Listen in as Richard “Lord British” Garriott and renowned author and SotA Lead Story Designer Tracy Hickman discuss the story behind Shroud of the the Avatar.
You can find a full written summary and discussion of the Hangout on the Shroud of the Avatar forums following the broadcast.
Can we hear more about how will death and resurrection factor into the story?
will any of the creatures or places from the player stories be aoart of the game? Also how do RG and Tracy like the stories so far?
Challenge of creating different story paths that lead to the same end point?
I’m hoping they do not lead to the same end point.
As we enter our currently Nameless world at the beginning of Episode One, are we stepping into a peaceful world, or a war-torn world?
What will the major power bases be? The Monarchy? A Theocracy? A Magocracy? An underground movement?
How prevalent will magic and technology be? How will they mix.
you forgot a world comming back from a war or global disaster. or a world comming back from defeating a great powerful evil. (while we wait for the next great powerful evil to pop up)
Bee-Keeping as a specialized skill/craft … farmers would need your services to pollinate their crops, creating economy, player movement around the map, etc. ?
Killer Bees … highly trained to the max in bee-keeping, you could control your hive/swarm and use it as a weapon
It’s story, not crafting for today’s dev chat.
Can we know the name of any of the cities/towns/villages?
I would be interested in hearing more about the tech setting of the world.
I remember hearing in the past that you were thinking that there would be no gunpowder in the world, however there also seems to be some very high tech science going on.
How much technology can we expect beyond the Tesla coils we have already heard about? How are you planning on blending this tech into the medieval setting?
Why should a Farmer dont have a great Backstory. It would be nice if you can find out more about the people in your Town/Village. Will there be Backstorys for NPC that maybe fit into the main story?
Since the story will be spanning a campaign of 5 games, will a character age?
And if that is the case, how will it be reflected in the story?
How much will a player be able to influence the story by choices made and will the consequences of these choices be shown somehow, for example, in an epilogue? Or will the player feel these choices on body and soul for the rest of the games?
How does the hero’s journey work for our character? I can see it working for a single player game but I’m a bit fuzzy for an episodic multiplayer game.
Are the technological elements of the game actually technological advacements, or a byproduct of living with magic? I.e., do you generate electricity using the tesla coils, or are they dispersing electrical charges from a lightning wand. If its the former, its hard to reconcile that the rest of the game is much less advanced, and requires a lot more backstory.
Are we going to see the traditional 8 Virtues, or new ones? Cultural variations?
How many languages are going to be in-game? A single trade tongue with regional dialects, or just racial languages?
Any prior civilization(s) and if so, how great the separating gap(s)?
Have the rulers, peoples, language(s), religion(s), basic supporting economics (Pastoral to farming, farming to latifundia, etc.), kingroups, even species, changed little, much, or completely?
Is the current attitude to the past (a) ‘golden age’ (backward oriented); (b) ‘dark age’ (present oriented); or (c) precursor (forward oriented)? Do most people think society remains the same, cycles, or progresses over time (and if the last, which way is ‘progress’)?
I agree with kinkel170476 if this is to take place over 5 games and we are to age. How do we continue with a single character. Will we be able to marry have children to be our successors what would that be like.
If this is taking place over 5 games. which in game time could take hundreds of years. will we be able to marry have children to take our place as active characters? and will this effect the over all scope and story as a whole?
and how do we as player characters fit into and effect this larger story.
Is this a continuation / expansion / re-write of the stories you’ve told in other works or a completely new and different story? What does a Garriott / Hickman collaboration look like, RG outlines, TH fleshes?
Will notable players earn a place in any subsequent novels?
I was really excited by this Dev Hangout, lots of really great information about what we can expect. They’re going to be pretty vague about the exact story, but at least we know the name of the land (New Britannia) and that a great cataclysm tore everything apart. Sounds like the Avatar may have had a lot to do with the destruction/downfall of the civilization. It doesn’t sound like the Avatar will be the most welcome of visitors to the new world.
From what I can tell, Britannia has rebuilt itself from those events and is doing pretty well. The Avatar returning may be the signal of dark times ahead. And was it me or did it sound like the Avatar may already be undead/cursed?
I’ve got a ton of conspiracy theories running around in my head after listening to this one. If anyone wants to play along you can check it out here –