Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.nethack (More info?)
First, a quick bit of background. I re-discovered Nethack in 2002.
I'm thoroughly spoiled, and have ascended 5 times: 4 priests, 1
valkyrie. I almost always play priests; I have very little
experience with the other roles.
The recent thread about archaeologists intrigued me, so I've been
playing nothing but A for a couple of days. I really like starting
with speed and a pick-axe.
Last night when I finished exploring DL 2 I saw that it had 2
downstairs and a large potion shop. Since I had 13 Xp, I thought,
"Why not try the protection racket?". I've never attempted anything
like this before. I was never any good with pets; I usually lose my
pet before Minetown. I discovered that it's not that hard to let my
pet kill everything for me. At turn 2600 I had all the shopkeeper's
gold and a large dog (but no new Xp), so I entered the Mines.
I freely admit that I was very lucky. The first two levels of the
Mines were lit, and then came Minetown. My loyal Fido saved me again
and again, but I did have to use Elbereth a couple of times. I got
some useful bits of armor from the dwarves he killed, after using
him to see if they were cursed (definitely not something I'm used
to, playing priests). I made a dash for the temple, but it was
cross-aligned, and monsters were after me. My first donation bought
4 points of protection, and I had just enough gold for 6 more. I
then raced back to DL 1, killing a couple of beasts along the way
for XL 2. Then I saved the game and took a breather.
Imagine that, I successfully completed the protection racket on my
first try!
I don't think I could have done this if Minetown had been any
deeper. I used up all my food, and Fido could usually beat me to
the corpses. My next step was replenish my food supply in Sokoban.
I was disappointed not to get the bag of holding, since it's already
a pain lugging my stash to the Minetown altar. On the bright side,
I now have an uncursed unicorn horn, reflection, magic resistance,
poison resistance, sleep resistance, and telepathy--plus a large dog
that likes to shoplift and kill things for me. I also have -7 AC,
and have yet to find very good armor.
Of course, the RNG will kill me for posting this (and I'll probably
get flamed), but I think I like the protection racket.
First, a quick bit of background. I re-discovered Nethack in 2002.
I'm thoroughly spoiled, and have ascended 5 times: 4 priests, 1
valkyrie. I almost always play priests; I have very little
experience with the other roles.
The recent thread about archaeologists intrigued me, so I've been
playing nothing but A for a couple of days. I really like starting
with speed and a pick-axe.
Last night when I finished exploring DL 2 I saw that it had 2
downstairs and a large potion shop. Since I had 13 Xp, I thought,
"Why not try the protection racket?". I've never attempted anything
like this before. I was never any good with pets; I usually lose my
pet before Minetown. I discovered that it's not that hard to let my
pet kill everything for me. At turn 2600 I had all the shopkeeper's
gold and a large dog (but no new Xp), so I entered the Mines.
I freely admit that I was very lucky. The first two levels of the
Mines were lit, and then came Minetown. My loyal Fido saved me again
and again, but I did have to use Elbereth a couple of times. I got
some useful bits of armor from the dwarves he killed, after using
him to see if they were cursed (definitely not something I'm used
to, playing priests). I made a dash for the temple, but it was
cross-aligned, and monsters were after me. My first donation bought
4 points of protection, and I had just enough gold for 6 more. I
then raced back to DL 1, killing a couple of beasts along the way
for XL 2. Then I saved the game and took a breather.
Imagine that, I successfully completed the protection racket on my
first try!
I don't think I could have done this if Minetown had been any
deeper. I used up all my food, and Fido could usually beat me to
the corpses. My next step was replenish my food supply in Sokoban.
I was disappointed not to get the bag of holding, since it's already
a pain lugging my stash to the Minetown altar. On the bright side,
I now have an uncursed unicorn horn, reflection, magic resistance,
poison resistance, sleep resistance, and telepathy--plus a large dog
that likes to shoplift and kill things for me. I also have -7 AC,
and have yet to find very good armor.
Of course, the RNG will kill me for posting this (and I'll probably
get flamed), but I think I like the protection racket.
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