Name: Ryan Bruns
Character Name: Evil M
Shard: Hokuto
Ryan Bruns was one of Hokuto’s most feared and most notorious Player Killers, racking up hundreds of kills across the server. In Braving Britannia Bruns shares why he killed, how he trained to become a contender in the PvP scene, and the moral code under which he operated.
Trying to make a living in the game’s player-run economy, Bruns threw himself into mining, hoping to save up enough gold to purchase a home. After weeks of hard work, Bruns was finally able to purchase a housing deed that would allow him to build a home of his own, providing both additional storage and safety in the wilderness.
Empty land on which to place a house, even a small one, was difficult to find and often located in dangerous places in the wilds. But when a fellow adventurer offered Bruns a magic gate to where there would be space available, he happily hopped through, housing deed in hand.
“I was gated to Deceit Island where I was lured by a PK and killed,” Bruns said. “I watched the [house] deed fly off my body.”
In the process of trying to make his housing dreams come true, Bruns lost everything.
And that’s right about the time he broke bad.
“I decided that I would no longer be the kind player I was trying to be,” he said.
As Bruns saw it, the monotonous act of mining ore, smelting it into ingots, and selling them at the local bank wasn’t what paid. Killing and looting players on the other hand? That’s where fortunes could be made.
Read more of Ryan Bruns’s story in Braving Britannia: Tales of Life, Love, and Adventure in Ultima Online.
BRAVING BRITANNIA 