Richard Garriott announces Shroud of the Avatar

Richard Garriott's "Ultimate RPG" has been revealed, a spiritual successor to the Ultima series titled Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues. It's currently seeking crowd-funding via Kickstarter.

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Richard Garriott's spiritual successor tot he Ultima series has finally gotten a name, and is well on its way to becoming fully crowd-funded. Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues is coming from Garriott's Austin-based game studio, Portalarium. It will be a digital PC title, with planned downloadable episodes to follow.

The announcement promises the ability to weave your own personal story into the overarching narrative--for example, you could be an adventurer on the frontier, a safe-and-sound homesteader, or an explorer. It also aims to "profile" you akin to the Ultima titles, and will then react to your behavior and decisions. When you make a choice, you'll have to live with the consequences.

The game is seeking crowd-funding on Kickstarter, and in only a few hours has raised nearly $150,000 of its $1 million goal. The official site answers some questions and solicits feedback.

"Shroud of the Avatar will include what I think are the keys to an ultimate role-playing experience," Garriott said in the announcement. "These important tenets include things like a fully interactive virtual world, deep original fiction with ethical parables such that players' choices are relevant, cultural histories and fully developed alternative languages and text. Also we want our players to have physical game components like cloth maps, fictional manuals and trinkets. These are all things that people came to expect in my earlier works and we plan on bringing them all back to create Shroud of the Avatar."

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  • reply
    March 8, 2013 10:00 AM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, Richard Garriott announces Shroud of the Avatar.

    Richard Garriott's "Ultimate RPG" has been revealed, a spiritual successor to the Ultima series titled Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues. It's currently seeking crowd-funding via Kickstarter.

    • reply
      March 8, 2013 10:53 AM

      No offense, but what's up with those early 2000 graphics??

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        March 8, 2013 11:03 AM

        Considering he hasn't made a game since the early 90's(?) that's pretty good!

        Probably the small team and that it's still in alpha, hopefully they polish it up a bit before release.

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          March 8, 2013 5:39 PM

          What?

          Lineage 2 - 2003
          City of Heroes - 2004
          City of Villains - 2005
          Tabula Rasa - 2007
          Ultimate Collector (Facebook game) 2012
          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Garriott#Games

          Also I really wish Tabula Rasa had been better. The closed beta was a lot of fun and I loved the premies / gameplay style; it just didn't have any polish at all.

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            March 13, 2013 11:18 AM

            Sometimes, I say stuff as if I'm being serious, but I'm not, this was one of those times, I shouldn't have added the end though, probably what threw you off.

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        March 8, 2013 4:34 PM

        They laid off their artists last year.

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        March 8, 2013 11:10 PM

        It's just a tech prototype, more like place holders apparently.

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      March 8, 2013 11:26 AM

      i backed it, with trepidation. im intrigued and I figure I can spend more on lunch so why the heck not?

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      March 8, 2013 2:22 PM

      Agreed. Backed, but with doubts. I only went for the $25 level. Too many other RPG kickstarters recently that I have much more faith in.

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      March 8, 2013 4:00 PM

      I am a humongous Ultima fan... but I am strangely unexcited by this. I will keep an eye on it. I think I'd be more excited by this if it was more Ultima VII and less UO.

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        March 8, 2013 4:47 PM

        the video doesn't really remind me of anything Ultima, which was really disappointing.

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          March 8, 2013 5:35 PM

          Yeah, it didn't really FEEL like Ultima... and it actually kind of looked like a decent Dungeon Siege mod. I don't know, I SHOULD be excited about new Ultima with Richard Garriot behind it (I feel like I've wanted this my whole life) but what they have so far isn't doing it for me.

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        March 8, 2013 8:59 PM

        The problem is that it looks like a weird mix of the two and not just focused on being one or the other.

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      March 8, 2013 5:44 PM

      ill pass on this one. ill pick it up when its released, no interest in playing the alpha of that game

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      March 8, 2013 8:58 PM

      He has my attention, but not my money yet. I'd like more details.

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      March 8, 2013 10:52 PM

      Consider me intrigued. Never played an Ultima game, but if this can capture the spirit of the originals I'll finally get to see what I missed.

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        March 9, 2013 12:43 AM

        Go find yourself an Ultima 7. DOOOOO EEEEEET!

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        March 9, 2013 1:11 AM

        Begin either with U7 or with the modern remakes of Ultima V and VI for Dungeon Siege, those should be the more accessible Ultima games around.

        Or if you're hardcore, try Ultima IV !

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      March 9, 2013 12:45 AM

      I need someone to remake carwars now

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        March 9, 2013 12:53 AM

        You mean Autoduel? That was actually a great game, with the mix of arcade and RPG. Roadwar 2000 (and Europa?) were great also, but more Turn Based Strategy.

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          March 9, 2013 12:56 AM

          Yah. Autoduel

          I used to play the actual car wars game. Not sure how or who ripped off whom. But it still needs to happen

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            March 9, 2013 1:02 AM

            Autoduel was Car Wars without the license, IIRC; it WAS supposed to be Car Wars, but much like GURPS/Fallout, the deal fell through.

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      March 9, 2013 12:56 AM

      Meh.

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      March 9, 2013 2:52 PM

      FUCK!! Why is it an MMO? After WoW, I never want to play an MMO... ever... again... !!

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