You can fight for money but don't steal food.   It can be bought in Moon-
  glow.   Look in the chambers of Lord British for the magic carpet.   The
  cities and shrines are almost the same as Ultima 4.   You can find people
  in every town who know the passwords to the dungeons.   You will need to
  get an item from Empath Abbey to climb the mountains before completing
  the game.
  Starting Off
  When first starting the game you will find yourself in a hut in the
  middle of a thick forest in the NW of Britannia. Before you leave this
  hut have a good look around, not only inside but outside.  Find the horse
  and talk to him. You should save your game before you venture out into
  the wilderness this will save you having to go through the stuff at the
  start again if you happen to get killed.  I recommend that the first
  place you visit is the Castle of Lord British.  Getting there should be
  simple since now you know where you are.  Just make your way East to the
  Dragon Spine Mountains and then follow them south until you find the way
  through.  This appears on your map as an plain brown area.  Save your
  game along the way incase you run into some monsters and get killed.
  Exploring and Mapping
  Again in this type of game accurate map making is very important, map
  everything, Towns, keeps, lighthouses and especially dungeons.  Mark in
  all doors, secret doors, traps and ways up or down.  And label things
  like Inns, taverns, Guilds, Apothecaries, pubs, shipwrights etc.  Some
  times it will be necessary to visit one place more than once so if a
  certain person tells you to get a piece of information from somewhere
  else then make note of where he or she was so you don't have to go
  searching again when you return.  Once you have found a Sextant (and
  there is one to be found) make a list of all the localities and their
  grid references, it will help.  You will notice that there are a lot of
  inscriptions or runes around the map.  Make an effort to translate all
  of them into English, you will need to know where some key locations are
  later in the game.
  Finding Your Party
  Unlike other Role Playing Games in Ultima you must find your party and
  not create it.  Since Ultima IV (Quest Of The Avatar) the rest of your
  party have gone on to live there own lives and do other things, you will
  come across them in your travels and you should allow them to join you
  once again.  If you are new to Ultima you of course won't know who I am
  talking about, when you come across them they will recognise you.  But I
  will give you a list of all of them and where to find them,
       Jana    - Secret passage under the town of Yew
       Mariah  - The Lycaeum
       Katrina - New Magincia
       Gefory  - Buccaneer's Den
       Dupre   - Bordermarch Keep
  You may only have six characters in your party at any one time so you
  must choose who you will have.
  Dungeons
  Some of the dungeons you will delve into are very intricate, accurate
  mapping is a must.  I don't find it necessary to map dungeon rooms, I
  just represent them as a square with an `R' in it.  If the room contains
  a way up or down I just put a little up or down arrow in the square.
  Some rooms will have secret panels that you must push or walk over in
  order to open up other parts of the room.  Sometimes you may have to
  throw something like an axe in order to activate a panel, or open a door.
  It's a good idea that when you have defeated all the monsters in the
  room to walk around a bit and push things in order to see if there are
  any secret passages.  A good guideline to follow is that if the word
  "Victory" doesn't appear when you have killed all the beasties there is
  something more to do.
  Combat
  Get into as much combat as you can.  The more experience points you have
  the more levels you will gain, and the stronger you will become.  What's
  different about the combat system used here is that the character who
  kills the monster gets the experience points, instead of everybody
  getting there share.  So try and give everybody there share of kills, so
  you won't have some characters falling behind in levels.  Having a mage
  that can cast spells from the 8th circle is a must, spells like Cone Of
  Energy really come in handy in the latter stages of the game.  Although
  getting to the 8th Circle takes a long time.  Don't keep weapons that are
  of no use, sell what you don't want.
  The Underworld
  The Underworld is a big place and you must go there a few times in order
  to recover certain artefacts. I always used a different save disc when I
  visited the Underworld, it's a very hard place to map and you will get a
  lot of combat practice.  Getting lost is very easy to accomplish, so take
  plenty of magic gems with you.  You will also notice that there isn't
  much light in the Underworld so make sure that you have plenty of torches
  and enough of the appropriate reagents to mix a lot of Vas Lor (Great
  light) spells.