Three things are required and one is optional. The two client pieces confuse everybody the first time, so read the right-hand column: Ultima Online supplies the artwork, and ClassicUO is the program that actually runs.
| What | Where | What it's for |
|---|---|---|
| Tailscale | tailscale.com/download | The private network the shard lives on. Without this, nothing else will connect — not even from inside the house. Windows, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android and Linux. |
| Ultima Online Classic Client | Ask the Game Master first — otherwise uo.com | The actual game artwork, maps and sounds. Ask the Game Master for our copy rather than hunting for it — everybody's data files need to match, and you'll be sent the exact installer we use. |
| ClassicUO | github.com/ClassicUO/ClassicUO | The program you'll actually launch. It reads the artwork from the install above and draws the game. Free, open source, and far better behaved than the original launcher. |
| Razor (optional) | github.com/markdwags/Razor | The assistant everybody uses: organiser bags, one-key bandages, friend lists, macros. Not required to play. Add it once the game is running, never before. |
Do them in order. Most setup problems are really step one having been skipped or signed into the wrong account.
Install Tailscale and sign in using the invite the Game Master sends you. Accept the invite before installing if you can — it makes the sign-in step obvious. When it's working, Tailscale will list the family's machines in your device list — the Game Master will tell you which one is the shard. If you can't see any of them, stop here and ask; the rest of this page cannot work yet.
Run the Classic Client installer and let it finish. You are installing it for the files, not to play from it — you will never launch this one. Remember the folder it installs into, because step four asks for it. On Windows that's usually somewhere under Program Files (x86).
Download the release for your computer and unzip it anywhere you like — your desktop is fine. There is no installer. Inside you'll find the program to run: ClassicUO.exe on Windows. Launch it once and it will ask you where everything is, which is exactly what step four answers.
In ClassicUO's launcher, fill in the four settings the Game Master gives you — the address, the port, the client version and the folder from step two. The table below explains what each one is. Then type any username and password you like. You are not signing up for anything; the shard creates your account the first time you connect. Write down what you chose.
Connect, pick a character, and you're in Britannia. Don't agonise over the character creation screen — skills can all be retrained and you can make more characters later. If you'd like to know what you're aiming at first, take the destiny quiz or read a profession guide.
The actual address of our shard is not printed on this page, and that's deliberate — this is a public website, and the address isn't. Ask the Game Master and you'll be given the four values below directly.
| Setting | Where it comes from | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Server address | from the Game Master | An address on the family network, not a public one. You'll be given either a number or a name — either works, type whichever you're sent. |
| Port | from the Game Master | One number, the same for everybody. Set it once and never touch it again. |
| Client version | from the Game Master | What ClassicUO reports to the shard. The launcher may guess, and its guess is often wrong — use the one you're given. |
| Ultima Online directory | your own computer | Wherever step two put the Classic Client. This is the one value nobody can tell you — it's a folder on your machine. |
| Username & password | you invent them | Your account is created automatically the first time you connect. Pick something you'll remember — nobody can look it up for you afterwards. |
You can make five accounts — and because everyone connects over the family network, that's counted per device rather than per household, so your five are yours alone. In practice the limit never bites. One account holds several characters anyway, which is the tidier way to do it.
Razor is optional and it is the last thing you set up, once you can already log in without it. It installs as a plugin that ClassicUO launches for you: unzip Razor into ClassicUO's Data/Plugins/Razor folder, then add Data/Plugins/Razor/Razor.exe to the plugins list in ClassicUO's settings. Ask the Game Master which version we're on, so yours matches everybody else's.
If anything goes wrong after adding it, remove the plugin line and confirm you can still log in plainly. That one test separates a Razor problem from a shard problem and saves an evening of guessing.
This is the one that catches everybody. The shard listens only on the family network address, so sitting on the same wifi as the server machine does not help. Tailscale must be connected, on whatever device you're playing from, every time. Check for its icon before you blame anything else.
Almost always a typo, because new accounts are created silently on first connect — so a mistyped username doesn't fail, it quietly makes a second account with an empty character list. If your characters have vanished, you're probably logged into a near-miss of your own name. Check the spelling before panicking.
It runs on a computer in the house, so it isn't up every hour of the day. If Tailscale is connected and the shard's machine is visible in your device list but the client sits there timing out, the server itself may simply be off. Ask the Game Master rather than reinstalling anything.
If the client version doesn't match what the shard expects, you usually get kicked at or just after the login screen rather than a helpful message. Set it by hand to the version the Game Master gave you — don't trust the launcher's guess — and try again before assuming anything else is broken.
You can set a new password while logged in instead of asking anybody to reset it for you. Passwords are stored encrypted, which also means nobody — including the Game Master — can read yours back to you if you forget it.