Shroud of the Avatar Will Be a Series
As Richard Garriott made clear in the launch video for Shroud of the Avatar today, and as he also stated in our interview with him, the game that he and Portalarium are currently attempting to fund via Kickstarter — Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues — is merely the first in a series of five planned episodes in the Shroud of the Avatar series.
From our interview with him, here is Garriott’s quick explanation of the concept:
…the way we’re releasing Shroud of the Avatar is…well, Forsaken Virtues, in particular, is the first episode of five episodes that are currently intended for Shroud of the Avatar.
And we actually have the outline of all five episodes. We understand what story will be unfolding in each of these five episodes. We’re hoping to release each episode about once per year, and they’ll all be expansions of the actions of this game world. In fact, the map that I think you now have a copy of, is the center tile, you might say, of a 3×3 Tic Tac Toe grid, and that world will expand for you.
And so yes, Forsaken Virtues is episode one, and two, three, four and five will come.
And, as Garriott explained to Forbes:
Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues is the first of five episodic releases in Garriott’s new fantasy gaming franchise. Episodic may not be the best term. Garriott tells me that each release will expand around the world’s original core, essentially tripling its size. The second installment will be twice the size of the first; the third twice the size of the second, and so on and so forth.
So this map will, in due time, be joined by…well, between four and eight more such maps, presumably all about the same size and offering about the same level of detail. What isn’t clear at this time is whether the Shroud of the Avatar series has to be traversed and played episodically (e.g. Episode 2 content doesn’t unlock until Episode 1, Forsaken Virtues, has been completed) or in a free-form sort of way that allows you to jump between the plots and locales of all the episodes if, by chance, you happen to pick up the game only after all of its episodes have been released.
Still, it’s good to know that Lord British plans to stick around in this new world for a while.