封面图片来自Anastasia Ershova
Header image by Anastasia Ershova
粉丝聚光灯：珍妮弗·米尔沃德
Fan Spotlight: Jennifer Milward
2024年4月23日
Apr 23, 2024
今天是世界读书日，我们很高兴地展示珍妮弗·米尔沃德的同人作品，她是古墓丽影社区的资深成员。珍妮弗以其为众多粉丝项目中的劳拉·克劳馥配音而闻名，并撰写短篇同人小说和两部基于《古墓丽影：黑暗天使》的非官方同人小说。多年来，她的贡献广泛，从协助彼得·康奈利的《黑暗天使交响乐》，到担任murtischofield.com（《古墓丽影：黑暗天使》首席编剧默蒂·斯科菲尔德的官方网站）网站建设者和档案员。最近，珍妮弗还在雷克瑟姆大学发表了一场题为“从像素到散文”演讲，讨论了将游戏叙事改编成书籍所面临的挑战。
Today, on World Book Day, we are delighted to showcase the fan-made works of Jennifer Milward, one of the Tomb Raider community veterans. Jenni is known for lending her voice as Lara Croft in many fan projects, as well as for writing short fanfiction stories and two unofficial fanfiction novels based on Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness. Her contributions over the years have been extensive, ranging from assisting in Peter Connelly’s The Dark Angel Symphony, to being the web builder and one of the archivists for murtischofield.com (the official website of lead writer for Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness, Murti Schofield). Recently, Jenni also delivered a presentation at Wrexham University, discussing the challenges of adapting game narratives into books, titled ‘From Pixels to Prose’.
问：你的古墓丽影之旅是如何开始的？
Q: How did your Tomb Raider journey start?
这原本是个笑话。说真的。直到1999年，我只是通过过度性感的营销手段才知道古墓丽影，这绝对不是我的菜。然后我妈妈看到《古墓丽影：最后的启示》的电视广告说：“这看起来很有趣！”于是我们把它当作圣诞节的玩笑礼物买给了她……而我很快就意识到劳拉·克劳馥这个角色远远不止是一个拥有枪支的丰满女孩。在教程关卡结束时，我爱上了这款以解谜和平台为主的游戏玩法以及劳拉的角色。在接下来的几年里，我沉迷于前几款游戏、《古墓丽影：历代记》和《黑暗天使》。不久之后，我就注册了古墓丽影论坛，开始与粉丝聊天，扩展了我对这个系列的热爱，以及对由极具创造力、热情和古怪粉丝组成的社区的热爱。
It was a joke. Literally. Up till 1999, I’d only known Tomb Raider via the over-sexualised marketing; definitely not my scene. Then my Mum saw a TV advert for The Last Revelation and said: “That looks like fun!” Cue us buying it for her as a joke Christmas present… and me quickly realising that the character of Lara Croft was far, far more than a busty girl with guns. By the end of the tutorial level, I’d fallen in love with both the puzzle- and platform-heavy gameplay and Lara’s character. Over the next few years, I devoured the first games, Chronicles, and The Angel of Darkness. It wasn’t long before I had signed up to Tomb Raider forums and started chatting with fellow fans, expanding my love of the franchise and the enormously creative, passionate, and whacky people who formed the fan community.
问：在社区中，你以非官方的劳拉·克劳馥配音演员而闻名，曾为多个项目配音，如Titak的自制关卡《阿瓦隆之雾》、MD的自制关卡《世界大战》、Nicobass的《古墓丽影：西安匕首》粉丝重制试玩版，以及Simon Bucher的《古墓丽影历史与地理》YouTube系列。是什么激发了你对配音的兴趣？
Q: You are known as the unofficial Lara Croft voice actress within the community, having lent your voice to various projects such as Titak's TRLE: The Mists of Avalon, MD's TRLE: War of the Worlds, Nicobass' Tomb Raider: Dagger of Xian fan-made remake demo, and Simon Bucher's History & Geography in Tomb Raider YouTube series, to name a few. What sparked your interest in voice acting?
我一直对通过口头讲述故事着迷；我仍然可以背诵出我童年时听过的大部分有声读物，我还记得我当时对那些通过语调、重音和口音就能完全描绘出整个角色、氛围和情节的敬畏之情。2006年，我在论坛的古墓丽影自制关卡板块浏览时，看到有人请求为他们自制关卡的劳拉配音。要求简单：“女性和英国人”，因为这就是我，而且我没有什么可失去的，所以我给他们发了一段我朗读《最后的启示》台词的小样。他们立刻回复并问我是否可以录制整个剧本，所以我想我做到了！古墓丽影自制关卡社区之间联系非常紧密，很大程度上依赖于口碑传播，不久之后，我开始从不同的人那里收到更多为他们的项目配音的请求。一年内，我已经从自制关卡跳到了粉丝制作的动画、预告片、模组展示，甚至是像纪录片这样的长篇项目。十八年后，我仍然对这些粉丝创作作品的丰富性和多样性感到惊叹，并且非常幸运能成为其中的一员。
Telling stories through the spoken word has always fascinated me; I can still quote most of the audiobooks I listened to in my childhood, and I remember the awe I felt at how whole characters, atmospheres, and action can be portrayed purely through tone, emphasis, and accents. In 2006, I was browsing the Tomb Raider Level Editor (TRLE) section of the forum and saw a request for someone to voice Lara in their WIP levelset. “Female and British” was the brief, and since that was me and I had nothing to lose, I messaged them with a sample of me reading some lines from TLR. They instantly came back and asked if I could record the entire script, so I guess I hit the mark! The TRLE community is very close knit and relies a lot on word-of-mouth, and before long I started getting more requests from different people to voice their projects. Within a year, I’d leapt the fence from TRLE into fan-made animations, trailers, mod showcases, and even long-form projects like documentaries. Eighteen years later, I’m still in awe of how rich and diverse these fan-made creations are and feel extremely lucky to be part of it.
问：从你多年来写过众多古墓丽影短篇同人小说就可以看出来，你最热衷的是写作。有没有哪个短篇小说是你特别引以为豪的？
Q: Your primary passion lies in writing, as evidenced by the numerous short Tomb Raider fanfiction stories you have written over the years. Is there a particular short story that you are especially proud of?
我最喜欢的是《黑暗中的天使》。这是一部我最初在古墓丽影论坛上连载发布的小说；不久之后，几位粉丝艺术家聚在一起，为每章发布原创艺术品，使其成为一个合作项目，这简直太令人惊叹了！这是我对《最后的启示》结束和《黑暗天使》开始之间发生的事件的诠释，并且是在默蒂·斯科菲尔德发表他的《埃尔·哈瓦的神话》之前，以及在我读到《力量的护身符》之前写的。关于劳拉生命中的那段时间，粉丝们真正能找到的线索，只有《黑暗天使》中对一个名叫普泰的萨满角色和劳拉在返回英国隐居之前在“鲜为人知的非洲部落”度过一段未指明的时光等几处模糊暗示。
My favourite has to be An Angel in The Darkness. It’s a novella I originally published a chapter at a time on Tomb Raider Forums; shortly afterwards, several fan artists got together to publish original artworks to accompany each chapter and make it into a collaborative project, which was absolutely jaw dropping! It’s my interpretation of the events between the end of The Last Revelation and the start of The Angel of Darkness, and was written long before Murti Schofield published his story of The Myth of El Hawa, and before I’d read The Amulet of Power. All fans really had to go on about that period in Lara’s life were a few vague allusions in AoD to a shamanic character named Putai and Lara spending an unspecified time with “obscure African tribes” before returning to England as a recluse.
我一直很喜欢写作，但当我成为古墓丽影的粉丝后，劳拉这段缺失的时间线成了我非抓不可的痒处。随着故事的发展，我意识到它不会有大场面动作戏或《古墓丽影：传奇》中那种世界末日般的戏剧性；它更内省，更侧重于劳拉如何审视自己鲁莽的冒险之旅将她引向何方，以及它如何几乎摧毁了她。前三部古墓丽影游戏都是独立的，但从《古墓丽影：传奇》开始，我们看到了一个能够在内心成长和变化的劳拉，而不仅仅是催化周围的变化。如果说《古墓丽影：传奇》以劳拉的“死亡”告终，而《古墓丽影：黑暗天使》是关于她的重生，那么这个短篇故事必须在这两种心态之间架起桥梁，表明劳拉想要并且需要从崩溃的边缘回来。这就是我创造萨利亚这个角色的原因之一——劳拉在塔雷加人中生活时结识的年轻女孩。萨利亚的倔强和天真帮助劳拉重新回到了现实世界，而劳拉在故事结尾救了她，象征着这个小女孩已经成为劳拉继续活下去的理由，直到找到她新的、重生的人生目标。我最喜欢的故事部分是普泰（和荷鲁斯！）帮助引导劳拉在精神上重新经历她所经历的一些创伤——并在这个过程中获得对自己的新认识。这是我在《古墓丽影：黑暗天使》小说化中延续的主题。
I’d always enjoyed writing, but as I became a fan of Tomb Raider, this missing piece of Lara’s chronology became an itch I simply had to scratch. As the story grew, I realised it wasn’t going to feature big action set pieces or the world-ending drama of TLR; it was more introspective, more focused on how Lara takes stock of where her reckless adventuring has led her and how it has almost destroyed her. The first three Tomb Raider games were very standalone, but TLR onwards showed us a Lara who could grow and change internally, rather than simply catalysing changes around her. If TLR ended in Lara’s “death”, and AoD was about her rebirth, then this short story had to bridge those two states of mind, to show that Lara wanted and needed to come back from the brink. That’s one reason I created the character of Salieah – the young girl whom Lara befriends as she lives amongst the Tuareg. Salieah’s feistiness and innocence helped anchor Lara back in the real world, and Lara saving her at the end is a symbol that this little girl has become a reason for Lara to carry on living until she finds her new, reborn purpose in life. My favourite part of the story is when Putai (and Horus!) helps guide Lara to spiritually relive some of the traumas she’d experienced – and gains new insights about herself in the process. That’s a theme I carried forward into the novelisation of The Angel of Darkness.
珍妮弗的《古墓丽影：黑暗天使》小说封面
Jenni's AOD Novelisation Cover
问：你的第一部主要作品是《古墓丽影：黑暗天使》非官方小说。将游戏剧本改编成小说是一项具有挑战性的任务，因为这两种媒介完全不同。你能带我们了解一下你改编《古墓丽影：黑暗天使》的创作过程吗？
Q: Your first major work was the unofficial novelization of Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness. Adapting a game script into a novel can be a challenging undertaking, as the mediums are completely different. Can you walk us through the creative process behind your Angel of Darkness adaptation?
编写短篇小说《黑暗中的天使》非常开心，所以我迫不及待地想继续这个故事，将整部《古墓丽影：黑暗天使》改编成小说。然而，这首先需要大量的基础工作和研究。在雷克瑟姆关于将视频游戏叙事改编为小说的演讲中，我强调的重点是你在编写改编作品，而不是转录。大多数只玩过古墓丽影系列中较新游戏的人只会从未完成的游戏玩法和漏洞的二手描述来看待《古墓丽影：黑暗天使》，而实际上，就故事和角色发展而言，《古墓丽影：黑暗天使》远远领先于它的时代。当然，如果它今天被制作出来，仅凭其世界观构建就可以轻松与《地平线：零之曙光》和《最后生还者》等作品相媲美。我已经非常熟悉这个游戏了，但在研究过程中，我又重玩了几次，并详细记录了那些你无法从剧本或游戏攻略中得到的东西——所有那些只有在我们忙于玩游戏时才会在潜意识中注意到的沉浸式环境和情感细节。实际的写作始于2008年，但由于个人原因，之后有2-3年的中断。2012年，我能够重新拿起它并完成整部小说。
I had so much fun writing the novella An Angel in The Darkness that I wanted to leap straight into continuing the story and novelise the whole of AoD. However, it needed a lot of groundwork and research first. The point I emphasised in my presentation at Wrexham about adapting videogame narratives to novels is you’re writing an adaptation, not a transcription. Most people who’ve only ever played the more recent games in the Tomb Raider franchise will only think of AoD in terms of second-hand accounts of unfinished gameplay and bugs, when in reality AoD was far, far ahead of its time in terms of story and character development. Certainly, if it was being produced today, its worldbuilding alone would easily rival titles like Horizon: Zero Dawn and The Last of Us. I was already very familiar with the game, but during my research I replayed it several times, taking extensive notes about the things you just can’t get from scripts or walkthroughs – all the immersive environmental and emotional details that we only notice on a subconscious level when we’re busy playing the game. The actual writing started in 2008, but then had a 2–3 year hiatus due to personal reasons. In 2012, I was able to pick it up again and finish the full novel.
最难的部分是填补故事中所有小的（和不那么小的）缺失情节。默蒂·斯科菲尔德和核心设计工作室的其他成员被迫将一个雄心勃勃的三部曲系列缩减以满足发行商的截止日期，这意味着许多剧情节拍必须在很短的时间内被删减、重新安排，甚至完全删除。结果，这款游戏虽然成功，但有时却感觉缺乏清晰的解释或联系。我决心修复这一点，既通过抚平粗糙的部分，也通过填补任何明显的空白；例如，卡瑞尔能够在关键时刻变成其他角色，这意味着我必须制定一个时间表，说明他何时在巴黎或布拉格，他如何跟踪劳拉以引导她，以及他为何选择在特定时间冒充特定的人。这虽然令人头疼，但值得一做（感谢时间线跟踪软件！）。从积极的一面来看，从劳拉的角度写章节真的是一种乐趣。她在《黑暗中的天使》中开始的内心旅程可以延续到下一个阶段，在那里，她被迫放弃自己平静、舒适的隐居状态——以及她所有的日常资源——并通过追捕杀害温拿的凶手来重新发现自己的真实身份。
The hardest part was filling in all the little (and not so little) missing pieces of the plot. Murti Schofield and the other members of Core Design had been forced to scale back an ambitious three-game series to meet publisher deadlines, and this meant many plot beats had to be cut, relocated, or even deleted entirely at very short notice. The resulting game worked, but at times felt like it lacked clear explanations or connections. I was determined to fix that, both by smoothing over the rough bits and filling in any outright gaps; for example, Karel being able to shapeshift into other characters at key moments meant I had to work out a timeline for when he was in Paris or Prague, how he would keep track of Lara in order to guide her, and why he would choose to masquerade as particular people at particular times. It was a headache, but worth it (and gods bless timeline-tracking software!). On the plus side, it was a real joy to write chapters from Lara’s point of view. The internal journey she began in An Angel in The Darkness could be carried forward to its next stage, where she is forced to give up her quiet, comfortable reclusive state – and all her usual resources – and rediscover her true identity through the crucible of hunting Werner’s murderer.
问：您的《黑暗天使》小说改编成了一部由粉丝制作的有声读物。是什么激发了您创作这部有声读物的灵感？在工作过程中，您遇到了哪些最大的挑战和乐趣？
Q: Your Angel of Darkness novelization evolved into a fully-fledged fan-made audiobook. What inspired you to create the audiobook, and what were the biggest challenges and joys during the work process?
自从我开始习惯为所有粉丝制作的项目配音以来，我就一直在考虑改编和录制有声读物。我有工具，有时间，也没有外部压力要担心……所以为什么不呢？许多有声读物都是基本的未经删减读物，但我真的很想用Cubase来拓展我的技能，使其更像一部广播剧（例如布莱恩·西布利和BBC的《指环王》），其中充满了环境音乐和音效。在尝试了一个测试样本（即序言）之后，我意识到如果我能控制自己的节奏，不设定不切实际的截止日期，我就可以完成它。改编、录制、混音和发布花了一年多的时间，但整个过程从头到尾都是一次愉快的经历。到目前为止，这个过程中最好的部分是收到我的搭档演员亚当·科伊维尔的音频文件。他为除了埃克哈特的追随者（由默蒂·斯科菲尔德亲自客串！）之外的所有男性角色配音，他的热情、音域和专业性（更不用说他乐于分享自己的技能了）使这部有声读物从一部简单的有声读物升级为一部戏剧性的表演艺术作品。我会毫不犹豫地再做更多的有声读物改编——尤其是和亚当一起；唯一阻止我的是所涉及的大量工作，这远远超出了我目前身体状况所允许的范围。唉，不过我还是可以梦想的。
Adapting and recording an audiobook was something I’d been thinking about ever since I started to get comfortable doing voiceovers for all those fan-made projects. I had the tools, I had the time, I didn’t have external pressures to worry about… so why not? A lot of audiobooks are basic unabridged readings, but I really wanted to stretch my skills with Cubase to make it more of a radio dramatisation (e.g. like Brian Sibley and the BBC’s Lord of the Rings) filled with ambient music and SFX. After trying out a test sample (i.e. the Prologue), I realised I could do it if I paced myself and didn’t impose unrealistic deadlines. It took well over a year to adapt, record, mix, and publish, but it was a joyous experience from start to finish. By far the best part of the process was receiving audio files from my co-actor, Adamm Khuevrr. He voiced every male character apart from Eckhardt’s acolyte (a wonderful cameo from Murti Schofield himself!), and his passion, range, and professionalism (not to mention his kindness in sharing his skills) elevated it from a simple audiobook to a dramatic piece of performance art. I would do more audiobook adaptations – especially alongside Adamm – in a heartbeat; the only thing preventing it is the sheer amount of work involved, which is much more than my illnesses will currently allow. Ah well. I can still dream.
您可以在詹妮的YouTube频道上听到她的非官方《古墓丽影：黑暗天使》有声读物。
You can listen to Jenni’s unofficial Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness Audiobook on her YouTube channel.
默蒂·斯科菲尔德与珍妮弗·米尔沃德
Murti Schofield & Jenni Milward
照片中是默蒂·斯科菲尔德和珍妮弗·米尔沃德
In the photo: Murti Schofield & Jenni Milward
问：您有什么想对古墓丽影社区说的话吗？
Q: Is there a message you want to convey to the Tomb Raider community?
在我积极参与的二十年里，这个社区发生了很大的变化。但有一件事没有改变，那就是那些既是粉丝又是创作者的人们的纯粹而集中的能量。我们可以一直聊到我们对这个系列的热爱，但当受到启发的粉丝们聚在一起合作创作项目时，这个社区才真正大放异彩。没有一群既是朋友又是粉丝的忠实团队——鼓励我、批评我，并加入他们独特的技能，使其变成比我一个人闭门造车创作的同人小说要大得多的作品——我就无法走到写作的这一阶段。尽管经历了种种起伏，但我对能成为这个粉丝群体的一员并参与了这么多项目感到无比感激，在此过程中，我结识了许多非常善良和有才华的人。
The community has changed a lot in the two decades I’ve been an active part of it. But one thing that hasn’t changed is the sheer, concentrated energy of fans who are also creators. We can chat about our love for the franchise till the cows come home, but the community absolutely shines when inspired fans come together to collaborate on creative projects. I wouldn’t have gotten to this stage of my writing journey without the dedicated group of my friends who are also fellow fans – encouraging, critiquing, and adding their own unique skills to make it into something far bigger than just a one-shot fanfiction I churned out in isolation. Despite all its ups and downs, I feel enormously grateful to be part of this fandom and to have been involved in so many projects, getting to know such incredibly kind and talented people along the way.
要阅读珍妮弗的《古墓丽影：黑暗天使》小说改编版，请访问她的网站。
To read Jenni’s novelization of Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness, visit her website.
封面图片由阿纳斯塔西娅·埃尔肖娃提供
Header image by Anastasia Ershova
