Update of the Avatar #149 – 2015.10.30: Play R23 Now!, Underground Biome, Beran’s Reach, Extra Life, 3 Days Till Reward Expirations, and More!

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

Here’s what we have for you in this week’s edition of Update of the Avatar:

• Play Release 23 Now!
• The Traditional FireLotus Release 23 Party!
• R23 Patch Notes
• New Player Owned Town Template: The Underground Biome
• Player Owned Towns of Beran’s Reach – Capital of The Beran League
• Extra Life. Play Games. Heal Kids.
• Localization Leaders Needed
• R22 Halloween Decoration Contest Winners!
• Pianist Bernie Katzman Joins Markee Dragon Playing Shroud of the Avatar
• Last 3 Days for Fall Reward & Sale Expirations
• Get Your 15% Black Friday Bonus
• In-game Community Events
• Upcoming Events
• Recommended Games to Back

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Play Release 23 Now!

[A scene from the FireLotus Release 23 Party!]

Release 23 successfully launched yesterday, October 29, with thousands of backers downloading, patching, logging in, and checking out the new changes! Lots of new content to explore, including:

• Massive changes to combat
• Tons of Halloween content
• Expansions to Fishing and Taming
• New Scenes including the Highvale Battle single-player starting scene, Jaanafort, and Vertas
• Placeable servants, house pets, and town NPCs
• New Player Owned Town Underground Biome Template
• …and more!

Check out the Release 23 Instructions update for detailed information about all the new R23 content.

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The Grand Tour Quest

Just as in our last several releases, we’ve included a Grand Tour Quest designed to guide you through all the new content. You will be able to get the Plague Doctor Mask by completing the Release 23 Grand Tour Quest. This reward can only be unlocked during Release 23 (did someone say rares?), so be sure to log in soon and talk to all the Tour Guides!

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We need all your help with testing the new patches, putting more stress on our multiplayer servers, and testing the new game content, so please join us in playing Release 23!

If you have not backed the game yet, you will need to register and login at www.shroudoftheavatar.com, select the “Pledge or Send Gift!” button in the right side-bar, and purchase a pledge at the $45 Adventurer level or above. The basic Adventurer level pledge is also available on Steam Early Access.

Release 23 Player Instructions

Release 23 Known Issues

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Avatars Radio Presents: The Traditional FireLotus Release 23 Party!

This month’s traditional FireLotus Release Party was held in the player owned town of Neath, recently converted to the new underground biome for R23!

The underground biome was perfect for a Halloween themed event, with it’s dark lighting, giant, glowing mushrooms, colossal stalagmites and stalactites, and overall eerie ambiance!

And it just wouldn’t be a traditional FireLotus Release Party without Justin “oneandonly” Gilbert killing everyone at the end, as shown here by the Oracle watching over each of the dead Avatars:

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R23 Patch Notes

Thanks to all our community members that jumped right into this Release and started reporting bugs. We’ve already fixed quite a few of them and pushed out several patches. Click here for the most up-to-date Patch Notes.

October 30 2015  

Build Number 344 5:30 PM CDT: 

Fixes:

• Fix for a memory leak
• Plague Doctor’s Mask awarded at maximum durability.
• Fixed issues with Tracy’s paperwork in Battle of Highvale
• Fixed issue with turning in Jarred’s dagger in Owl’s Nest. If you have already tried to complete the quest and no longer have the dagger, you can try again by talking to Jarred in Braemar.
• Fixed typos in Gawain’s conversation in Battle of Highvale
• Torpid Torment now working as intended
• Fixed formatting issues with chat messages about vendor sales
• Fixed Black Rock texture for terrain (bad normals)
• Clink light fix to prevent the world from always being dark.
• Fixed ugly shadows on flat ice
• Minor fix to Blood River tutorial
• Minor fix to Solace Bridge tutorial
• Player Owned Town Fixes:
  • Sparrowfall: Improved placement of caravan teleporters
  • Liberty: Moved exit-into-Novia target so player’s don’t appear in the air.
  • Water lots are now placeable on frozen lake in alpine player owned towns
  • House placement in valid locations within swampy section of dynamic, player-owned, swamp-biome towns is now possible

Known Issues:

• Some scenes are not displaying lighting (or any lights)
• There are numerous errors with PoT data, we are working as fast as we can to resolve them. In the meantime if you have a PoT and you notice something is wrong DO NOT place nor claim any lots until we can fix it.
• We do not yet officially support Windows 10. If you have upgraded to Windows 10 you may experience instability
• Lighting and fog levels are still being tuned to work with the new weather system, expect anomalies
• Weather has not been propagated to all scenes yet so there may be mismatches
• Zooming into First Person camera leaves floating hair in view
• Some skills have not been fully adjusted to work properly with the new use based system
• Sound effects are not always playing properly
• Players in the same scene will sometimes be invisible to each other, usually leaving the scene and returning will fix
• Death and Resurrection do not work properly in the team arena
• Water lots in Dynamic Player Owned Towns can currently only be placed along shorelines, not on docks
• If you upgrade from a property owning pledge between data wipes you will receive extra lot deeds.
• Time is not in synchronized between scenes that have the new sky vs. the old sky
• Red crystal nodes in Etceter Crag Mines are all yielding blue crystals.
• If your video drivers are out of date characters will appear as if they are covered in triangles.
• Some cities are experiencing performance spikes
• Some assets create flash bulb like sparks on screen
• Many pledge, add on, and stretch goal items have not yet been built and/or do not yet have tech support.
• The update to Unity 5 caused a host of general texture and lighting related issues, and not all of these have been resolved.
• Distant tree billboards may have a white outline that is especially noticeable at night, and some trees may shimmer with white at night.
• Skin tone will sometimes not match properly on different parts of the body
• ALT key can no longer be bound. This was necessary to re-enable quick self cast with ALT
• Unity 5 Engine Bug: Objects in the foreground sort incorrectly against objects in the distance like trees and the horizon

[Complete Patch Notes…]

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New Player Owned Town Template: The Underground Biome

Michael Hutchison created the new Underground biome for Release 23, and several POTs are using it, including Neath, where FireLotus hosted her traditional Release Party earlier today:

Here are overhead views of the Underground biome, with and without the lot placement overlays:

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Player Owned Towns of Beran’s Reach – Capital of The Beran League

We recently caught up with Vallas over at the Bear Tavern to chat about the arrival of Beran’s Reach in Release 23. He describes Beran’s Reach as:

…a collaborative effort to build and maintain a living, breathing urban hub, providing a place for fellow players to both use and experience. It’s a big project. The Capital of The Beran League, Beran’s Reach crosses numerous POT ‘Districts’ spanning hundreds of homes. From government to entertainment, each one focuses on a different facet of urban life in order to provide variety to both citizens and visitors…With room for such a large community, our hope is that we can found an active and vibrant, cosmopolitan player base, catering to the needs of everyone. With space for everyone from the poorest traveler to the richest Lord, there’s plenty of opportunities for interesting interaction with your fellow players.

From a Tavern’s Humble Beginnings

Beran’s Reach, the capital of The Beran League, first started as the Bear Tavern Guild and their in-game manifestation as an inn and tavern. Founded in April 2013, The Bear Tavern described itself as the original player-run tavern community within Shroud of the Avatar. The Bear Tavern has been featured in two Community Spotlights, and in their first Spotlight in September 2013, Vallas explained:

The Bear Tavern is a project which focuses heavily on the social aspect of Shroud of the Avatar. The intent is to create an open, active community which provides everyone the opportunity to socialize with fellow players…During initial discussions on how such a community could be put together, the obvious choice was to create an inn or tavern where the player-base could pitch up whenever they wanted. Taverns tend to be a prominent location in many stories within a fantasy setting, so it seemed a good choice for a in-game meeting place for players from a variety of backgrounds.

The Bear Tavern has had a presence in Shroud of the Avatar since the very beginning. Starting with Release 1 in December 2013, their first tavern was a Lord’s home on a town lot located in Owl’s Head.

Of course, Release 1 was single player only, so there wasn’t much social activity going on at that first Bear Tavern.

By May 2014, The Bear Tavern had grown to a city lot with a Baron’s home, which they immediately put to use later that month in Release 6, including a surprise PaxLair-led late night drinking party!

By June 2014 the Bear Tavern had grown yet again. For Release 7 they hosted the Bear Tavern Party community event in their new Duke’s castle, now located on The Brave Coast island, just off Kingsport in the Hidden Vale.

The Bear Tavern Guild was also one of the first groups to host a major tournament just as soon as the PvP combat system was introduced in Release 8 in July 2014. Called the “Bear Tavern Brawl”, the tournament was held at the PvP Castle Arena Basement located in Owl’s Head.

Needless to say, The Bear Tavern guild has been one of the prominent guilds in Shroud of the Avatar from the very beginning, devoting themselves to the entire community, providing community events for the enjoyment of all. Because of their community service, the Bear Tavern was awarded a Royal Warrant by Lord British in December 2014

The Birth of Beran’s Reach

In June 2014, the SotA team announced the availability of Player Owned Towns. The Bear Tavern was one of the first to purchase the largest town available, a city-sized town, and thus was Beran’s Reach born! Due to popular demand, an even larger Player Owned Town was created just a few weeks later and The Bear Tavern quickly upgraded Beran’s Reach to this new Metropolis!

Beran’s Reach continued to grow. In November 2014, The Bards of Poet’s Circle were the first to announce their plans to settle in Beran’s Reach. In December 2014, a second player owned town, the PvP-enabled Port of Porth Mae, was added to the urban hub.

In February 2015, Vallas announced the founding of The Beran League:

On this day the 3rd of February, the High Council voted on and approved the formal creation of The Beran League, an organisation encompassing a range of Player Towns, Guilds and Businesses. This represents our first step in founding something bigger, a move which promises to deliver greater opportunities and events for those who wish to be involved. Our little community has begun to grow up.

The Beran League is currently comprised of nine guilds and organizations, spread across seven settlements. The “Great City” of Beran’s Reach is currently comprised of seven district towns:

Five of the district towns of Beran’s Reach were launched in Release 23: High Rock, Port Beran, Porth Mae, Victory Arena, and Fox Keep (connected to Porth Mae).

Four of Beran’s Reach district towns have Overworld access in the northeast quadrant of Novia, as shown here:

We encourage you to visit the Great City of Beran’s Reach, and witness for yourself what has grown from a tavern’s humble beginnings. We leave you with these final thoughts about Beran’s Reach from Vallas:

We need settlers. The land has been provided free of charge and the gates are well and truly open. We’re offering everyone regardless of rank or affiliation a fair and equal chance to lay claim to the plots they need to make their dreams a reality. From homes to Guild houses. From workshops and warehouses to stores and markets. From inns and taverns to venues, playhouses and centres of learning. We hope that this gives everyone a chance to get involved, to try out new ideas and see what works (and what doesn’t work) to help get ready for eventual release of Shroud of the Avatar.

For more information about Beran’s Reach contact Duke Vallas in the SotA forums, or at The Beran League website.

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Extra Life. Play Games. Heal Kids.

Every year, gamers unite to raise money for Children’s Miracle Network hospitals around the country by playing games for Extra Life. This annual 24-hour game marathon is being held on Saturday, November 7th, beginning at 8am CST. This year, community member Browncoat Jayson will be streaming gameplay of Shroud of the Avatar on Twitch.

And speaking of the community, the entire community have come together to create a series of in-game events and donate prizes to support the cause. From 8am CST on Saturday, November 7th to 8am CST on Sunday, November 8th, there will be tutorials, the Welcome Quest, a visit to the Church of the Dark Star, a Party at the Hearth of Britannia, socializing at Port Phoenix, a PVP Tournament at Vengeance, Fishing with Winfield, and much celebration! Come win prizes and help raise funds for this important charity event! Visit this forum thread by Browncoat Jayson for information about how to take part!

Follow @browncoatjayson and @ExtraLife4Kids on Twitter for more information.

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Browncoat Jayson’s 24-Hour Extra Life SotA Gaming Schedule includes:

7:30 – 8:00 AM: Introduction
8:00 – 9:00 AM: Character Creation and the Tutorial
9:00 – 11:00 AM: Deck creation, skills tutorial, and game mechanics
11:00 AM – 12:00 PM: Church of the Dark Star with Amber Raine
12:00 – 2:00 PM: At the Bear Tavern
2:00 – 3:00 PM: Welcome Quest
3:00 – 4:00 PM: Grand Tour
4:00 – 5:00 PM: “The Shape of Things to Come” by the Caverns
5:00 – 6:00 PM: Avatars Radio Race
6:00 – 7:00 PM: Shardfall Free-for-All
7:00 – 8:00: Port Phoenix Social Night
8:00 – 9:30 PM: Vengeance 1-on-1 PVP Tournament
9:30 – 10:30 PM: Fishing with Winfield
10:30 – 11:00 PM: Journey to the Hidden Vale
11:00 PM – 1:00 AM: Dragonsmeet at the Hearth of Britannia
1:00 – 2:00 AM: Yo, Hometown Cribs
2:00 – 5:30 AM: Open Questing
5:30 – 7:30 AM: Explore Novia! with royalsexy
7:30 – 8:00 AM: Thank you and Signoff

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Localization Leaders Needed

As mentioned last week in Joaquin “wizardsmoke” Del Canto’s post, we are beginning the language localization process for SotA. Gina “FireLotus” Dionne has posted a request this week for those community leaders that might be interested in volunteering to coordinate the efforts of fellow community members as we seek to crowdsource the translation process:

Saluti Avatars!

We’re rapidly gearing up to start localizing Shroud of the Avatar into Deutsche, Français, Español, Italiano, and Português and we are looking for a Community Leaders for each language to step forward and help coordinate our community translators. As described in Update 148 https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/?p=54236, translations will be crowd-sourced via a web service called GetLocalization. Over the next few weeks, we would like to find Community Leaders for each language to help organize additional volunteer translators and act as liaisons to myself and the other SotA Devs responsible for implementing localization. Once selected, the leaders will be given access to the GetLocalization project so that they can become familiar with it.

After we’ve identified our localization leaders for each language, they will help us identify qualified translators so that we can get them set up to start localizing. Localization leaders should be fluent in their language, able to organize and encourage their team, and be willing to review their teams work while providing valuable feedback to produce the clearest translation possible.

If you are interested in stepping forward as a localization leader, please contact FireLotus via support@portalarium.com.

Arrivederci!

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R22 Halloween Decoration Contest Winners!

[From a Release 22 Events Forum Post by Edward Newgate]

Community members Edward Newgate and Selene Noctua sponsored a Halloween decoration contest for Release 22. Congratulations to all the winners!

• 1st Place – Gurney2
• 2nd Place – Kacey
• 3rd Place – Eriador
• 4th Place – Grave Godshammer

Here are some screenshots of the “Bonedudes Playground!“, the 1st Place winning entry by Gurney2:

Drop Dead Bowling, Anyone?

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For those of you that missed the Halloween Deco Tour, Lazarus with the NBNN provided this video of the four winning entries. Enjoy!

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Pianist Bernie Katzman Joins Markee Dragon Playing Shroud of the Avatar

Last week, Bernie Katzman, aka Piano Improman, joined Markee Dragon for a special show of Shroud of the Avatar. Bernie played piano while Markee adventured! It was a great show, and here’s the video in case you weren’t able to watch it live:

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Last 3 Days for Fall Reward & Sale Expirations

This is your last 3 days to get the Pledge Rewards and Add-On Sale items that are expiring at Midnight CST, November 2, 2015. This includes the following reward expirations:

• Future Episodes 2,3,4 & 5 of Shroud of the Avatar
• Additional Character Slots 2 & 3
• Waterfront Homes & Lots (including Cabana, German Cabana, Lighthouse, Houseboat, Galleon, Castle, and Castle with Keeps)

In addition to the pledge reward expirations, the sale will end on November 2nd for the following Add-On Store items and they will revert to their regular prices (as displayed in the item description): Battle Banner, Tower Village Home, Tower Town Home, Druid Town Home, Airship City Home, Row Lot Property Deeds, Village Lot Property Deed (SOLD OUT), Town Lot Property Deeds, and City Lot Property Deeds

[More Fall Reward Expiration details…]

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Get Your 15% Black Friday Bonus Now!

Last year we extended our Black Friday Promotion to give you 8 weeks to take advantage of our Black Friday 15% Bonus, and we’re doing it again this year! This is especially helpful for backers that intend to pledge or upgrade prior to upcoming Expiration Events! Here are the details:

For all new purchases (including pledges, pledge upgrades, add-on items, player owned towns, player owned town upgrades, stretch goal items, and Make a Difference items) between 12:00 am CST October 2, 2015 and 12:00 am CST December 1, 2015, we will add an additional 15% bonus to your Store Credit! You can use your Store Credit toward additional purchases (which includes pledges, pledge upgrades, add-on items, player owned towns, and player owned town upgrades).

[NOTE: The 15% bonus is calculated every day at 1:00 pm CST for any purchases within the previous 24 hours and added to your Store Credit account; Any monthly payments paid during the promotion period also receive the 15% bonus; Store Credit cannot be applied toward the purchase of stretch goal or Make a Difference items]

You can use the 15% Bonus to save on your next purchase! For example, if you have the $45 Adventurer pledge and really want to upgrade to the $90 Royal Artisan pledge, you would normally pay the extra $45 for the upgrade. But using the 15% bonus you can immediately save $5. To do so, you would first purchase $40 worth of Store Credit Gift Coupons (via PayPal, Amazon, Bitcoin, or credit card; excluding existing Store Credit) then use the “Convert to Credits” option on your account page to transform the Store Credit Gift Coupons into Store Credit. Within 24 hours an additional $6 bonus ($40 x 15%) would be applied to your Store Credit account, bringing it up to $46. You would then use $45 of your Store Credit to upgrade to the $90 Royal Artisan pledge.

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In-game Community Events

Our amazing community has another great lineup of in-game events planned for this weekend. Special thanks to community member SpookyJenny (aka Jenny Phoenixfyre in-game) for her help in compiling the latest schedule of player events from the Avatar’s Circle Community Events calendar and the Events of the Avatars community calendar:

Recurring Events

• RPOTA Monthly $150 Writing Contest – October is Horror, Mystery & Thriller Month
  • Here ye! Here ye! Biographers, Historians, Diplomats, Journalists, Story Writers, Quest Designers and Videographers! RPOTA is in dire need of your amazing talents! Role-Players of the Avatar is hosting a monthly contest to award those most famous with their quill or camera! (details)
• Bilbo Baggins Decoration Contest
  • Community member Myrcello is offering $50 Store Credit to the player that comes closest to recreating the interior of Bilbo Baggins house (details)
• Where in the World is Weinie?
  • Community member Weins201 (forum name) is wandering around and taking pictures of 50 different places, and is offering a $25 Store Credit (plus other gifts) to the player who can identify the most places (deadline for entries is the launch of R23; details)
• The R23 Unreliable Travel Guide
  • The Unreliable Travel Guide, created at the SotA Writing Round Table, is not an event, but a collection of hilarious short stories published by two drunken layabouts who have nothing better to do than try to derive a dishonest income from newly arrived avatars. (details)
• Avatars Radio (Daily Programming)
  • Welcome New Britannians to Avatars Radio – Radio of the Avatars. Rocking your socks off from the town of Radio City with the Terrestrial and New Britannian bards together under one roof through the power of the Moon Towers.  Check out their daily program of amazing DJs:  http://avatarsradio.info/schedule.php
• NBNN Lunch with Laz & Jack (Weekdays, 12pm CST)
  • Join NBNN every weekday for Lunch With Laz & Jack. They will be covering the daily goings on in SOTA. Calendar updates, Relevant issues happening in the days news. Come chat with us about upcoming events and general information. http://nbnn.info
• Daily War Time PVP Event (Daily, 8pm CST – 9pm CST)
  • Invitation to all guilds, PK hunters, PVP’rs or players interested in PVP training to come to Chaos Crossroads (Located at the crossroads outside of Kingsport on the road to Owl’s Head). PVP Event rules: None! Use whatever spells you want, kill in mobs or solo, group with new allies and defend your territory, lure newbies into the town and wack them! (details)
• Daily Breakfast Club – 12am CST (London UK); 6am CST (Central US); 3pm CST (Sydney Australia)
  • Breakfast Clubs offer a time when people from around different time zones can gather. (Wody’s Pub, Paxlair)
• “The Tavern Respite” RP Event (Mondays, 8pm CST)
  • The tavern door opens before you, and the scent of pipe and stew waft outwards with a wall of warmth from the hearth. Join in with the patrons of the Bear Tavern as they share tales of their adventures amid endless mugs of ale, legs of mutton, and merriment unbounded (The Bear Tavern in PaxLair; /zone Elgarion De’Khali; details)!
• Challenge Dungeon Run (Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, 7pm CST)
  • This is a self-host event, meet at the Braemar Cemetery and organize into groups to take on the infamous Chillblain’s Compendium of Pain & Suffering!
• PaxLair Working Hours – Host Sean Silverfoot (Tuesdays, 2pm)
  • PaxLair town and community “working hours” are for anyone interested in PaxLair. We will be in New Britannia doing things as a town when many people can work together. Sean Silverfoot hosts this working period. / zone Sean Silverfoot
• Novian Academy – New Citizen Help Hours (Tuesdays, 6pm CST)
  • /zone Kazyn Phoenixfyre of Novian Academy in Soltown as they provide guidance to those new to the world of New Britannia.
• Phoenix Republic Open Mic Night (Wednesdays, 7pm CST)
  • Join the Phoenix Republic as we explore a weekly series of shared creativity, stories, songs and music. We will have entertainment and dining, dancing and socializing with our friends. Those who wish to share in their creativity can take to the stage and show off their newest creative endeavor!
• Happy Hour Wednesdays (Wednesdays, 8pm CST)
  • Otherwise known as “Spend Stryker’s Gold” – Stryker will open a bar tab at one of the local Novia taverns for an hour or so for drinks, stories, news, critique of the arts, dancing, and otherwise unplanned mayhem. Zone /Stryker Sparhawk or watch this thread for locations each week!
• Storytime with royalsexy (Thursdays, 7am CST)
  • Join royalsexy in Radio City for stories and chats. /zone royalsexy or hike aaaaalll the way to Storytime Tavern in Radio City to join. Also live on Avatars Radio http://avatarsradio.info
• Gladiator Wars (Thursdays, 7pm CST)
  • A call to all fighters PVE and PVP! Would you like to participate in the “Gladiator Wars” PvP Tournaments? Registration starts at 6pm CST. (Finchfield; /zone Pestilence; details)
• Phoenix Republic PVE Nights (Thursdays & Fridays, 7pm CST)
  • Join the Phoenix Republic as we send our weekly foray into the control points, dungeons and other of the most dangerous locales. Each week we will depart to a different PVE locale to help train our combatants. Contact Kazyn Phoenixfyre or Malakas for more info!
• Novian Academy – Role Play Courses (Fridays, 4pm CST)
  • Luka Melehan is hosting RP classes and practice sessions. (/zone Luka Melehan)
• Shardfall Madness (Fridays, 6pm CST)
  • A PvP event. Contact Wind Silvermoon for details.
• Vengeance Madness (Fridays, 7pm CST)
  • This is an Open PvP event where everyone fights it out in a royal rumble to see who the ultimate death dealer is! (City of Vengeance; /zone Bambino LudoVate)
• Astronomy Event (Fridays, 7:30pm CST)
  • Interested in New Britannia Astronomy? Just enjoy gazing at the stars? Join us every week as we explore the night sky above New Britannia. (Player Town of Caer Dracwych; details)

Saturday, October 31

• 9:00am CST PaxLair Working Hours
  • PaxLair town and community “working hours” are for anyone interested in PaxLair. (/zone Winfield)
• 11:00am CST Church of the Dark Star – Saturday Service
  • High Priestess of Chaos, Amber Raine, and the Dean of the Novian Academy, Kazyn Phoenixfyre, welcome you to the Church of the Dark Star. A shared project, built upon equality, where all are welcome. Services range from what is Chaos and Order to how they affect different aspects of our life. The path you choose is yours. (PaxLair; details)
• 12:00pm CST Welcome Quest R23: Halloween Edition
  • Welcome Quest showcases many of the Player-owned and Player-ran towns in New Britannia. Come for unique events in each town. We rotate towns between each Welcome Quest. Starting point is in the Isle of Ghosts! (/Zone Dara Brae to join in; details)
• 5:00pm CST A Halloween Alternative
  • Not a big fan of Halloween? Or just partied out with too much sugar? Come visit Caer Dracwych where the Knights of New Britannia will host a Halloween Alternative. This will be somewhat of an impromptu event. We might party. We might trade books. We might go hunting for R23 Hat. We might listen to you perform. We might light candles or dance and hang out. We might have a surprise or two. We might do all of the above. Everyone is welcome. (/zone Bowen Bloodgood, details)
• 7:00pm CST Port Phoenix: Halloween Party Social Night!!!
  • Come out and join the Republic in one of many potential events (chosen new each week). Each week we get together for everything from fishing, to music, to gustball, to PVE duneoneering and adventuring. (Contact Kazyn Phoenixfyre for more details!)
• 8:00pm CST Vengeance 1v1 Tournament
  • The longest running Player vs Player tournament in Shroud of the Avatar. (City of Vengeance)

Sunday, November 1

• 6:30am CST Explore Novia with royalsexy (Dancing Rock, Owl’s Head Entrance, /zone royalsexy)
• 8:30am CST PaxLair Meeting
  • Come see what PaxLair is up to in Novia and other town areas! Many people also attend from towns and guilds for a bit of a weekly wrap-up and what’s happening. Good discussions! (PaxLair, /zone Winfield)
• 11:00am CST Phoenix Republic Weekly Teamspeak Meeting
  • A Gathering of members of the Phoenix Republic to cover important topic areas of the month. It is here that the republic shall discuss new event types, ideas on new laws and other concerns effecting the Phoenix Republic. (Republic Town Hall, Port Phoenix, teamspeak at ts3.portphoenix.com)
• 2:00pm CST Serenite Shopping Extravaganza
  • Shopping Extravaganza at the Serenite Selfridge Mall. Crafters will be available for special orders.
• 3:00pm CST Gustball
  • Two teams are pitted against each other in a sporting event not dissimilar from soccer, football, and basketball. The object of the game is to Gust a Gustball around the field and into your opponent’s goal (/zone Bambino Ludovate, details)
• 5:00pm CST BMC Grid Iron Feast and Registration
  • Register to compete in the BMC Gridiron and mingle with other participants and spectators before the big fight! (Blackrock Point on Novia near Etceter Crag Mines, details)
• 5:30pm CST BMC Gladiator’s Grid-Iron
  • The BMC is proud to present the nastiest, the foulest, the most feared arena in all of New Britannia! The Grid-Iron is equipped with a pit-style arena, locker rooms, a VIP round-table, betting & vendor booths, and all the blood-sport you can handle. (Blackrock Point on Novia near Etceter Crag Mines, details)
• 7:00pm CST PaxLair Meeting
  • Come see what PaxLair is up to in Novia and other town areas! Many people also attend from towns and guilds for a bit of a weekly wrap-up and what’s happening. Good discussions!  (PaxLair, /zone Winfield)
• 8:00pm CST Fishing with Winfield
  • Come sit with Winfield on a log or rock to hear some fish tales or tell your own. Chat about anything from the moons to the earth worms. Spend a relaxing day in nature near a stream or lake — bring insect repellent or a sword.  (some fishing spot or pond, /zone Winfield; details)

Be sure and check out the Release 23 Events thread in the SotA forums for additional events that may not be included here.

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Upcoming Events

2015.11.09 – FuNKon15
2015.11.19 – Release 24
2015.12.17 – Release 25
2016.01.28 – Release 26
2016.02.25 – Release 27
2016.03.17 – SXSW Gaming

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The Bard’s Tale IV

From the creators of Wasteland 2 and Torment: Tides of Numenera comes The Bard’s Tale IV. Thirty years ago, The Bard’s Tale put Brian Fargo and Interplay on the map and launched a storied career crafting some of the most beloved cRPGs in gaming history.

Today, we return to Skara Brae for the long-awaited dungeon-crawling sequel to the Bard’s Tale trilogy — the games that helped define the genre. The Bards Talke IV it is a single-player, party-based cRPG with dynamic phase-based combat, challenging puzzles and riddles, and a game set to beautiful Gaelic music, where the Bard’s songs and melodies affect gameplay.