When I first started thinking about the idea of an alternate replay of The Black Gate, I knew that I would have to catch up with Richard Garriott to talk to him about it and the series in general. I had a lot of questions that couldn't be answered by playing the game or reading about it at my favorite fan sites.

Luckily Richard loves to talk about the history of Ultima as much as I enjoy listening, so he obliged me an hour of his time to pick at his brain.  What I learned was that, despite my feelings to the contrary, it was never his intention to tear the world the world he created in the final three games. It was obviously the grand finale for the avatar, but it didn't mean the end of the Ultima series.

 

After talking to him for an hour, there was one thing I wished for: that someday Richard or someone else will dust this franchise off and give it another go. Ultima is unlike any other role-playing game series I have ever played and it will always have a special place in my heart. These games that have shaped the way I think about entertainment, characters and values in games forever and I’m thankful for the experiences I’ve had for two decades. I know that sounds a bit fanboyish, but I don't really care - I am an Ultima Dragon, after all.

 

You can read the first part of my conversation with Richard below:

 

Eight Virtues in a Duffel Bag: The Richard Garriott Interview - Part I

 

 

 

Passion Play:

Unlike Paul on the road to Damascus, there was no enlighten for me as I made my way to Britain - unless you count the Guardian’s helpful interjections. Just north of Trinsic a trio of Fellowship members put on a passion play... about the Fellowship. Good to see they were thinking outside the box. Now they aresleeping inside a box.

Men Killed: 2

Women Killed: 1

Passion Killed: 0

Dungeon Destard Entrances:

A unicorn and a trio of adventurers walk into the dungeon Destard. The adventurer says to the beast "How do you know if someone is a virgin?" The Unicorn replies "I don't know - the Avatar just stabbed me in my face."

Adventurers Killed: 3

Mythological Creatures Killed: 1

Virgins Killed: 1

 

Paws:

Now that's what I call service: when you can buy your meat and your fix in the same place, that is. Nobody in this town will ride the snake ever again.

 

Men Killed: 6

Women Killed: 5

Children Killed: 2

Homeless Killed: 2

 

Total Kills: 20

 

 

 

The walled city of Trinsic has fallen.  A full accounting at a time to be determined, but here are the details.

Trinsic Murder Stats:

Men Killed: 10

Women Killed: 3

Children Killed: 0

Respawns Killed: 6 *

* The respawns included a horse, 2 dogs, a cat and two of Chantu the Healer's patients. These kinds of NPCs seem to respawn, so killing them is pointless.

 

Kill Order Chain:

Caroline (Fellowship member) -> Dell (Provisioner) -> Markus (Trainer) -> Apolliana (Barmaid) -> Petre (Stable Hand) -> Gargan (Shipwright) -> Klog (Fellowship Leader) -> Ellen (Klog's Wife) -> Chantu (Healer) -> Gilberto (Town Guard) -> Finnegan (Mayor) -> North Guard -> East Guard -> South Guard.

Only two survived the carnage - both companions: Spark and Iolo. No doubt, these two will eventually get tired of my wickedness and leave the party. When that happens I will have choice but to kill them. These are the rules, after all.

Image courtesy of Silva's Ultima page.

If you are unfamiliar with what's going on here, then you might want to read my introduction to the concept first. While I was thinking about this experiment, I realized that I had a few goals I wanted to accomplish:

1) kill everyone

 2) beat the game.

 

In order to do this - and to do it in a way that wasn't a cheat-enabled speed run, I came up with seven rules, though only six really apply to the main goal.. They are as follows:

 

1. Do not use cheats.
As tempting as it is to climb the roof to the workshop in Trinsic at the beginning of the game and get the Death Scythe at the beginning of the game, it makes the entire experiment pointless.

2. Play the game as if the Forge of Virtue does not exist.
The Forge of Virtue gives you the Black Rock Sword, which makes it too easy to kill Lord British. It is important to do it the old fashioned way. The add-on also maxes out just about all of your stats which makes killing everyone way too easy. To do this right I’m going to have to suffer for my art.

3. Do not count NPCs that respawn such as guards, patients, and animals.
I want to have a true, full accounting of all the citizens in the world that can be killed, so counting respawns would be a misrepresentation.

4. Do not kill companions unless they leave the party of their own free will.
I will end up killing all of my companions - there is simply no way around that fact. But where they die will be up to the game and out of my control.

5. Do not kill NPCs that are part of a quest chain until after it is complete.
The goal is to finish the game and to kill everyone. I am not certain that it can be done, but I am going to try to take it to the very bitter end.

6. Do not use Armageddon.
Using the Armageddon spell is too easy and ends all plotlines, so it will not be used as part of the experiment.

7. Drug use is perfectly acceptable.
 I may or may not use drugs during the course of this game. I don't condone drug use in real life for the record. The point of doing this is to see the permanent affects on the Avatar.

As you can see from the screenshot above, i've done a dry run, with no loose ends in Trinsic. More on that later..

 I have been writing an article about a rather dark replay of Ultima VII: The Black Gate. I won't go into too many details here in this blog post, but I thought it would be interesting to share some murder stats with you for each town in the game (look for those sporadically when I feel like it). First a little background on why I would be demented enough to play one of my favorite games this way.

The Black Gate is one of the darkest Ultima games I have ever played. It was the first game in the series where even the bad guys blurted out idle threats and begged for mercy as they ran away from particularly vicious fights with my party of do-gooders. Would the Avatar of old relent if such pleas for mercy were blurted out in his presence. That old saint, that selfless godhead of virtue who came from Earth through a moongate that appeared in his backyard, would undoubtedly sheath his sword.

But the Avatar of Ultima VII is not the same man he was so many years ago. I don't want to say that he is an evil man, but the simple fact that all of his actions in this world proved to be a cause of a lot of subsequent problems over the years have worn him down.

Maybe he is sliding down a slippery slope. Perhaps his patience has become paper thin. Maybe (I imagine to justify my actions) he thinks "it is okay if I kill this pirate because he's a bad guy who gets drunk, beats his wife and engages in bloodthirsty high seas treachery."  One little step. Then you are wiping the blood of women and children off your sword.

Or maybe I have changed. I just feel like these people are so evil. Maybe the smart assed noble that thinks he's better than me - the guy who pulled this world's ass out of the fire more times than he cares to remember (you're welcomed Britannia!!) - needs to be acquainted with one of the dozen glass swords I’m fond of carrying. I saved the world to be treated like this - with such disdain and disregard?

Even Old Lord British raises my ire, sitting on his throne and pretending this world is a perfect place. The daft old earthling doesn't even know that an innocent man is locked away in a tower above his castle..

And then the darkest thought of all comes to mind: why does this world deserve to be saved? It doesn’t.

 

To be continued…