British writer

At three o'clock in the afternoon,

The sun shines slantingly on the lawn,

The world is warmly dyed golden yellow, as if covered with a layer of bright and cheerful gauze.

In the center of the field, the winner of the last table is about to be decided.

There were crowds of onlookers all around.

"I think we should mortgage the entire station and build a house."

"The station cannot be sold. The water flows slowly and there is a way out."

"Two people have already gone bankrupt, and there is a lot of unclaimed land on the map. It is inevitable that there will be long nights and many dreams. Therefore, the party with the advantage must fight quickly and cannot rely on luck."

…

Lu Shi wanted to laugh when he heard this.

These British people have absolutely no consciousness of "a true gentleman who watches chess but does not speak".

Margarita came closer,

"Professor Lu, why don't you go into the palace? His Majesty the King is in the study."

Lu Shi nodded,

"good."

Stephenson led the way to the study door and knocked gently.

The voice of Edward VII came from inside,

"Come in."

Lu Shi then pushed open the door and entered.

Compared to the Victorian era, the layout of the study has not changed much;

There are bookshelves lined with bookshelves and the smell of ink is fragrant.

Elegant and solemn.

The walls are hung with portraits and medals of past monarchs, showing the history and glory of the royal family.

In the center of the room is a mahogany desk.

At this time, Edward VII was sitting across the table from the Parker brothers, playing with the little figures on the table.

He had an unkempt beard and blood-red eyes, making him look like a primitive man.

Suddenly, he said: "Cut! Quick! I'm going to use slashing! Hahahahaha! I'm going to chop off your head!"

"Forehead……"

George Pike hesitated;

"Your Majesty, I must remind you that you are using... the role of Gandalf."

Edward VII was stunned.

"Shit!"

He cursed with no regard for image.

Edward Pike next to him couldn't help laughing, but thinking of the other person's identity, he quickly turned his head and tried to keep his face straight.

His Majesty the King's face darkened.

"ED, you kid, you actually laughed at me!?"

Edward waved his hand,

"No...well, I'm sorry, Your Majesty, I couldn't help it."

After saying that, he quickly explained: "You know me. I have been professionally trained. No matter how funny it is, I will never laugh...unless I can't help it."

Edward VII burst into tears on the spot and uttered garbled words:

"!@#*￥%..."

Lu Shi stepped forward,

"His Majesty."

King Edward VII looked back at him and said: "Lu, you finally... Come on, come on, give me your opinion! In the novel, Gandalf is clearly a melee mage, and he can wield a stick like a tiger. How did he get into the game? Is it that much weaker?"

This is what I said,

For people who don’t know, they think Gandalf is Lu Junyi’s Western Disciple~

Lu Shi looked at the Parker brothers.

The two of them smiled bitterly,

George said: "Your Majesty, this script is not something you can read alone. It requires division of labor."

Edward VII was very dissatisfied;

"Why? Wasn't my previous script a one-way pass? I used my strider to chop melons and vegetables."

The so-called "Strider" is the character Aragorn in "The Lord of the Rings".

Unexpectedly, Edward VII was also a book lover.

George explained: "Your Majesty, the reason is what I told you before. It is a novice teaching script, used to familiarize game participants with the rules, so they can pass it alone. Moreover, you have to consider the first script to guard the boss. It’s difficult.”

Lu Shi asked curiously: "What is the boss?"

George said, "Warg."

Wargs appeared in the Battle of Helm's Deep in "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers".

During the retreat of the Kingdom of Rohan, they were attacked by wolf knights. Wargs were their mounts.

Its bite is powerful and its charge is ferocious, but its combat power is average. It is indeed suitable as a gatekeeper boss in novice scripts.

Lu Shi said: "It makes sense for Aragorn to challenge a wolf alone."

Edward VII was still unhappy;

"I've been up all night for three days, but I haven't been able to study the Balrog... well... it's not right either."

He glanced at George,

"You don't agree with the customs clearance route I studied before."

"Ah this..."

George was embarrassed.

Edward VII hummed, handed the script to Lu Shi, and then said, "Read it yourself."

Lu Shi glanced at it,

I saw traces of alterations on the script.

The original printed words read:

“The smell of sulfur spews out of the rock-walled caves, making you sick to your stomach.”

Now it becomes:

"

The sulfur-smelling gas seems poisonous!

No one can get close.

"

Obviously, this was a bug that the brothers fixed on the spot.

Lu Shi laughed,

"Your Majesty, you are doing internal testing."

Edward VII looked puzzled;

“What is ‘internal testing’?”

"Forehead……"

Lu Shi paused slightly and answered: "A tabletop game cannot be completely reasonable right after it is made. Take "Monopoly" as an example. How much capital does each player have initially, how much does it cost to build a house... "

He knows all the settings at his fingertips.

The Parker brothers next to them could not help but show complicated expressions as they listened.

"Monopoly", they did have an internal test, on the cruise ship from London to the United States, the gentlemen of the club took turns to play,

But there were no problems like what Lu Shi mentioned.

Therefore, "a tabletop game cannot be completely reasonable right after it is made" is a complete lie.

A certain pervert named Lu can do it.

Edward VII didn't know this;

He was a little proud,

"So, in a way, I am also the designer of "The Lord of the Rings"?"

Lu Shi: "..."

After a short moment of silence, he nodded repeatedly,

"Ah, yes, yes!"

His Majesty the King was even more proud. He winked at Brother Parker and said, "Da Qiao, ED, you still have to pay me my salary~"

George: "..."

Edward: "..."

The two were silent for a while, and then said: "Ah, yes, yes!"

Edward VII:

"Hahahahaha!"

Smiling like a kid weighing 180 pounds.

Looking at that, he was finally made happy.

He stood up and stretched, bringing up a gust of wind,

Then, he sniffed as if he smelled something, then he picked up the red cashmere cloak he was carrying with his right index finger and thumb and put it under his nose to smell it.

"Ugh..."

Almost vomited.

Probably because I study the script every day and haven't taken a shower for a long time.

The atmosphere at the scene was a bit awkward.

"..."

"..."

"..."

The four of them looked at each other, but no one said anything.

Half a minute later, Edward VII spoke up: "Lu, I have heard that this time you went to Stockholm, not only did you get Monson, but you also wrote a science fiction novel?"

Talking about business seriously, as if the embarrassment just now never happened.

Lu Shi nodded,

"It's called "Morning Road." In fact, I wrote another novella in France - "Animal Farm."

Edward VII sighed,

"I discovered that when you write science fiction novels, you like to publish them in France."

Lu Shi was a little surprised,

"Your Majesty, do you also read science fiction? Do you understand... I mean, you don't have to worry. I have entrusted the French publisher Mr. Alex Herzel to publish "Chao Wen Dao" and "The Way of the Morning". "Animal Farm" is compiled into one book, translated into various languages ​​and published."

Edward VII nodded,

"very good."

After that, there was another strange silence.

Lu Shi coughed lightly,

"Your Majesty, the first day of the Monopoly Grand Prix competition is about to end. How about you go and show your face?"

What Edward VII wanted was this level.

"Okay, have fun with the people, I'll go right away."

He quickly walked out of the study.

"Huh~"

The Parker brothers let out a sigh of relief at the same time.

George expressed his bitterness.

"Professor Lu, His Majesty the King loves to play too much! At first, he pestered us to play "Monopoly". Later, when he heard about "The Lord of the Rings", he became addicted to trying it again, and even summoned us in the middle of the night. Went to Buckingham Palace to study how to read the script.”

Lu Shi also didn't expect that Edward VII was a homebody.

He waved his hand,

"Forget it, don't talk about this."

George said "hmm", handed over the game box, and said, "Professor Lu, can you help me take a look?"

There are five scripts lying in the box, running through the plots of the two books "The Fellowship of the Ring" and "The Two Towers".

Protruding a large amount of tube full.

Lu Shi spread his hands,

"Are we so honest in doing business?"

Edward muttered: "I still think this is not enough~"

Lu Shi:? ? ?

"Not enough? The content is already huge."

A rough estimate is that the text of the script is at least 50,000 words.

George quickly explained: "Edward is not saying that the content is not enough, but that this kind of "Lord of the Rings" is not enough to occupy the living room at every family's Christmas party."

Edward echoed: "We hope that Parker Brothers table games will become more popular than poker."

They are ambitious, and their ideals are as lofty as Sony's launch of the PS console.

"It's very difficult," Lu Shi said.

George was helpless,

"Yeah, even Monopoly can't do it."

Lu Shi fell into deep thought,

After a long while, he asked: "What do you think is the weakness of this set of "Lord of the Rings"?"

Edward said: "The replayability is poor."

He picked up the script and shook it,

"For example, the Balrog version that King Edward just played has fixed clearance conditions and fixed roles that players can play. In this way, once you have played it once, will you play it again?"

Lu Shi nodded in agreement,

This is the characteristic of role-playing, just like a can, you can eat it immediately after opening it and throw it away after eating it.

Of course, at the beginning of the 20th century, there must have been many people who liked to play over and over again, just like Edward VII.

After all, there is very little entertainment these days.

But this group of die-hard fans was not enough to support the Parker brothers' dream of "occupying the living room."

Lu Shi said: "Then this time "The Lord of the Rings" needs more changes than "Monopoly."

Edward said: "Da Qiao and I have thought about it. There are two main reasons why each game of Monopoly is different. First, the dice, which is luck; second, confrontation, which means the participants in each game are different. ."

As he spoke, he looked at the script,

"But it's difficult to achieve these two points in "Lord of the Rings". Let's talk about dice first. The script is fixed, so how does luck affect the progress of the game?"

Lu Shi picked up the newbie notebook,

In the last boss, the Warg, there are various conditions for clearance.

For example:

Aragorn uses three slashes.

In other words, Parker Brothers numerically digitized the game, but not completely.

As many as possible.

Lu Shi nodded,

"Go on to the second point."

Edward continued: "Then there is the problem of game participants. Role reversal does not make the game more interesting. Take George and I as an example. The first time, I played Aragorn and he played Gandalf; the second time, he played Playing as Aragorn and me as Gandalf, but because the script is fixed and our actions are basically predictable, it does not improve the fun of the game, and may even decrease it."

George took over the topic,

"Professor Lu, the cost of this set of games is high, and the price is naturally high. If it cannot provide players with more than fifteen hours of gaming experience, then for players, it is better to buy a copy of "Roger Mystery" read."

Lu Shi's head was full of black lines,

￣□￣｜｜

"'Roger's Mystery' is inherently entertaining."

George was embarrassed,

"Feel sorry."

Lu Shi continued: "Besides, there is a problem with your calculation. Playing tabletop games is a multi-person activity, but what about reading? Even if you go to the library, it is a single person activity."

George was convinced;

"What Professor Lu means is, can this "Lord of the Rings" work?"

Lu Shi shrugged noncommittally.

"It's definitely no problem to make money. But if you want to spread it over a large area, you have to carry out renovations."

He picked up his new notebook,

"here."

The Pike brothers turned around and realized that Lu Shi was referring to the boss warg.

Edward was puzzled;

"Any questions?"

Lu Shinian said:

"

‘Aragorn uses three slashes. ’

"

Edward said "Ah" and said: "These are the conditions for customs clearance. Is there something wrong with our expression?"

Lu Shi smiled,

"I'll give you a hint."

He looked around and glanced at the quill inserted in the inkwell. He knew that it was used by Edward VII to sign documents and did not dare to use it.

George groped at his body,

"Here! I brought a pen!"

Lu Shi took it and wrote a formula directly on the script:

30=10×3.

George and Edward exchanged glances,

Vaguely, they felt like they had caught something.

Lu Shi smiled and said: "Actually, this idea has been used in your own board game "Cuban War". You have set different armors for the British and Spanish warships, right?"

Edward suddenly realized,

"I... understand! The blood volume... you are talking about the blood volume! Assuming that the warg has 30 blood, then each attack of the slash is 10 blood."

George added: "Twelve blood is okay, because you can't kill with 24 blood, and you can overflow with 36 blood. This setting makes it possible to optimize the combat process, and avid game enthusiasts like King Edward will continue to study it." "

Lu Shi stretched out his finger,

"Bingo! But that's not the most important thing."

He wrote another line on the paper:

6~12.

George's eyes lit up,

"This...this is luck!"

Lu Shi said: "Yes, the values ​​can fluctuate. If an Aragorn is very unlucky, then it may take five slashes to defeat the warg."

George and Edward looked at each other and admired Lu Shi from the bottom of their hearts.

This man is amazing!

Edward asked: "What about the second point? Regarding role-playing..."

Lu Shi pondered for a moment and said, "You can role-play, but don't play it so thoroughly."

Edward was confused when he heard this.

"Wha...what?"

Lu Shi gave an example:

"For example, if you play Aragorn and Joe plays Gandalf, this is complete role-playing. What if you play a warrior and he plays a mage?"

A word to wake up the dreamer,

Edward showed a look of realization.

George was puzzled.

"What...what do you mean? Why do I feel there is no difference? Isn't Aragorn a warrior?"

Lu Shi laughed,

"Then, 'Gandalf is obviously a melee mage and can wield a stick like a tiger, but why is he so weak in the game?'"

These are the original words of Edward VII,

Just now, George felt stupid.

But when Lu Shi said it, the taste was different, as if he had something to say.

Edward sighed,

"Brother, are you too stupid? Professor Lu has made it very obvious."

He dragged the paper in front of Lu Shi and wrote three lines:

Slash: 6~12;

Shield Bash: 2~16;

Inspire: Gives all teammates +5 for their next two attacks.

Edward said: "Suppose we give the warrior three skills to choose from at the beginning. Those who like stability will choose slashing; those who like high risk and high returns will choose shield bash; those who like assistance will choose inspiration."

George also understood,

"So, although they are both Aragon, they are completely different Aragon."

Edward scratched his head and said: "What you said is a bit strange. In my opinion, it's just a different fighting style."

Lu Shi said: "These are just occupations and skills. The settings can be diverse."

Edward was shocked;

"besides?"

Lu Shi said "hmm\

,""Don't forget, there are many races in the Middle-earth world of "Lord of the Rings". For example, Aragorn, humans, warriors, right? Can we give humans a characteristic? In this way, how much can be added by combining professions and races? What’s the possibility?”

Edward: "..."

George: "..."

They were all speechless.

The two brothers were obviously veterans of tabletop games for many years, but in front of Lu Shi, they were as immature as primary school students.

Any idea you have is worth a thousand pieces of gold.

As a result, Lu Shi hadn't finished speaking yet.

He continued: "In addition, there are many things that can be made. For example, combat rewards. Your character defeated the warg in the beginner's book. Isn't there any reward?"

Edward frowned and rubbed it gently with his fingers.

"award?"

Lu Shi said: "For example, equipment. They are also in "The Cuban War"."

Edward:! ! !

"You mean, just like strengthening the artillery on a ship to improve its armor-piercing capability, you can enhance the character's combat capability by allocating equipment to the character?"

Lu Shi said: "Even if you don't have equipment, you can still have combat experience."

Edward: "..."

He found that he could never keep up with Lu Shi's thinking and was already in despair.

"Combat experience? What is that?"

Lu Shi enlightened: "The simplest truth is that on the battlefield, the more experienced the veteran is, the better he knows how to kill people. If you go out with eggs, you will pee. Of course, experienced people can escape faster. This is not a setting. direction."

George and Edward automatically filtered out the second half of the sentence about escape.

George said: "You mean, as combat experience increases, the character's combat ability also increases?"

Lu Shi pointed out: "Maybe you can learn new skills~ For example, you can only slash at the beginning, and after upgrading, you can learn one from shield and inspiration."

upgrade……

Another new concept.

But it is not difficult to understand literally. It is a bit similar to military ranks in the army.

Edward lowered his head and wrote and drew frantically on the paper.

Lu Shi said: "ED, Da Qiao, you don't have much time. If you want to make major changes to "The Lord of the Rings", you must do it as soon as possible."

George pondered,

"It is not difficult and difficult to digitize the game. Who doesn't know how to set the blood volume and damage? The key point is how to make these numbers reasonable so that the game will not be too difficult or too easy. Is it really necessary to conduct internal testing..."

I haven’t finished speaking yet,

Squeak——

The door was suddenly opened.

Edward VII had obviously just taken a shower and walked in refreshed, with even a faint scent of perfume on his body.

He said: "How, did you..." while I was away?

Edward stood up immediately,

"His Majesty!"

As he spoke, he suddenly grabbed His Majesty the King's right arm.

Edward VII:? ? ?

"What...what?"

Edward said: "Your Majesty, be prepared. You don't have to sleep for these three days."

His Majesty the King was confused;

"Hey, hey, hey! Don't...don't come over!"

George on the side quickly said: "Your Majesty, don't you like to be an internal test player of "Lord of the Rings"? Now, a great opportunity is right in front of you!"

Hearing that it was a tabletop game, Edward VII breathed a sigh of relief.

"Okay, the worst I can do is not wash for three days...ahem..."

He trimmed his hair,

"Let's get started."

But I can't admit to myself that I don't take a shower.