Summary of the Story related Developers Hangout (30.04.2013) -- (Dev) Replied

Good evening,
before I go to bed I wanted to post a summary of the hangout with Tracy Hickman and Lord British with the focus on the storyline and especially the backstory, moderated by Firelotus. Since English isn't my first language, feel free to correct me, where I produced grave errors

Abbreviations: TH = Tracy Hickman ; LB = Lord British ; FL = Firelotus ; [] (words in this brackets are comments by me)

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General Information:

LB: There will be two new types of Hangouts: 1. purely informational hangouts 2. Debate hangouts (for example modifications to the runic language and logos/symbols), especially for the developer backers (they will be more focused on specific topics)

Backstory of Shroud of the Avatar:

LB: Bits about the Backstory of the game: during Lord Britishes journeys, the last time the world was being destroyed; that's sad, but an opportunity for the survivors, to come back together and build a new society, pick up the pieces and forge a new world; it will be a story on the earth, but also about the heaven, moon, etc. (astrology will be important)

Prehistory: there were astronomical calamities; for example there's a shattered moon in the sky in one of the concepts [can't remember such a concept art]; the moons have collided and thundered, which lead to the destruction of the planetary bodies and pieces of them going down on earth; this resulted in the beginning of the end of the prestory and the beginning of the New Game; there are some centuries between the calamity and the arrival of the Avatars [think it were 400 years]

TH: there are 86 pages written so far about the back-story (it's pretty dense, with the origins, the myths of the world and the origins of Avatars written; until now it was mostly setting up history foundations, character motivations and story (about the different societies, etc.)

It came to a fall of civilization and the former knowledge through the fall of the cities and fall of the sky; every game has ruins: but why are they here? What was there? Why are they ruins? Who build that and why in that way?

The Story after the fall and the comeback to the civilizations: this story is about the grouping of the fallen civilizations and the re-foundation of magic in a new way; questions are for example: what happened to old knowledge and how do the old wizards react?

LB: in previous works there was already an intrinsic connection between the knowledge of the world (astology, moon phases) and magic; since heaven scrambled up, earth scrambles up, too (especially magic); this leads to a reformation of magic with connections to the past; traditions are still present: words of powers, recipes, etc., but new elements, words, reagents, etc. bring a fresh perspectives;

And through the calamity, there will be a new pantheon, that rises to power

TH: they have written an enormous document about past history, that becomes foundational; but not all shall be given to the players

TH brings an example of the Silmarillon from Tolkien: in your story, you ride across a tower and hear a romantic story about it (like Strider on the Weathertop tells a story, that goes into the mist of times); but in the Silmarillon, many things are explained and suddenly everything looses its romance, because it becomes fact; it's nice to read, but you loose the depth of the story and romance; so LB and TH are developing the shadows and the mists

LB: after the calamity, what happens? How will society reconcile? there will be groups, that are well organized and stable and form city states; on the other hand the great institutions of the past and institutes of learning and magic and the infrastructure of the old society collapsed

Now century by century society the reestablishes; and there will be given some sneak peeks on the forum

Questions:

1. Question: How dark will the world of SotA be? (by Tina)

LB: he likes Spoony, because he tells it like it is, especially the critique (despite the language and behavior); the Avatar in the past was not always a good thing, but often very bad for other people or for even everyone; Worlds have been destroyed because of the Avatar

now you come back a few centuries back, the world is stable, so the world itself is not necessarily dark, but you as a returner to this world might be looked with some kind of skepticism and not with open arms

TH: Attitude towards the Avatar: "lets string him up quick, before he messes it up again"; the tone will be a bit gritty and more realistic in terms of relationships (with other players and inside the solo player story game); the general direction of the story will be more serious than in the games of the past

LB: there will be no Hobbiton to smoke pipe and listen to the harp

TH: as a tip: don?t tell anyone where you came from

2. Question: What is the name of the new World (RelExpo)

LB: this will be finally released now: The World will be named New Britannia; it needs to be and must be; it's the name of the Larger World you will see over Time, but not of the Starting Continent (this isn't not quite as settled); a new world with Lord British must be New Britannia

TH: Naming Things is not done lightly; naming locations: Rivers, mountains, etc. is important for the perception of the world, since it says something about the place, you visit; it should at least sound like a concept; you should be able to depict the nature of locations through names

Have a place, that feels like home, is important to players, so there must be places for them (in regards to the places of the world, where the players come from)

LB: more specifics (can still change): the largest city on the starting continent is called Brittany in the center of the world; founding place with Britannian style

There will be regional specific homes:

In the north west: more european scandinavian roots and scandinavian sounding names

In south east: a lake with a place called Celestis and region called Ancaria with more eastern alliterations (at least in the sound of the world)

In the mid section: Lord British world standards

Everyone is playing in the same meta reality; all players shall be able to find themselves and coexist in all episodes

3. Questions (Daven Rock): How to deal with the ton of new Avatars in the world?

LB: Definition of the Avatar; in Ultima IV it was the incarnation of some kind of deity in the world; today it's more like a body in another reality;

Why did LB get Tracy on Board? To tell a Multiplayer Story! So a viewpoint like, I?m the Avatar, this is my story, not yours, comparable to a solo player game in a multiplayer universe wouldn?t make much sense; so the challenge is to tell a new story, where everyone has his own story: How do you tell a multiplayer story?

TH: The Mechanics of story telling are exciting: yes, there are many Avatars in the world! it?s seen as an unwelcome invasion, since things went quite good before! is there a destined one among the Avatars? Yes, and maybe more than one; but how they are determined is behind the story of the structure, that is to be told

Many Avatars? Yes and there is a good reason, why they are here and it is an important part of the story; Are they welcome? No, not to the local inhabitants

LB: Maybe there is more than one destined Avatar

4. Question: How will you deal with death and Resurrection

LB: there were lots of discussions, especially resurrection from the view of a local, that?s not an immortal; they get a clue, that you?re not normal and deal with that; death costs will vary depending on the point in the story; death is not permanent for an Avatar

TH: how will death looks like to local people in the world? how will locals manipulate this to their advantage? there are lots of speculations possible

LB: what would locals do with the body of immortals? Loot for treasure? Bury? Throw in a pit, prison or cut you in pieces or a completely other rituals with the Avatars, that resurrect?

TH: the gameplay has to make sense in the context of the world (and other way round)

5. question: will players age over the 5 parts? Will there be children, etc?

LB: look at it like chronicles of Narnia; you are a person of earth, that comes to a lunar rift, that allows you to become the Avatar in a form of your choice (choose your gender, etc.); all Lord Britishs are still Richard Garriott (from UO, the old series or Tabula Rasa); you will age at your earth age, but not your Avatar

6. question: what circumstances will bring the Characters in the new world

LB: this is not yet written; but a nice idea for the players would be: how did you discover your way to New Britannia?

7. How will you engage Tracy and Lord British in game

LB: he will be a permanent NPC in the game and play himself, when he?s online

TH: he loves walking in worlds, he created; it's like going home; he wants to interact with the players and play a role and should be online quite often

8. Will there be new virtues or the traditional old ones?

LB: the Virtues are present, but how time treated them, is still under refinement; the new virtues are not importantly different from the old ones

TH: old players should be pleasantly surprised, what happens to the virtues; virtues are the heart of the story, but in a new way, that is fresh, unexpected and a bit frightening

9. Can players contribute to the story?

LB: Absolutely, and he hopes not only in a minor role; he is shocked and stunned by the quality of storytelling in the community ; the developer backers will be able to do a lot; there are small inspirations everywhere; like a port called Graf with the best gem mines in the regions; LB want to know your stories, since it is your game

TH: they are discussing an ability to let players create stories in the toolset and let other players play it [comment by myself: maybe a bit comparable like the toolset of Neverwinter Online];

TH likes the idea of crafted and player created stuff; Richard and Tracy are not only talking about the story, but about the ability for players to create quests structured by their own and story of their own

10. How will players impact the world? Can you talk about one Creature or Place in the World? @Tracy: And did you already read some stories about the underground?

LB: he tells about one special place: an eventsite near Fortes [I'm not sure about the name]

TH: this is one very special place with cool stuff going on, that is difficult to get to

LB: the Calamity destroyed the old civilization; and there are still small bits of terror falling down from the sky; most recent large event happened in Fortes (north west of Brittany) in the region North Pilgres [not sure about that name either]; this place is very key in the transition of the story from the dark age to after the calamity; it's important for the creation process of bringing back magic and a new pantheon of life forms

TH: it's some kind of nexus, that brings new magic and an explosion of alternate life forms in the world;

About creatures, you have to ask important questions: what kinds of creatures exist in this world? And why? That explosion is featured in the novel (TH will start releasing chapters next month, that will be released online)

LB: this story will make pre-stories much easier; you'll the need developer level for that kind of feedback because of the infos you only get there

Last Question: What is the Book on Tracys Desk?

TH: it's his new book coming out: Swept Up by the Sea (by Tracy and Laury Hickman); it's written in the same way, that the SotA backstory will be written: as a serial novel online, with new chapters being posted as it is being written every week or two and released as a book afterwards;

For the SotA initial novel: TH wants to release chapters as the book is being written and looks for feedback to it out of the community

LB: @TH: How much revisions of your books do you make?

TH: his stories are tightly structured; the outline of the story is held to like to a handful of marbles: if the marbles are hold to tightly (for example forcing characters to do stuff to progress the story, etc.), the marbles will fly out of the hand; the same goes for a too open hand (comparable to a story without structure); so it must be in balance, so when new stuff happens, new characters show up, etc. it falls in the old structure; even TH makes mistakes from time to time, but being able to craft the story together with the community is an enormous advantage: it helps him to see what is working and what not; participation is vital

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Ok, I hope I got all the main points.
Cheers,
Andreas

 

Great summary, one correction:

<i>LB: there will be no Hobbiton to smoke pipe and listen to the harp</i> &lt;- I believe he clearly said there WOULD be places for players who want to just sit on a porch and smoke a pipe and raise a garden, etc.

Thanks, Andi!

 

Thanks for the recap Andi!

 

Great information, thanks AndiZ275.

But there is one thing I don't understand. What world what destroyed during Lord British's last journey? Britannia?
In the original, unused ending of Ultima 9 it was destroyed, yes, but in the ending that was in the game the world was saved... Am I missing something?

 

Thanks so much for the write-up. I look forward to reading these

 

<i>In the original, unused ending of Ultima 9 it was destroyed, yes, but in the ending that was in the game the world was saved? Am I missing something?</i>

I think he's referring to events in Brittania post Ultima 9. With the Avatar ascended to a higher plane, Brittania was invaded by a race of evil vampiric dieties known only as "the EA." They stripped the kingdom from Lord British, exiled him to another realm, and sold off every last natural resource of the world. After brutally squeezing the last penny out of Brittania, the EA moved on to seek new worlds to reign terror upon. The sad part of this story is that Lord British was actually responsible for opening the portal that the EA used to enter the realm.

 

@Marthos - too much truth to be a fantasy story.

 

Andi, awesome, thank you! I wasn't able to finish the video and get a summary up yesterday due to other constraints. You rock!

 

Very cool sounding universe. You could really tell from the hangout how passionate RG and TH are about the world they're crafting.

 

It's clearly implied that the destroyed world is the Britannia from Ultima. There's nothing (yet?) that indicates when the destruction happened in relation to the events of Ultima 9.

I suspect that the specifics might be "shrouded in mystery," as being too explicit about "old" Britannia might bring down the wrath of EA's lawyers, and that's no good for anyone.

 

Thank you Andi! I'm snagging the link to this for the main post! *hugs*

 

Thanks Andi,

As usual, there is a lot of things i couldn't get at the first time. It goes too fast, so reading them is much better for me.
At that point, i think that we'll play something that could be Ultima 10.

Good news.

 

@Marthos I really hope this turns out to be the actual backstory to SotA...

 

Thanks Andreas! Great summary and a useful reference for days to come.

 

Thank you, Andreas, for compiling and posting this transcript. I am traveling and my internet is spotty, so I am unable at the moment to watch the video.

 

glad you like it

@Phredicon: thanks for the correction
@FireLotus: You're welcome *hugs back*

 

Good stuff. Thanks!

 

I really need to start watching these hangouts.