Roguelikes

[Chew Terr]

Bruce "Died on turn 2 once (not kidding!)" Young

Yeah, I've heard that's possible. Did you try to do something crazy, like... mount a pet horse?

And no, I didn't us hearse. I played on nethack.alt.org, which essentially does the same bones-sharing amongst everyone on the server.

[BaghwanB]

Took one step away from the upstairs and was killed by a falling rock trap. First time my pet outlived me.

Bruce "Rothebait" Young

[shapenaji]

I remember when I finally made it past my "Another stupid death phase" and had my first good wizard character in nethack... made it to level 32, at which point I had +2 Blessed greased silver dragon scale armor, I had eaten a regen ring (among many others, the two rings I wore was a ring of slow digestion and something else, I forget) and was more or less invincible, so I went around exploring, occasionally turning myself into a master mindflayer and eating things. I had completed my character quest, delved somewhat into the hell realms... and then...

then I managed to cockatrice myself... when I heard you could wield a cockatrice, so I tried it, and then my gloves burned off.

P.S. Poll, how serious scumming do you think rerolling a wizard class until you get a ring of slow digestion? I never cared about any of the other stuff, but the ring of slow digestion makes the first levels incredibly easy.

[Sverre]

I remember when I finally made it past my "Another stupid death phase"

Wait, that can happen?

[shapenaji]

I remember when I finally made it past my "Another stupid death phase"

Wait, that can happen?

I believe the moral of my story was that it never happens

[fwiffo]

I consider using the quit function at all for the purpose of re-rolling to be scumming.

Pro- Challenge ascension (Like 'Wishless Fwiffo')

Wishless isn't a particularly hard conduct. There are conducts like foodless, atheist, pacifist, illiterate, etc. that are harder.

There's a Zen conduct where you start with a samurai and play the entire game (except for reading the Book of the Dead) blindfolded (samurai can have a blindfold in their starting inventory).

The best YASD I can recall is a friend who found an iron hook on the square he was standing on the first time they played. He then fat-fingered and thew it up in the air, it hit the ceiling, landed on his head and killed him.

Once on turn 1 or 2 I displaced my pet onto a trap, killing him and angering my god. I didn't last much longer... I recall someone getting stoned while trying to saddle a pet cockatrice... Indeed, there are a million and one ways to get stoned by a 'trice... Changing rings (and thereby taking off gloves) while wielding one, helping one out of a pit, attacking one while polymorphed, going down stairs while wielding one and encumbered, sacrificing one while barehanded, leaving one lying around near monsters that can use weapons and wear gloves, stepping into a pit or mine while wearing one...

Bones are hilarious. On alt.org I would leave prank bones lying around... Summon a demon prince in Minetown, leave chains lying conspicuously around (they look like altars), give a funny name to a monster that's about to kill me... "Go team Ant!"

[ethanb]

Never ascended, even though I've been playing since the days of Nethack Plus (there was a dearth of development at one point, so several variants came out... they all died off quickly except for SLASH.)

Closest I got was a priest who made it all the way to the entrance of Hell... only to realize that in the entire dungeon up to that point, no ring of fire resistance had ever been spawned, and I had used up the wand of wishing from the castle (the only one in the game period at that point, I think.) I went back and forth from dungeon level 1 to dungeon level 34 (IIRC - this was a LONG time ago) three times or so, hoping that someday the RNG would smile on me. That character went to the junkyard with the MFM encoded 20 MB hard drive he was on, still unable to go any further (entering Hell was an insta-kill without fire resistance.)

Bones are hilarious. On alt.org I would leave prank bones lying around... Summon a demon prince in Minetown, leave chains lying conspicuously around (they look like altars), give a funny name to a monster that's about to kill me... "Go team Ant!"

Summoning Juuiblex in Minetown for other players to run across... you are evil.

I second the vote that you should try Crawl - I've never gotten very far in it (I've only had three or four characters who lived long enough to see the Ecumenical Temple, although it's possible some just missed the entrance and kept going) but it's fun.

EVERYBODY who likes Roguelikes should try Dwarf Fortress - http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves - it's a very ambitious project which aims at being a fantasy world simulator rather than a "game" per se. A new release just came out with a TON of new features - health care, including surgery, infections and bone setting; creatures are now made from material templates ("elven skin" can withstand temperatures up to x before it begins to melt. Its flashpoint is "y") which makes possible a number of nifty features. It also added some exciting bugs, but those are getting ironed out quickly.

First thing you do when you being playing is generate a new world - it runs through between 200 and 1050 (by default - these numbers can be changed) years of history before you begin playing, setting the ground by making civilizations, religions, and simulating wars, theft, etc. Then you can look at the history written so far in Legends Mode (in the year 874 the dwarven outpost of Craftsmithed was attacked by humans from the kingdom of Armorplated [these names are made up by me on the spur, but that's basically the way the game generates them]) or actually play the game in Adventure Mode (roguelike; make a character, meet powerful and influential people, get quests, get killed) or Dwarf Fortress Mode (make a new outpost from one of the dwarven civs. You start with a band of 7, but as you prosper through surviving attacks from goblinkind [or whoever your civ is at war with] and creating trade goods from the valuable ores and stones you mine from the earth, your fame spreads and you attracts migrants. But you also attract the attention of the powerful beasts who roam the land...)

Also, after your fortress delves too greedily and too deep, or succumbs to siege, or otherwise crumbles to ruin (don't feel bad, they all do eventually...) your adventurers can visit the shadowed halls, and if you look in Legends Mode you'll see that your forts (and also your adventurers) influence the living history of the world, with the artifacts and masterful pieces of artwork your dwarfs create being noted alongside the epic battles and struggles between nations.

Dwarf Fortress aside (go try it, now!) does anyone remember Omega?

[fwiffo]

Don't wear a ring! Eat firey monster meat that conveys resistance like a tin of red dragon meat.

[ethanb]

Don't wear a ring! Eat firey monster meat that conveys resistance like a tin of red dragon meat.

It's been a while since I played that character (did you note the part about the MFM-encoded hard drive?) but I think I hadn't had that opportunity either. It managed to be simultaneously my luckiest AND unluckiest character ever.

[Chew Terr]

Man... Nethack. The game where you win by eating corpses...

[apeine]

Well, I used to play irogue on my palm (for years) and now I play roguetouch on my palm. Never truly went beyond level 15, as on irogue I was always finding those rooms full of monster, and when you get to a higher level, those rooms get pretty hard to attack or to run from.
But what I don't get is that "ascencion" stuff? How do I do it? Is it nethack only or for all roguelikes?

[tealeaf]

Well, I used to play irogue on my palm (for years) and now I play roguetouch on my palm. Never truly went beyond level 15, as on irogue I was always finding those rooms full of monster, and when you get to a higher level, those rooms get pretty hard to attack or to run from.
But what I don't get is that "ascencion" stuff? How do I do it? Is it nethack only or for all roguelikes?

In nethack, the goal is to retrieve the Amulet of Yendor from the depths of the dungeon and then #offer it to your deity in the Astral Plane. When you do that, your deity grants you immortality and you ascend.

So it's mainly for nethack and things derived from nethack.

[ilseman]

I've ascended a few times as a wizard. I never really got into the other classes much, but I really like Magic Bane and Identify. I find that if I can hedge my risks through careful engraving, and being able to identify what everything is, the game is easier.

[Hagios]

I've never ascended. I did find out the hard way that you can wish for (a cheap knockoff of) the amulet, though. I have yet to be spoiled and I hope I'll be able to ascend without spoilers.

My roguelike crack, however, is Larn. That was my second roguelike, from back when it shipped with NetBSD. Since then I've hunted out ularn and I play it often enough.

Roguelike for Dummies (read: the Diablo series) is fairly entertaining as well.

[Elesthor]

Nethack rules!

I've ascended once, with a Wiz