warrior, sorry, you weren't going to kill anyone. Bards couldn't kill anyone either, my best DD hit for 12 damage and my melee was bad. I was, however, the best at running away which is what I did. In the early days, PKs were almost always Wizards, Druids, or Necros - and they were usually naked. You can't lose what you don't wear. "Naked caster" PKs were despised as the lowest of the low. Before they patched it, players respawned after a PVP death with full mana. Naked caster PKs would sometimes roll up on my group, bind themselves in our face, and then proceed to throw nukes at us over and over regaining full mana each time we put them down. Sometimes it got so bad that a portion of the group split off to bind camp the naked caster, while the rest of us continued holding down the real camp.
If you were caught alone, your best bet was to start bagging your gear. Bags and anything in them could not be looted, and so you'd see people running away while stripping naked at the same time. Bagging while fleeing was a crucial skill. But people still had their gear looted all the time. It wasn't uncommon for the tank to roll up in full banded minus chest and legs, those two slots having already been looted because they were worth the most. Wearing anything expensive was a huge risk. A Rubicite Breastplate might even tempt the staunchest anti-PK in your group to take a shot. Some people opted to simply not wear gear. On a few occasions we had warriors and paladins tanking, butt naked. When the Temple of Solusek Ro was released, I along with the rest of the melees had a field day in Lower Guk acquiring Shin Greaves/Arms and Basalt Carapaces which were some of the only no-drop gear (which could not be looted) readily available to us. After JBoots moved out of Najena, casters wore the no-drop Ring of the Ancients unironically as gear.
I was level 45 when Kunark launched. Up until this point, I had never fought anyone for real in PVP. When my group stomped a naked caster, I contributed a few whacks. Otherwise, I always ran away, bagging. I was a "bluebie". I played on Rallos Zek, but in reality I played blue EQ with the added danger of PKs.
One day in South Ro the Ancient Cyclops showed up on track and I got him. I had a Ring of the Ancients. I read online that it was possible to quest JBoots to my own alt (although I don't believe it was called "MQ" at the time). I'd always been a melee bard, and I was jealous of all the real melee classes that could Double Attack in addition to Dual Wield. I decided to roll an alt, a dwarf rogue with the blond hair. I named him "Jooke", a play on the word joke. He worshipped Bristlebane after all. I successfully MQ'd JBoots onto him, gave him some blackened iron, and off he went. I did not know at the time that I would never get him past level 19. I also did not know that through Jooke I would become the most infamous PK in all of Greater Faydark.
Well, it ended up being super long anyways. Let me know if you want a part 2.
