Palidor12: Is it okay to take/steal items in Ultima 9 (and I don't mean in LB's castle)? I don't get any kind of message and none of the townspeople seem to care if I take their stuff! This seems like a marked departure from the earlier Ultimas.
Yes, taking/stealing items in Ultima 9 has no detrimental effect. There's something in the manual or one of the other documents that runs along the lines that you can assume anything you can take in the game world would either be offered to the Avatar or does not belong to anyone in the first place, so they at least attempt to explain/rationalize it, but I agree, it does feel a little off as compared to most of the rest of the series.