It
had been a long
hard battle and Rikara was exhausted. The home guard had fought well.
Driving back the Naga had become almost a weekly occurrence. It was
not uncommon for the Naga to attack more in the winter when their
traditional home becomes almost uninhabitable but this marked the
seventh week in a row they had tried to raze the village. Rikara was
not sure how much longer they could hold out without reinforcements.
The soldiers were getting tired and weary without much rest.

She
would have to
speak with the commander about returning back to the main city to
recruit more help. Which reminded her that she had a house in the
city; it would be nice to go home and relax for a bit. A luxury she
did not have in the field. This would give her a chance to see how
many new gowns her house maid had crafted for her and catch up on her
Alchemy, she was sure that at least one experiment would have been
ruined from over incubating. It really had been too long. Even
though they had only been fighting the Naga for seven weeks she had
been stationed here for the better part of the year. Yes she would
have to speak with the commander so that she could get some more
recruits and a hot bath.”

For
most MMOG's player
based housing is little more than another way to pass the time or
used just for those who like to role play. Runes of Magic manages to
take this to a step further; like they do most things, and give a
fair amount of actual game enhancements.

Facts

• You
  can get your house at
  any level one
• Houses
  can be accessed
  anywhere using the “home-sweet-home” rune
• Starter
  homes only come
  with one 20 slot chest
• Most
  items for your home
  seem to be purchased or earned
• Right
  from the interface
  menu you can change your style of home once you receive them
• The
  house maid or fairy
  allows you do change your house name, change your house password (for
  visiting guests), change your class, leave your house, and just get
  some general information about how to perform other tasks like
  arrange your furniture.

Overview

Some
have tried and won,
some have failed miserably, while others are just meh. However,
Runes of Magic has a very unique blend of fun and functionality with
their player based housing.

Runes
of Magic housing
offers the typical items to spruce up your house like beds, chairs,
room dividers, and the like. They also offer items that can help you
out in quite a few ways. These are the items that we are going to
spend most of our time focusing on and making sure you know all
about.

Bling
for your Crib

Runes
offers something I
have never seen in any MMOG that I have ever played. (for the sake of
complete disclosure I have only ever played 3 other games that
offered individual housing.) It offers items for your home that
actually enhance your character and gameplay rather than being purely
cosmetic. Below are a few of these item types that you won’t want
to overlook, even if you’re the type of player who typically isn’t
into the concept of home decorating in an MMOG.

Mannequins
– Offered in
a male and female variety these have a cool feature that is often
over looked as a game helper. You can have a specific set of armor
set up on one of these items and with a simple click you can
re-outfit your toon.

Chests
– Offered in a
few different varieties you can use this to store your personal stash
here. One thing I found extremely cool about his is you can allow
others into your home and give them access to said chests. This way
if you have somebody who is doing some major crafting or perhaps you
have a family member who is just starting out they can gain access to
all the goodies you have.

Enhancement
Items –
First of all logging off in your house gives you a “rested” bonus
to both your XP and your TP. There are other games that offer this
kind of bonus, however no other game that I am aware of allows you
to increase the level of bonus you receive. According to some of the
information I have seen on the forums the amount of “stuff” it
takes to acquire an item that gives you said bonus is barely worth
the effort. While this may be true for your first character who
wouldn’t love a quicker leveling time the second time around?

Crafting
from home – So
you have spent hours collecting the mats and maxed out your
profession. You head to the nearest forge, loom, or whatever it is
that you need only to be hounded by several other players asking you
to craft something for them because they either don’t want to, or
sometimes cant, because they have another profession and cannot craft
the item themselves. This is where crafting in your home can become
a time saver. If you just need to get in and out and get your
crafting done this home option can be huge.

Summary

The
Runes of Magic team
is pumping out expansions right on time. Just like clockwork more and
more major content comes out. They have added an entire new race and
two new classes in less than a year of being live in the US. With
every patch comes one more cool thing such as recipes and items for
your home.

Future
expansions already
have plans for you to be able to expand your house to a second floor,
basements, maybe even other small rooms outside of the house. They
also have plans to allow you to share things with other characters as
you level up.

Bottom
line to me is that
Housing is done well, very well and it seems that its only going to
get better. Runes of Magic has proven that it not only can put
together a solid game but that what it does it does mostly well.

The
question is: How
much time do you spend on your house? Are there any incredibly cool
“must have” house items you think other players should know
about? Be sure to let us know in our Runes of Magic forums!