So, to post it here, after the IRC discussion: Blessed or newbiefied runebooks are essential, in my oppinion, tho I understand your mantra of "no permanent items". My Idea does both, give players runebooks and motivate people to actively play factions. You can add an item: Runebook Bless Deed. This item can be bought for e.g. 5000 silver (yes that high, maybe 3000, but well - high). Alternatively you can sell a blessed runebook for the said amount of silver. The bless will wear off after three weeks, just like it happens with faction blessed armor and weapons. I prefer the deed way, because you can just "refresh" the bless and don´t have to hassle with sorting or re-marking runes. Of course the runebooks should be quite an achievement to get. Requirements, to place a special faction vendor could be: Control over at least 6/8 towns. This will encourage players to actually defend or raid bases, I personally think its all about world pvp nowadays and I for one LOVED raiding. To buy the runebooks you would need at least 10-15 killpoints. This way people can´t just "jump on the bandwaggon" of a faction that currently controls towns. On leaving a faction, all blessed runebooks become regular runebooks. Blessed books should have a timer on them to see how long they are still blessed (days, not minutes) This is just my 2 cents, I hope you like that and we can get this implemented in some sort of way, feel free to discuss with me here or on IRC.
To be perfectly honest, I stopped reading when you said Factions. No one should be enticed, goaded or urged to get involved in Factions. Nor should there be any benefit to Factions other than things that are useful to Faction play, specifically. Colored items is not having a negative impact on anyone other than aesthetic appeal. Allowing runebooks to be blessed by Faction players is unfair to players who do not want to PvP at all. There are many people who play Ultima Online for the VAST amount of things to do aside from PvP. I would never want something that can give me an upper hand (ability to recall out with ease once Resurrected), if it is not available to all. The only idea I've heard so far that is sound, in regards to Blessed runebooks, is as a Veteran reward and even then, very limited (one per account, non-transferrable). This will only give an advantage to long time players, who by that time, have probably replaced dozens of runebooks. As it stands, runebooks are one of the few cherries a PK/PvPer can find on the corpse of his victim. I don't think that should be removed and honestly if asked, would prefer they not be considered for blessing for any circumstance. My reasoning is: Runebooks are easy to acquire (500gp), easy to replicate (16 Marks, + runes = negligible cost/time), and can be left in the safety of your bank box. If we can't get stranded by PKs somewhere, it's just not Ultima Online. That is my opinion and it is not likely to change. I will accept a blessed runebook as a Veteran reward, but if there's ever a vote, blessed runebooks will not get my vote.
how about just making it blessed for good and anyone can use it but u can only get it by farming alot of silver and buying from a faction scribe.
