Lord British Presents “Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues” (Updated)

Well, now we know what the Lord British Presents website was counting down to. Richard Garriott and Portalarium have announced this morning that Lord British will be returning to his RPG gaming roots with Shroud of the Avatar, a new series of PC games being developed with the Unity engine that has been so popular with Kickstarted RPG projects of late.

Here’s the livestream, from Rooster Teeth:

The First Age of Update: And since that’s done, here’s the Kickstarter pitch video:

Moreover, a Kickstarter campaign for the first episode in the Shroud of the Avatar series, entitled Forsaken Virtues, has gone live…and yes, a cloth map is part of the reward scheme for the campaign. There’s also a dedicated Shroud of the Avatar website!

Here’s the info sheet that the Ultima Codex was provided by David Swofford, Portalarium’s PR man:

Legendary and award winning game designer Richard Garriott returns to his fantasy RPG roots with Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues. Shroud of the Avatar is the first installment of Garriott’s new vision of role playing games and represents the reinvention of the classic, fantasy RPG, which he pioneered in the early 1980s with the classic Ultima series of games.

Using state-of-the-art tools and technology, the game will focus on what made his seminal Ultima series great. Players will be introduced to the game, but then discover their own story. There is an overarching story woven into the player experience, and players may choose to follow the life of the adventurer or, if they prefer, focus on exploration and discovery. Players may even choose the life of a homesteader, either safely within the settled lands or on the dangerous but potentially lucrative frontier. The world is full of opportunities and challenges!

From familiar psychological profiling used to create your character to organically derived game response to player behavior, fundamental virtues and consequence of actions play a huge role in Shroud of the Avatar. Players will be free to choose their path, but must then live with the consequences of their actions.

Features

  • Legendary game designer and creator of the Ultima series of games, Richard Garriott makes his triumphant return to fantasy RPG games
  • Fully interactive virtual world
  • Richard Garriott hallmarks: character system without classes, virtue system and player actions that have consequences
  • Player housing
  • Crafting system that avoids busy work; craft as a hobby or as a career
  • Meaningful PvP that also minimizes griefing
  • Scene-based encounters – replayable scenes that may be played solo or shared with others
  • A Kickstarter campaign to raise funding directly from the people who want to play the game and give input on its features and design

Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues
From – Portalarium
Release date – TBD
Platform – Digital download to PC
Play Mode – Solo with multiplayer options
Distribution – Digital (service/partner TBA)
Websitehttp://www.shroudoftheavatar.com

We’ve set up a new Shroud of the Avatar subdomain to serve as a portal for news about the game. Over the next little while, we’ll be publishing all manner of content there that was supplied to us by Portalarium, so do keep checking in!

First it was Chris Roberts, and now Richard Garriott has returned to his PC gaming roots, with a multi-episode game that will finally feed that hunger that Ultima fans have been feeling for the last decade or two. Exciting times!

20 Responses

  1. Daniel says:

    Yeah!
    Can’t wait to get my hands on this =D

  2. T.J. Brumfield says:

    The graphics don’t quite seem on par with some of other Unity projects going on, but I don’t care personally. I’m backing the project and I’m excited. I’m just worried the graphics might turn off other potential backers/consumers.

  3. Ideal Dragon says:

    I’m definitely going to back this. I’m a little confused as to whether it’s an RPG, or a multiplayer thing, or an MMO-style thing, though.

    • T.J. Brumfield says:

      The web page and Kickstarter comments state that this isn’t an MMO and won’t have a subscription.

      You purchase a single player game that has some multiplayer components.

  4. sirklaus says:

    Yeah you’ll get a kind of “private shard” to play with your friends. Not real mmo with lots of unwanted players :p

  5. cor2879 says:

    I’m a backer.

    This is the most exciting news about “Ultima” to arise since, I dunno, some time in the late 90’s I’d say.

  6. AvatarAcid says:

    Love this. Hope it goes very well, he had near $96,000 by the end of the stream. I will kickstart this for sure in just a sec.

    Really worried about the “private shard” kid of deal though. Could this perhaps mean that there will be a Dedicated Server out there somewhere? Could the UO team run a UO Shroud of the Avatar server for example to maximize the amount of players we could get into one shard?

    • T.J. Brumfield says:

      In the interview here on the site, he said there is no central server with 10,000 people online at once on the same map.

      You’re basically sharing a single-player game with your real life friends.

      And like the private shards some UO fans ran, I’m sure the community could have a shared friends list to do something similar with SotA.

  7. Sergorn says:

    Just backed this for 150$

    This looks awesome, I’m just hoping the Collector will have a proper BOX too 😛

  8. Natreg says:

    I’m not sure… it feels a bit random and more multiplayer oriented than I would like. Random quests can be fun at first but they can become tedious really fast.

    I was hoping on something more like a single player game with co-op than this. This seems more like a single player game with multiplayer gameplay which in the end will hurt the story it could have.

    It’s like LB is doing the same concept as Chris Roberts with Star Citizen, but that kind of gameplay works in my opinion better for a Wing Commander kind of game than for an Ultima kind of game.

    I haven’t backed the project yet, I think I’ll wait until I hear a bit more.

  9. Hemlock says:

    Just checked out Shroud Of The Avatar. Looks great. I’m going to back it. I am holding out to play this now.

  10. agentorangeguy says:

    Wow. Just, wow. I’m just floored at this idea. Is it just me, or does that map look somewhat familiar? Is it supposed to be one of the “lost continents”?

  11. ZephaniahGrey says:

    I was actually comparing the puzzle pieces to the old maps before the reveal. XD I was wrong, but not by a lot I guess. I admit that the info on the Kickstarter page left me with a little trepidation about the game, but hearing Garriott talk about it really makes me want to believe this will be something amazing, and maybe even bring back some of that wide-eyed wonder the Ultimas gave me as a kid. Maybe he just has a silver tongue, but after he said his piece, I was sold

  12. Dagur Dragon says:

    I’m actually shocked at how awesome Lord British’s new looks. I also can’t resist a cloth map 😛

  13. sentri says:

    Well … I was saving up for a new car but decided to become a Lord of the Manor ^^. What can I say, a life long dream is a life long dream.