Updates
Sojourner Avatars: A Hangout with Richard Garriott (Lord British) and the Hickmans
Shroud of the Avatar is excited to announce a very special offer to celebrate the final 24 hours of Tracy and Laura Hickman’s Sojourner Tales Kickstarter (and to show how determined we are to get to the $55,00 Stretch goal)! We are going to award each and every Shroud of the Avatar Adventurer* backer who also pledges to Sojourner Tales at the $20 and above level a UNIQUE Sojourner themed in-game item.
*Adventurer Tier is $40 for Founders, $45 for Benefactors.
Have you already backed Tracy Hickman’s Kickstarter? If not, you only have a few more days to do so! Please help him reach the $55,000 stretch goal… a special trilogy of adventures penned by Tracy Hickman and Richard Garroitt! We all here at Shroud of the Avatar can’t wait to play it!
The Second 48 Hour Scene Jam is ON!
The second Challenge Of The Avatar: 48 Hour Scene Jam is going on right now!
You can get all the details here: https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/?page_id=30078
Also, the very professional and totally free of shenanigans video of Starr and Chris announcing the ground rules can be found here:
Keep up with your fellow scene jammers in the Shroud of the Avatar Developer Depot here: https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/challenge-of-the-avatar-10-4-13.3500/
Go forth and create catacombs of wonder!
Update of the Avatar #42 – 10/04/13: Founder Lord Home, Benefactor Edelmann Home, Avatar Outfits, & Scene Jam #2
Greetings Fellow Avatars!
This edition of Update of the Avatar continues our Parade of Homes, showcasing the Founder Lord Town Home and Benefactor Edelmann Village Home. Also have some new female avatar outfits to share, and news about this weekend’s 48-hour Unity Scene Jam #2!
Founder Lord Town Home
Artists Bob Cooksey and Michael Hutchison came up with a dignified design for our Founder Lord Town home! Only available to Founders (included as a reward in the Lord level pledge). An extremely spacious two-story dwelling, with an open-air roof deck suitable for crafting or entertaining:
Pen of the Avatar 10.1.13
Happy October First! 
Stephen Daniele and I are back for another episode of Pen of the Avatar today at 1 pm CST!
Community Spotlight ~ The Bear Tavern
Do you have a cool Shroud of the Avatar Project you would like highlighted in our Community Spotlight? Then what are you waiting for!?! Contact me, Firelotus, at community@portalarium.com and let’s chat! Speaking of cool Shroud of the Avatar projects, I had a chance to talk with Vallas, the head of the Bear Tavern project and he told me about the cool things they are doing to prepare for Shroud of the Avatar. If you would like to know more, then keep reading! 
“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. SOTA promises to provide an amazing social online environment, and so we were interested to see how far we can encourage it. Not only that, our intent is to create almost neutral ground, to help provide some fairly unusual player experiences.
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.
Update of the Avatar #41 – 09/27/13: Sigil of Magic, Collector’s Coin, Crafting Stations, Unity Scene Jam Winner, & More
Greetings Fellow Avatars!
More cool stuff to share with you in this edition of Update of the Avatar, including the Sigil of Magic, progress on the crafting stations, results of our first 48-hour Unity Scene Jam, Founder Collector’s Coin, updated FAQ, and more!
Unity Scene Jam #1 Winner
Our first Unity Scene Jam was a great success! This scene challenge involved a design that included a “Lunar Rift” and the ruins around it. We asked for the Lunar Rift to be one up on a plateau or at least on top of a very steep hill (see challenge design description here). We received a total of 48 submissions, with some awesome talent participating!
It was tough to choose the winner from among the top entries, but after much deliberation, Richard, Starr, and Chris unanimously chose Richard Matey as the First Place winner of our first Shroud of the Avatar Unity Scene Jam! Chris Spears prepared this video walking you through Richard Matey’s sweet looking scene. So crank the quality up to HD, switch to full-screen, and enjoy!
As one of our First Place weekend winners, he will receive a Knight Level Pledge, signed game box, and SotA t-shirt! Congratulations Richard Matey!
Coming in at Second Place is the team of Charles Howell and Mark A. Barros. Check out this cool image from their scene:
And Third Place goes to Melchior Meijer:
We were so impressed with the top entries, that we decided to award pledge credits to the second and third place winners! Congratulations to Charles, Mark, and Melchior!
The Sigil of Magic
There are nine schools of magic in Shroud of the Avatar: the eight elemental schools of Fire, Air, Water, Earth, Sun, Moon, Life, and Death with the ninth school of Chaos in the center of them all. Each school has a focus. Fire magic, for example, directly damages your enemies but also has a tendency to light them on fire, prolonging the damage dealt. Water magic on the other hand is about slowing your opponents with ice and healing your allies with soothing rains. The sigil represents how all the schools relate to each other and it will appear inked on parchment, carved into stone, sewn into cloth and minted into metal coins.
Hangout of the Avatar ~ 9.27.13 ~ Virtues
Richard “Lord British” Garriott is back with us this week for a Virtuous edition of Hangout of the Avatar! The hangout will begin at 2 pm CST on September 27th, and as always, I’ll have the link for you 15 minutes prior to broadcast.
This will be another focused, 30 minute Hangout, so I will primarily be taking your pre-submitted VIRTUE related questions via Google Hangout at #LBSotA_Hangout. For those with an aversion to Google, you can also submit your question on the comments section below.
And be sure to stay tuned. At 2:30, Chris, “Dungeon Master” Bill, and Starr Long will be revealing the results of our first Unity Scene Jam!
Update of the Avatar #40 – 09/20/13: Decorating Demo Video, Edelmann Home, Tower Homes, & Unity Scene Jam!
Greetings Fellow Avatars!
We continue our Parade of Homes with this edition of Update of the Avatar, showcasing the Founder Edelmann Village Home, as well as the Tower Village Home and Tower Town Home! We also included a video demonstrating our home decorating system, plus a few other tidbits and goodies!
Decor of the Avatar
For many of us, home decorating is central to our role-playing experience. It affords us the opportunity for self-expression, a display of status, showcasing the spoils of our adventures, or advertising our craft. The home decorating system in SotA continues to evolve both in power and ease of use. Mere words cannot do it justice, so Rick Holtrop choreographed this video demonstrating the latest progress in our home decorating system, narrated by Lord British. Enjoy!
Crowdsourcing the World!
As Starr Long explains in a recent MMORPG.com article, Crowdsourcing the World, we purchase assets from the Unity Asset Store, many of which we can use as is, but some we want to change up a bit. We have made it a policy to offer the modified versions back to the original creators for free which they can re-sell as their own.
The Dragonide by Protofactor is an example of a Unity Store asset that we modified and offered back to Protofactor. Here is an image of the original asset:
And here is the version after Geoff Mellon’s modifications:
Bren Wilson then put his magic on it and created this hammer attack animation:
Founder Edelmann Village Home
Bob Cooksey (environment artist) modified his concept of the Founder Edelmann Village Home based on the results of the community Poll in our Dev+ forums. Here is the revised version, only available to Founders (included as a reward in the Edelmann level pledge). It is a single-story dwelling, comparable in size to the Founder Citizen Village Home:
Here is an interior view:
Here is a side-by-side view of the Shingle-Roof Village Home, Edelmann Village Home, and the Viking Village Home (available in the Add-On Store):
And this overhead view demonstrates how nicely the Edelmann house nestles within a village lot:
We’ll showcase the Benefactor Edelmann Village Home in an future update. It will be similar in scale to the Founder Edelmann Village Home, with variations in layout and external appearance.
NOTE: “Founders” are backers that pledged any amount by May 20, 2013,
and “Benefactors” are backers that pledged after May 20, 2013.
The Two Towers
And for something really different, artists Bob Cooksey and Michael Hutch have crafted The Tower theme, shown here in both the village size and town size:
Here is a view of the entry-level floor of the Tower Town Home, showing the stairs leading up to the second floor, as well as the entrance leading down to the lower level floor (Tower Village Home entry-level floor is slightly smaller and does not include a lower level floor):
Here is a view of the second story room, showing the entrance to the outdoor deck:
And here is a view of the lower floor:
Here is a side-by-side view of the Tower Village Home, Viking Village Home, and the Shingle-Roof Village Home:
And here you can see how the Tower Village Home fits on a village lot:
Get Your Tower Home Now and SAVE 50%!
For a limited time we’re offering a 50% discount on the Tower Homes! The Tower Village is available for $50 (regular $100) and the Tower Town is available for $75 (regular $150)!
Reserve your Tower Home at the Add-On Store!
• You will need a Village, Town, or City Level Property to place the Tower Village home in-game, and a Town or City Level Property to place the Tower Town home in-game.
• Citizen Level pledges and higher will still receive the home included in their rewards if they purchase the Tower Home as an add-on.
48-Hour Unity Scene Jam Starts Today!
Over $10,000 in Prizes
Grand Prize winner receives:
• Shroud of the Avatar Duke Pledge – $5300 value
• Unity Pro License – $1500 value
• Oculus Rift – $300 value
• UnityVS 1.2 License – $249 value
• Alienware Grab Bag (Backpack, mouse, keyboard, headset) – $350 value
Interested? We thought you might be! For all the details, head on over to the 48-Hour Scene Creation Challenge of the Avatar contest page! Better hurry, because the contest starts today, September 20th at 6PM CST (UTC-6)!
Tracy & Laura Hickman’s Sojourner Tales Kickstarter Campaign Reaches Funding Goal!
Congratulations to Tracy & Laura Hickman for reaching their $26,000 Kickstarter funding goal for their awesome board game!
Sojourner Tales is a story based strategy game where players will have to use their wits as they discover and collect the pieces of a mysterious puzzle and try to be the first to complete the epic adventure. And because of the innovative Ebook Story Modules and adaptable design, the tale is different every time you play! So if you love great board games like we do, be sure to check out the Hickman’s Kickstarter page and help them reach their stretch goals before funding closes on Oct 10, 2013.
Ye Olde Add-On Store Specials
In addition to the Tower Village and Tower Town Homes we just included in the Add-On Store, don’t forget about these other great specials that are still available:
Village Lot Property Deeds (25% off)
• Limited Quantity: 157 of 200 left
• Includes Shingle-Roof home (shown were), but at 20 x 30 meters will accommodate the spacious Knight Village Home and Viking Village Home!
Viking Village Home (50% off)
• A two-story dwelling, with a single large room downstairs and a wrap-around loft on the second floor!