Adventures of Blackthorn fact sheet
Parcival, 2003-07-24

General Description

Adventures of Blackthorn is an Ultima spin off, covering the Adventures of Lord Blackthorn from his exile at the end of Ultima V. AOB will use the Dungeon Siege engine.

The team

At the moment the AOB team consists of twenty people. Most of them have a lot of experience in their field of work. The Aob team is one of the largest and experienced teams working on a Ultima remake project.

Storyline

In the first of three planned instalments of AOB you will find yourself in the land of Narcoss. At first your adventures in this mysterious and unexplored continent will focus on survival and defeating the Evils that inhabit this lost continent. In the end however you will be longing for your beloved Britannia. The only way to get back to Britannia may lie within the Guardian and this will bring up the dilemma whether you will make an evil alliance to return to your home land.
A more detailed description of the storyline can be found at the AOB website.

Engine

AOB is made using Dungeon Siege engine. Judgin from the screenshots and the newsflashe on their website, a lot of effort is put in creating new and unique nods, monsters and spells. AOB will use its own dialogue system and will cover new features such as horse riding.
The Magic system on the continent of Narcos consists of three types; Necromacy, Clerical and Sorcery. Necromancy and Clerical Spell systems contradict each other and are at odds. Sorcery is a combination of the first two spell systems.

Website

Aob has a very interesting website that is updated frequently. They have a Forum as well, but the last post dates back to august 2002.

Progress

The AOB team aims at a release of the first installement in Q1 2004. It will be free and and be offered on the internet in downloadable chunks. They will also try to contact game magazines and see if they would be willing to carry it on their Promo CDs.