我们给自己定了两个目标，一是在电脑上再现纸笔 RPG 的体验，二是再现传统 CRPG 硬核佳作的荣光，毕竟我们就是在这种游戏氛围里长大的。从这两方面看，我们成功了，硬核玩家群体也给出了不错的反馈，但我们也明白，《开拓者》（Pathfinder）^[4] 的规则体系太过庞大，不熟悉桌游的玩家可能会感到棘手，玩得云里雾里。

Two of our main goals were to expand the pen-and-paper experience on CRPGs, and to revive the great old school hardcore CRPG experience, the one we grew up on ourselves. While we succeeded at it and received good feedback from the hardcore audience, we understand that the huge Pathfinder system ruleset was left tricky and unclear in many ways for the new players unfamiliar with the tabletop game.

Alexander Mishulin
Owlcat 创意总监

Alexander Mishulin,
Owlcats's Creative Director

每一句对话，无论它出现在主线剧情中还是看似简单的支线任务里，都可能导致意料之外的丑闻，甚至引发一场大屠杀。《拥王者》的社会系统能带给你罕有 RPG 能够比肩的角色扮演体验，让人不禁回想起当初花在《辐射》（Fallout）和《奥秘》（Arcanum）这两个经典系列上的日日夜夜。想象一下，如果把《异域镇魂曲》（Planescape: Torment）的动态阵营系统无限放大，那会是怎样一幅光景？《拥王者》正是答案。

你的队友对此有相当大的影响。在冒险过程中，你的伙伴会经常对你们所经历的事情发表意见，并且对重要的决策作出反应——无论你是决定将一个食人巨魔王纳为你的臣民，还是留某个土匪一命，只为从他的赃物中分一杯羹。

这种自由是有代价的。要彻彻底底地享受这个游戏，玩家得大致学会整个《开拓者》规则。你必需仔细观察每一个小按钮、消化每一条法术描述，否则，失败的时候，你甚至都不会明白问题出在哪里。此外，至少预留两小时来创建人物，确保你已经理解每个职业、属性、专长、法术和机制都是怎么回事。

这一点在游戏的战斗部分体现得淋漓尽致。《拥王者》尝试和《博德之门》一样，在规则的复杂性和角色扮演的乐趣之间找到平衡，但显然并不成功，游戏的门槛实在太高了。

Every dialogue – be it related to the main quest or to a seemingly easy side task – can potentially turn into an unpredicted scandal or even massacre. Kingmaker's social aspect allows you to role-play as few RPGs do, a call back to all those nights spent in classic Fallout and ***Arcanum games. Imagine Planescape: Torment's dynamic alignment system set on maximum – that's what we're talking about in Kingmaker. Every dialogue – be it related to the main quest or to a seemingly easy side task – can potentially turn into an unpredicted scandal or even massacre. Kingmaker's social aspect allows you to role-play as few RPGs do, a call back to all those nights spent in classic Fallout and Arcanum games. Imagine Planescape: Torment's dynamic alignment system set on maximum – that's what we're talking about in Kingmaker.
Your party members contribute a lot to it. During adventures, your companions often comment on what is going on around them, and react to everything important – be it a decision to assign a man-eating troll king as your liege or sparing the life of a bandit in exchange for a share of what he earns stealing.
All this freedom came at a price. To enjoy the game in full measure you will have to basically learn the entire Pathfinder ruleset while you play – every little button or spell description must be read carefully and digested, or you will fail without even knowing what you did wrong. Prepare yourself for a two-hour-long character creation, and be sure to comprehend what every class, stat, feat, spell and mechanic is about.
Nowhere that's more evident than in the game's combat. Kingmaker* tries to follow Baldur's Gate in balancing between complexity and role-playing fun, but fails due to its extremely high entry threshold.

即便你设法渡过了创建人物的难关，车出了一个不错的角色^[5] ，等到真正开始游戏时，你又会发现敌人种类繁杂，个个都穷凶极恶，想方设法要置你于死地。这带来了许多让人记忆深刻的战斗，让你有机会充分运用这套丰富的规则系统，但同样也会造成不少难解的困局，因为你暂时没弄明白、甚至可能永远都弄不明白正确的解法。如果是现实中的跑团，主持人会处理这种情况，但在《拥王者》中，你能依靠的只有自己。

这也导致了一些问题。比如，游戏发售之后可谓是恶评如潮，许多新玩家抱怨说，游戏根本没有提示他们蜘蛛集群^[6] 免疫物理武器伤害，但用火焰法术和投掷瓶^[7] 却有奇效。有些时候，你可能会卡进度，或是浪费好几个小时来读档重打，而这正是《拥王者》最大的问题——问题不在于难度本身，而在于游戏设计缺陷导致玩家浪费时间、丢失进度，这会让人相当烦躁。

现在，Owlcat Games 正忙着制作一部和《拥王者》本体没有直接联系的续作：《开拓者：正义之怒》（Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous，2021）。这部作品同样在 Kickstarter 上发起众筹，不到三天就达到了目标金额——这证明人们对这个游戏还是有相当的热情。不过，纵然许多 CRPG 爱好者希望将《开拓者》规则打造得更为宏大丰富、震撼人心，开发者也需要把游戏设计得更易上手。《拥王者》值得拥有比现在更高的人气，而我相信，在电子游戏中，《开拓者》宇宙将有一个光明的未来。

Even if you manage to navigate character creation and make a decent character, you still have to prepare for a massive bestiary that will employ every trick in the book to destroy you. While many of these lead to memorable battles that allow you to fully employ the game's rich systems, others require specific approaches that may be unclear or simply not available to you. In a tabletop RPG the game master would handle these situations, but here you are left entirely on your own.

This led to issues like the game being review bombed on release for not explaining to newcomers that a swarm of little spiders is immune to sword attacks but vulnerable to fire spells and throwable flasks. There are several moments where you might get stuck or waste hours backtracking, and that's Kingmaker's biggest problem – not difficulty per se, but the frustration of losing time and progress due to design flaws.

Right now, Owlcat Games is busy making the indirect sequel, Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous (2021), which met its Kickstarter goal in less than three days. That says a lot. While so many CRPG fans want to make Pathfinder bigger, richer and glorious, it's in the hands of the devs to make it more accessible too. Kingmaker certainly deserves more fame than it got, and I'm sure there's a bright future for the whole Pathfinder universe in video games.

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⁴ 译者注：《开拓者》（常称为“PF”）是一套与 3r 版 D&D 较为相似的 RPG 桌游规则，出版商为 Paizo。
⁵ 译者注：“车”为跑团用语，指创建、打造一张人物卡。
⁶ 译者注：集群，即 swarm，是《开拓者》规则中的一个生物亚种，也存在于在许多跑团规则之中。集群，顾名思义，是一些超微型、微型或超小型生物的集合，它们通常可以免疫或是降低来自刀剑等武器的伤害，用 AOE 处理它们往往有奇效。
⁷ 译者注：指炽火胶、酸液瓶等炼金武器，投掷命中后通常造成范围伤害或溅射伤害。