Each of the 19 races and 20 classes – or castes, as they are known in Realmz – also possesses other advantages or disadvantages, such as fire-resisting demons or regenerating lizardmen. Stats range from movement and attacks per round to racial resistances, hated enemies and even complex ageing charts.

Fine-tuning your party leads to one of Realmz's many surprising strengths – the multiple approaches to certain events. Wandering around Bywater, for example, might lead you to a young boy whose dog has fallen down the well. To help him you can use a rope, have an acrobatic party member flip down into the well, call the town guard, try to use a spell, etc.

This flexibility also lent itself well to combat. Turn-based and highly tactical, combat is reminiscent of SSI's “Gold Box” RPGs, updated to include a mouse-driven interface and improvements such as terrain types, obstacles, guarding against approach and much more. Every battle feels unique as large enemies jump over obstacles, giant bees paralyse the party, necromancers summon undead hordes, squishy rogues chuck flasks of oil to save their lives, etc.

Realmz is a potpourri of old-school pen-andpaper ideas, and nowhere is that more true than magic. There are three different schools of magic, each with their own utility, combat, and scenario-based spells. The Waterworld spell, for example, makes your party able to breath underwater, opening new horizons for you to explore – or allowing you to survive a flash flood in a murky cavern. Casting is mana-based, and you can “overcast” a spell, increasing its mana cost, but also its damage and area of effect.

The scenario is a melange of fantasy that does whatever it pleases, and it's all the more charming for it. Barring some twists and turns, Bywater is a shallow and linear story, but can be surprisingly effective.