Am I supposed to bury the moonstones I get in the circle of stones near the town that they are associated with?

I don't really know what I'm supposed to do with these, and no one really told me anything about them.

Also, with the moon orb, how are you supposed to figure out that throwing it in the 3x3 grid around you in different areas brings you to different places? Does a character in the game or book or something ever explain how this functions? Or are you supposed to figure it out on your own. I never would have thought that throwing it in different places around where I am standing would bring me to different locations...

No, you're not supposed to bury the moonstones. (You can, but there isn't much point, seeing as it's much easier to just use the Orb of Moons to warp to where you need to go.) Rather, you should hold on to them, as they are required to beat the game. (I believe someone will tell you later what you need to do with them.)

The manual actually does mention that moongates appear where moonstones were buried.

With the Orb of Moons:
* The manual mentions that Lord British used the orb, so maybe he might say something about it?
* The Super NES version's manual actually has a chart, on page 27 (at least on the copy I found on the internet), that shows you the 3x3 grid and what warps where.

(There is precedent for the manual having some useful clues. For example, Ultima 4 has a spell, Undead, whose reagents are not listed on the quick reference chart, and which nobody in the game tells you about; however, the manual has enough clues for the player to figure it out.)

In any case, the manual is likely worth a read, as it contains some useful nuggets of information, as well as quite a bit of lore. (Remember when games came with manuals? Well, it appears the Ultima developers actually put some effort into them back in the day.)

Checking a bit more:
* When I refer to the "manual", I'm referring to the Ultima 6 Compendium, which is in the lorebooks download. The orb is mentioned on page 21 (which is page 13 in the PDF, due to the way the PDF has 2 of the original pages on each page).

I believe the cluebooks and interview are the only contents that were not included with the original release; hence, the player could reasonably be expected to have access to everything else that appears in the extras.

By the way, while I'm talking about extras, the GOG version of Martian Dreams comes with some design documents that cover the engine used in Ultima 6, since they share the same engine (as does Savage Empire).

Getting the moonstones themselves was a big secret in the game. You can use them as shortcuts to different areas in the game that you might want to revisit time and time again. But honestly their current locations are more useful than most other places.

I remember one of my friends using one in Destard so that he could go back and kill Dragons whenever he felt like it. That was a good place to grind. When you ask LB about the Orb, he responds with "To open a gate, use the stone and carefully position it a few feet from thee. Thou wilt discover that the placement is the key. In the proper positions, the stone canst conjure gates to take thee to numerous destinations."

Pretty much the entire game depends on you to read each and every line of text when you converse with people in the game in order to figure out small nuances. Figuring out how to get the thief belt on your own was far more difficult, IMO.

Thanks for all the responses!

I'm actually playing the SNES version. It's great to kick back on the couch and play this game, I had no idea that the SNES version was pretty much exactly the same as the PC version except for the censorship of wine and blood. I've been using the my manuals from the GOG version... I guess I should track down the SNES manual online. I only bought the SNES cartridge... no box or manual.

It's also one of the smoothest scrolling top-down games I've ever played. I'm constantly amazed at how smooth this thing scrolls!

(I played the PC version at release and have forgotten everything).

Anyone have any tips for playing the SNES version?

One thing I did notice is that according to a walkthrough the crazy mage in Skara Brae is supposed to tell me I need to wait for the moons to be black to get to the shrine of spirituality. I never got an option to ask him about shrines, and none of his dialog said anything about the shrine.

Someone mentioned "leaving the moon stones where they are". What does this mean? I get the moonstones from the shrines... are you suggesting I leave them on the shrines?

What you should do is take the moonstones and leave them in your inventory until you actually need to use them for the plot.

Some other differences that I am aware of:
* PC version lets you start combat and use combat actions any time, while the SNES version does not. In particular, this means that you can't attack non-hostile characters or creatures in the SNES version. (This does affect one part of the speedrun; in the PC version you kill an innocent NPC for a rune, but in the SNES version that's not an option.)
* There are fewer spells available in the SNES version. Most of the omitted spells are either useless or only useful for exploits, but I note that the Enchant spell is one of the missing spells. (Note that the one spell omitted from the PC version's reference card is not present on SNES.)
* During battle, the game displays damage amounts in the SNES version, but not the PC version. (This is one respect in which the SNES version is superior.)
* The SNES version has a larger viewport (in the PC version, you can only see in a window, as the right side and bottom of the screen are covered by the UI). Also, the PC version doesn't have smooth scrolling; rather, when you move the display immediately changes to the new location without scrolling.
* There's at least one enemy type that's absent in the SNES version (though it seems the randomizer has an option to make that enemy appear).
* Days and nights don't last as long in the SNES version (in other words, time passes faster in the SNES version).
* Wind is one mechanic that's present in the PC version but not the SNES version (notably affects one particular late-game mode of transportation).

On the other hand, the graphics are basically the same between versions, and the music was faithfully ported to the SNES sound chip (unlike the NES Ultima games, where the music was changed completely for whatever reason).

I also think the graphics look better in the SNES version. It might just be a better palette. I like that the roads and dirt are brown now instead of red.

Also, I read that the NPC dialog was truncated in the SNES version to fit on the cart.

Are there any other examples of vital information that was omitted from dialog like the one I mentioned earlier (the mage in Skara Brae does not tell you about the shrine of spirituality)

Oh man, my old brain mixed up the games! lol, I thought you were referring to Ultima 5, not Ultima 6. In Ultima 5, you could dig up moonstones and bury them to relocate moongates.

OK, now that you've refreshed my recollection, yes, now I remember. After you free a shrine in Ultima 6 with a rune, you get the moonstone from the shrine. Keep them in your inventory (or store them in a chest or something, like the one in LB's castle), or just leave them on the shrine. You'll need them much, much later. But you won't know you'll need them until an information event is triggered. Interesting tidbit about Horance. I never played the SNES version. I think in Ultima 6 on the PC I always asked everyone in town about "rune" "mantra" "shrine," etc., after first learning about them in Britain. I wonder if the information might be in a book perhaps? But can't you also reach the Shrine of Spirituality by using the orb of the moons? If so, I'm not sure why you would need to figure out how to reach the Shrine of Spirituality in a different manner?

Unfortunately, you can't just do this in Ultima 6 SNES, or in Ultima 4 SMS (which does something similar with the dialog system). Except for a few basic terms like "NAME", "JOB", and (of course) "BYE", you can only ask someone about something if someone has suggested you do that, of if it's come up in conversation with that character.

(Ultima 5 NES is probably the same way, but as that version is kuso garbage, I haven't attempted to play that game to find out. (With that said, Ultima 5 NES is the only console port that isn't worth playing; every other one has at least something to offer.))