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Origin Systems, 1989
MS-DOS, Apple II 和 C64
Origin Systems, 1989
MS-DOS, Apple II and C64
传说骑士（Knights of Legend）手册以一个简短的故事开篇，讲述了这款游戏是如何创建的：1981 年，四名桌面 RPG 玩家坐在一家餐厅里就桌面 RPG 展开辩论。他们喜欢复杂的规则集，但是进行所有计算却又慢又累。
其中一位朋友托德・米切尔・波特（Todd Mitchell Porter）是一名程序员，回到家后，他开始设计一款计算机 RPG，它可以提供所有的复杂性，但又快又容易玩。
他花了八年时间研究这个游戏。原型制作完成后，他将其展示给理查德・加里奥特（Richard Garriott），后者把他签在 Origin Systems 旗下，并在 1989 年以《传说骑士》的名义出版了这款游戏。
这个小背景故事有助于理解我们在这里谈论的是哪种游戏。从描述阿什塔尔（Ashtalarea）地区幻想领域的 150 页手册——包括时间线和精灵语言的附录——到每个 NPC 都有独特的肖像和个性，传说骑士是一部华丽而雄心勃勃的 RPG，充满了手工制作的细节和激情。
Knights of Legend's manual opens with a brief tale on how the game was created: in 1981 a group of four tabletop RPG players sat down in a restaurant to debate tabletop RPGs. They loved complex rulesets, but doing all the calculations they required was slow and tiring.
One of those friends, Todd Mitchell Porter, was a programmer, and upon returning home he began to design a computer RPG that could deliver all that complexity, but was quick and easy to play.
He spent eight years working on the game. When a prototype was done, he showed it to Richard Garriott, who signed him under Origin Systems and published the game in 1989 as Knights of Legend.
This little backstory helps to understand what kind of game we're talking about here. From the 150-page manual that describes the fantasy realm of Ashtalarea – including a timeline and an appendix on Elven language – to the fact that every single NPC has a unique portrait and personality, Knights of Legend is a gorgeous and extremely ambitious RPG, filled with handcrafted details and passion.
《传奇骑士》不仅拥有当时出色的美术，而且还带有编辑工具，允许玩家自定义角色的外观和盾牌设计。
Not only Knights of Legend not only had great artwork for the time, but it also came with an edit tool, allowing players to customise their character's appearance and shield design.
世界地图很大，种类繁多，但除了随机遭遇战斗和寻找任务战斗的地点外，没有什么可做的。
The world map is large and diverse, but there's nothing to do in it besides fighting random encounters and searching for the location of quest battles.
首先创建创建一个由六个角色组成的团队。有人类，精灵和矮人，还有凯尔登人（Keldens），一个巨大的飞行类人动物种族。你可以从 33 个描述丰富的背景中进行选择，而不是等级，比如黑暗守卫（邪恶巫师皮尔达的前卫兵）或乌西普（一个濒临灭绝的小精灵部落）。这些会影响角色的初始属性、武器技能和财富，也会影响 NPC 对他们的反应，因为很多人都会拒绝为黑暗守卫服务或不喜欢矮人。
魔法基于精灵语，必须从巫师那里学习，才能创建针对敌人类型和所需属性的咒语。例如，咒语 DAYNALON 由 DAY（人类），NA（身体），L（中度）和 ON（附近）组成，将对附近人类的身体造成中等程度的伤害。使用 YR 代替 ON 将使它成为远程攻击，而使用 AR 代替 DAY 将会使它针对精灵。
在纸上听起来很酷，但咒语代价昂贵且荒谬至极：对食人魔的咒语对石食人魔没有用，因此很难使用。
一旦你的队伍确定下来，你就以俯视视角探索城镇，通过类似于《创世纪（Ultima）》的关键字与 NPC 交谈，直到你得到一个任务。游戏包含 23 个任务，你必须完成才能解锁最终的任务，但它们大多不相关，而且遵循同样的公式：NPC 要求一个物品，你四处询问线索，了解模糊的提示（比如“搜索城镇以北”），然后到世界地图上搜索它——这把我们带到了《传说骑士》的决定性特点：战斗。
一旦战斗开始，你就会被大量的选项所淹没。战斗是以回合为基础的，每一回合你的角色都可以以三种速度移动（步行、奔跑或冲刺），从数十种攻击组合中进行选择——砍头、砍腿、刺向身体、头撞腿等，并准备一个防御动作，如闪避、跳跃或后退。
You start by creating a party of six characters. There are Humans, Elves and Dwarves, but also Keldens, a race of gigantic flying humanoids. Instead of classes, you choose from 33 richly described backgrounds, like Dark Guard (former guards of the evil wizard Pildar) or Usip (a small tribe of Elves in danger of extinction). These affect characters' initial stats, weapon skills and wealth, and also how NPCs react to them, as many will refuse to serve a Dark Guard or dislike Dwarves.
Magic is based on Elven words, which must be learned from wizards to create spells that target the enemy type and stats you need. For example, the spell DAYNALON is made of DAY (human), NA (body), L (moderate) and ON (nearby), and will moderately damage the body of a nearby human. Using YR instead of ON would make it a long-range spell, while using AR instead of DAY would make it target Elves.
It sounds cool on paper, but spells are expensive and ridiculously specific: a spell against Ogres is useless against Stone Ogres, making them very hard to use.
Once your party is set, you explore towns in a top-down view, talking to NPCs via Ultima-like keywords until you get a quest. The game contains 23 quests you must complete in order to unlock the final quest, but they are all mostly unrelated and follow the same formula: an NPC asks for an item, you ask around for clues, learn vague hints (like “search north of town”) and go to the world map searching for it – which brings us to Knights of Legend's defining feature: combat.
Once a battle begins, you'll be overwhelmed by the amount of options available. Combat is turn-based and each turn your characters can move in three speeds (Walk, Run or Sprint), select from dozens of attack combinations – Hack at Head, Slash at Legs, Thrust at Body, Headbutt at Legs, etc –, and prepare a defensive manoeuvre, like Dodging, Jumping or Backing Up.
《电脑 RPG 游戏史（The CRPG Book Project）》原书信息
英文原版主编：Felipe Pepe
原项目网址：https://crpgbook.wordpress.com/
授权协议：知识共享 署名-非商业性使用 4.0 国际许可协议 (CC BY-NC 4.0)
这本书历时四年，由 119 名志愿者共同完成。
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