UO Roleplay was suggested originally. I've been on their forums and have seen posts from R.Pete.G (guessing Arma) & Valiro and a guy named Joe Fern who was posting for GrD. Not sure how many active players it has but there is not that much player housing outside of "The Narrows" which is a player run town that you start out in. They list 1468 total players. 30 at once seemed a big deal in the forums.
Cove-UO Roleplay:
Skill Cap: 1000
Stat Cap: 225
Character Slots: 6
• There is a 2 account limit on UO Roleplay
• House decay is 14 days.
• Boat Decay is 14 days.
• Role-playing character names are required. If you character does not have an appropriate name their name will be change.
• 4 houses per account limit. In the town of Narrowhaven there is a limit of 1 house per player except for GM approved exceptions.
• Custom houses are allowed, however…
A. They may not use lava, ice, or other weird tiles
B. If they are ugly they will be removed
C. They must look like a real building
No Trammel
Last year I played on UO Secondage for awhile. It is based on T2A and is Very active. There also is no Tram, no custom housing, no stat on armor or weapons. but it is very crowded and there is little or no housing aviable around Cove, checked today but forgot to grab a screenie, skill gain is slow, bunnies are a challenge.
Since inception, the goal, vision and rationale of even creating this accurate T2A era shard has been very simple but unique:
"We aim to replicate the T2A era as best we can and within technical limitations as a whole.
We do not intend to ever change any aspect of normal game play to particularly favor any play style or to protect or further expose any players to the in-game risk that was a large part of this era.
We will especially not pull aspects of other eras into this one, even with an overwhelming demand of players.
We believe that "proper" game play can only be achieved by taking the era as a whole and accept it for what it was. Tampering with the era in hope of achieving balance is not something that we will do, nor do we believe is achievable across all play styles. Diversity of players and play styles is a necessity of a healthy shard. Every type of play depends on another, and this is why UO is absolutely the greatest MMORPG ever crafted.
With that said, we do still continue to strive to become more correct and true to the era. Player feedback and research is a big part of this process. We don't claim to have everything perfect yet, but we do continue to actively work towards that goal.
We recommend client version 5.0.8.3, but all client versions above 5.0.0.0. are supported. If you do not have your UO installation CDs, you can download a modern client from the downloads section, here. We have a guide on the forum, here, to assist you with downloading, installing, and connecting to Second Age.
"
Thats the only two freeshards I have checked out.