上古卷轴：竞技场 The Elder Scrolls: Arena p.200

大部分《领域》里的场景都是针对战斗而设计的，因为一般 RPG 游戏确实缺少战斗的细节。的确，许多游戏都可以让你战斗，但是他们对于战斗后的角色成长做得并不是很细。我已经厌倦了把你的角色简单定义成三条彩线：血量，攻击和防御的游戏。我希望有一款游戏可以让我深入了解角色的各项数据。这就是我认为《领域》这款游戏可以被称为极品的地方。

Most of the Realmz scenarios have been aimed towards hackand-slash as that area is really lacking in RPGs. Sure, there are games out there that give you hack-and-slash, but they don't go into enough detail with character development. I got so sick of games that had your character broken down into 3 coloured lines: Health, Attack and Defense. I wanted a game that let me get into the nuts and bolts of a character's stats. That is where I think Realmz top-of-the-line.

Tim Phillips,
《领域》作者

Tim Phillips,
Realmz's creator

无论如何，扎实而不同角度的角色塑造结合上充满变数的遭遇和事件成功说服了玩家注册他们的游戏。注册游戏后，玩家不但解锁了拜沃特市的所有场景，而且还解锁了高级场景——“瘟疫序幕”（Prelude to Pestilence），同时还可以创建更高等级的角色。如果你在拜沃特市内冒险时没有巧妙地分配时间，你就会需要这个功能（或者你游玩了很久，导致你的角色过于强大）。战斗很快就会变得复杂，尤其是你遇到会魔法的敌人，和在学会战斗中运用增益效果和减益效果之后。

但别弄错了，游戏的精髓在于围绕你角色和小队发生的故事，以及可以招募的盟友。例如友好的巫师沃达利亚（Vodalian），或是一个在当地妓院里醉醺醺的侏儒雷佩（Reppep Rd）。你可以尽情想象你的队友和他们的故事，但是更为有趣的是亲自创造更多的角色，这也是开发者 Tim Phillips 所允许的。

Regardless, the solid and multifaceted character-building combined with the flexible encounters and events successfully convinced players to register their games, which not only unlocked all of Bywater, but gave access to the Prelude to Pestilence scenario, a higher-level scenario, while also offering the ability to create high-level characters. Which you'd end up needing if you didn't spend your time wisely in Bywater (or spent too much time, and become a little too strong). Combat can become very complex very quickly, especially when magical enemies, buffs and debuffs come into play.

But make no mistake – the meat of the game was the stories you built around your characters and party; as well as recruitable allies such as the friendly wizard Vodalian, or Reppep Rd, a drunk dwarf found in the local brothel. Being able to imagine your party and their stories, however, is probably what lead so many fans to want to create more, and developer Tim Phillips allowed them just that.

在 2001 年，Fantasoft 发布了《新百夫长（New Centurions）》，一款基于《领域》的引擎的科幻背景 RPG 游戏，它只发布于 Mac 平台，并且很快就无法下载了。

In 2001 Fantasoft released New Centurions, a sci-fi RPG based on Realmz's engine. It was only released for Mac, and is no longer available for download.

《领域》的神力工具包（Realmz Divinity）^[3] 比之于今天的模组工具来说是相当原始的。但是在当时，它可以让游戏的粉丝随心所欲地创建属于自己场景。你甚至可以发行自己的作品，以期有人用金钱奖励你的劳动；或是和你的朋友分享；亦或是在九十年代自由、狂野、无拘无束的互联网上自由传播。

《领域》很大程度上确实做到了这一点。即使当年的游戏社区不像今天这样繁荣，访问互联网不像如今这么容易，门槛也不如现在这么低，但这样一个真诚的共享游戏软件从 1994 年一直活跃到 21 世纪早期，就如同一张古卷，记载着游戏爱好者们所书写的传说。

对于所有《领域》的缺陷——庞杂的用户界面与玩家手册，那只不过是希望玩家尊重他们罢了；有点麻烦的武器切换机制，却会随着你玩的时间越长而越熟悉；如迷宫般的快捷键，且没有真正的固定用途——但也是它的优势，它值得被你记住。毕竟，在《领域》中，永远都有新的领域等待你去探索。

The Realmz Divinity toolset is fairly primitive by today's standards for mod tools, but at the time it allowed fans of the game to create their own scenarios to do with as they pleased. You could even license them in the hopes that someone would pay you for your time, share them with friends or spread it freely, on the wild and untamed Internet of the early 90s.

And many did. Though it never flourished in the way gaming communities have now, with easier access to the Internet and fewer barriers to entry, the fact that a humble shareware game survived from 1994 to the early 00s is a testament to the stories fans created.

For all the faults Realmz has – a hefty interface and manual that wants players to pay respect to them, a somewhat cumbersome weapon-swapping mechanic that becomes remarkably intuitive the longer you play, a blistering maze of hotkeys, and no real end-state – those too are its strengths, as well, and it deserves to be remembered for them. There are still realms out there waiting to be explored, after all.

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³ 译者注：神力工具包是一个软件开发工具包（Software development kit）。它允许对于编程一无所知的人也能设计出自己想要的 RPG 游戏。因为其可以赋予玩家如同游戏中众神的力量而被命名为“神力”。