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Jeff's blog -- bushwhacking players


jlsgaladriel

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Originally Posted By: SEED SPROUTETH MALATEXT
Even without ESP, Angband pretty much requires you to cast or zap multiple detecton spells every screen if you really want to ensure survival.

Even with ESP you have to cast multiple detection spells every second step you take, or it'll be traps that screw you. Or one of those gazillion monsters that are mindless.

Really, Angband is really bad about all things you need to have to advance past certain points. And some variants then go and screw it over by adding a horde of things you can't defend against.

As to Eph, I'm not playing AIMhack because I can't use AIM. I tried to, but computer I had it installed on crashed (again), and I've yet to get around giving it a second shot.
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Yeah, I was going to say that roguelike and kidlike are opposite genres. But it's not quite that everything goes fine for the kids; they get bad and good things. It's just that the bad things can never stretch so far as any PC dying.

 

Or any PC's pet dying. Man, I had a close call with one of those. I only kept the entire party from breaking down in tears by flagrantly ad-hocking a special cling-to-life-roll for Fluffy. After that I ruled that the pooch had to stay home to convalesce. The player had represented Fluffy with a drawing on her character sheet. She drew a nice doghouse around it, and everyone was happy again. Phew.

 

PCs losing favorite items would probably be bad, too. But if they're getting minor items and cash in and out at a fairly steady rate, then these can come and go without disaster, and it seems to keep the kids interested.

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Setbacks are part of any good story. Perfection is boring, after all. But things going terribly wrong? Not so much.

 

—Alorael, who thinks the genre divide may be more of a scale. On one end is everything ending happily no matter what, although you do have to do something to earn it. On the other end is success being elusive and nearly impossible to attain. You know, like children's fantasy versus A Song of Ice and Fire.

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