I've tried to put some of the most pertinent information from the forums in one place here. There is a wealth of specific information in forums, but it can sometimes be hard to find using the search function. I'll continue to grow this as things come up, and if anyone has anything to add, please do so.

NEW: User Interface Guide
NEW: Beginners Guide in our Wiki
In game commands: Type "[helpinfo" in your game window.

Tips from Players:

• Subject: Tips & Tricks (or Random things I've learned...) from Mikel123
• Subject: Compilation of Skill Guides by Krats
• Subject: How to "not die" by properly preparing yourself. by MatronDeWinter

Era specific Combat and Magery info

• Magery and Weapon Combat Damage and calcs

Housing information, security, and placement guidelines:

• Subject: Guide : Housing
• Guide: Ultima Online:T2A House Security 101 by hiicha
• You can sell back a deed to the Real Estate Broker for 100% of the price you paid.

Murder System:

• Subject: Guide: Murder System and Stat Loss
• We do have stat loss if you have more than 5 short term counts.
• If you kill someone who later becomes disconnected of the shard restarts before they report you, you may be reported for murder when they log back in. This is often the source of "unexpected" murder counts.
• You receive the count when the murder is reported, so it's possible that you may go red at a very inconvenient time, such as when you are in town.

Reputation

• Information on criminal status, guards, etc can be found here: Guards and Town
• UO Reputation FAQ

Skill gain

• Most skills are difficulty based.
• Gains in melee skills and meditation can be confusing to new players because you do not gain if you are using the skills when you have either no chance of failure, or no chance of success.
• Subject: Guide : Meditation
• Subject: meditation stuck
• Combat skill gains are much slower when fighting players

Third Party programs

• Only Razor is allowed to script in game actions.
• All other programs of this type are not allowed at all. This will be harshly enforced

Mining, Lumberjacking, Fishing, Etc.

• You may not gather resources unattended at all.
• You must be in the vicinity of your PC and checking on it regularly.
• Unattended fishing is allowed only from shore.
• This is another very harshly enforced rule, and violation of this is bannable.

Tips from players on getting scammed, and stolen from

• Subject: Guide: Securing your Pack from Thieves
• Subject: GUIDE: How to not get scammed.

Client Problems

Here are some issues, especially in Vista which can cause client issues.

• In-game music may crash the client in Vista
• Auto-Death-Screenshot feature may cause immense lag when someone dies if your hard drive is fragmented.
• Hard drive fragmentation can cause lag
• Wireless network connection can cause lag
• Disable: "Use smart CPU reduction" especially in Vista.
• Here's a few other threads that may help with client issues:
  
  • Subject: FAQ: Client/Installation Problems/Issues
  • Subject: Can't Bank or trade with vendors. NPC's don't listen to me!
  • Subject: My lag issue, need some help.

Many UO:R and later era Features are out of the T2A era and are not supported here

• Lumber-jacking and Arms Lore do not give a combat damage bonus.
• There is no stun punch, or disarm
• Poisoning is a crafting skill, it's only usefulness on the field is the ability to re-poison your weapon.
• Wrestling will help prevent you from getting hit while you are casting a spell. There is no "Defensive Wrestling" involving anatomy
• Much specific skill info can be sound in our Wiki

You're on your own:

• We will not move you if you are not actually physically stuck in the map. If you become stranded on an island or elsewhere you may need to petition for help from another player.
• Our harassment policies are here: Subject: Harassment Policies
• We will not get involved in player disputes unless taken to an extreme.
• We can not tell you who killed you, who looted your house, or give out the online status of another player
• We do not give any equipment stats or skills to any player ever, nor will we "adjust" murder counts.
• Staff on Second Age do not play. Our staff are very professional, and there is no favoritism here.
• Keep your account secure: Subject: Account Security, Deletion and Hacking
• If you share your account information with others, your account may be held responsible if rules such as our "Unattended resource gathering" policies are broken.

General Shard Rules are here:

Subject: Shard Rules and other information

• You may have three accounts per person. Accounts should not be "shared"

Communicating with other players:

We do not have an ingame messaging feature. Many players use IRC and Ventrillo

• Subject: Join IRC! and IRC Rules
• Subject: Team Speak Server
• Subject: UOSA public ventrillo host
• Pre-6.x clients support the ingame chat feature, press <CTRL>T to open

Hope this helps!

What about in-game chat? (Alt-T, or use options to "open"-"chat")

Just gotta say - very very nice, simple and clear guide Derrick. I'm sure this will help a lot of new players, so make sure to put a link to this post in gigantic bold text in the Guides or Downloads section of the main site. I think if this had been posted at the top of every forum a year and a half ago, there would be about half as many posts on the forums.

http://my.uosecondage.com/players.aspx

Don't forget about runebooks not being blessed, thats prob the most commonly asked question.