Miniature play reports

[VictorGijsbers]

There has been some talk about the game being too easy. I'd love to collect miniature play reports here. Please post whenever you've played a game, and tell us:

• The difficulty level (you can see this when you type "score").
• Whether you won or lost.
• If you lost, how you died.
• If you were victorious, how difficult the game felt.
• If you remember or can find it, which enemies you killed in what order.
• Whatever else you think is important for understanding the game. (E.g., if you read the Tome of the Brightest Flame and win easily because of it, that's relevant to know.)

[VictorGijsbers]

(Played using the newly boosted difficulty.) Difficulty Adept. Lost, killed by the hound. Enemies killed: armadillo. Then killed by the hound. The hound felt pretty difficult. But in retrospect, I should probably have used my scroll of shadows to search for a better weapon first.

[VictorGijsbers]

Difficulty Apprentice. Victory. Killed the blood ape, sacrificed it to Herm. Tried to have the Tentacle fall asleep, but failed and got the Briar Roses dream. I then attempted to kill the Demon of Rage, and managed to do that with more luck than wisdom. Israfel was next, which I barely managed, using up all ment. I then took a stab at Malygris, because I still had 3 ment, but I was forced to retreat. Took down the tentacle and the Reaper, and finally managed to kill Malygris. This did not feel like an easy win. Most problematically was the lack of good weapons -- I had to rely on Giantbane and three scrolls of the blade.

[mciul]

Difficulty Apprentice. Killed by Angel of Compassion. Started out with pickaxe and gorgeous dagger. Found a scroll of shadows. Hit Miranda from hiding and then ROLLED A 20 on hiding check! Waited an extra turn and she still didn't see me! Shouldn't people become "on the lookout" if you hit them? #197

Sacrificed Miranda's power to Sul, attacked statue of Chton

Tried using the dagger of double strike in Hall of Mirrors - disappointed to learn that it doesn't strike again if you attack a reflection. I think this weapon is underpowered and I was hopeful that I'd finally found a use for it. Died fighting Angel of Compassion in Hall of Mirrors, with 2 favour, 1 kill, no souls, and Chton's wrath.

I didn't think this was excessively hard, I just wish I had known the dagger of the double strike would not give any special advantage in the Hall of Mirrors.

[mciul]

Difficulty Apprentice. Killed by Angel of Compassion with Overmind bonus. No weapon, Metastasio's hat Was somebody saying the Angel of Compassion was too easy? I decided to test this hypothesis by throwing a Morphean grenade into the Temple of Chton where the angel was, and then going on the attack as a first battle. Sure, I got in one big hit, but the Angel knocked me down to 3 health on its first strike, which is when I noticed it had an Overmind bonus (#198). I tried to retreat so I could throw a couple fragmentation grenades, but it killed me.

[mciul]

Difficulty Apprentice. Killed by Minotaur. Evil dagger Maybe this wasn't too hard, but I felt like I was floundering for a strategy. I guess it's been a while since I played. I killed the armadillo and sacrificed the soul to Chton, since I already had a scroll of ghoulification and a scroll of death. Chton gave me a scroll of summoning. I didn't think I could handle the angel of compassion as a ghoul, and my other choices were team Aite, hound, blood ape and minotaur. I went to fight the minotaur in the drawing room because I wanted to get to the quartering room. I guess that was dumb. When I realized the battle was too much for me, I sniffed the essence of rage. When I got mazed, I found the minotaur and summoned an abyss of the soul (can the abyss take dungeon souls while in the maze? Oh wait, I bet the abyss gets unmazed with you if you win) Anyway, couldn't handle the minotaur at all and got killed in the maze.

[mciul]

Difficulty: Apprentice Killed by giant tentacle gorgeous dagger At this point I need to admit that my first priority, other than winning, is to find a situation where it makes sense to use the Arena of the Gods. I have it set as testobject so it's in every game I play. But in this game, I couldn't find a temple! I wandered around until I killed the Reaper, and then started running past every enemy I could find looking for a temple. I eventually got to Azrafel and decided it was win or die. I snorted ment and got in a couple hits, but then I got blinded and reaped the tentacle to escape. I might have survived if I'd reaped the swarm of daggers instead.

[mciul]

Difficulty:Apprentice Victory Metastasio's hat and several grenades I found the cloak of shadows early on, which enabled me to get to the overmind without much trouble. Then I killed the mindslug, which made me pretty badass. But the cloak of shadows seems a little overzealous (#200).

I proceeded to clean out the dungeon, enslaving everything I encountered. I sacrificed the Angel of Compassion to Chton and went to the Arena of the Gods to fight the champions of Aite. I managed to enslave the tormentor before killing the other two, despite a constant barrage of Aite-spikes (almost every turn at the beginning, and then slowing down as I enslaved or killed each fanatic).

This game was too easy (oh, and I forgot to try out lich form!) The biggest flaw was that the tormentor of Aite got let out of the Arena of the Gods and then was killed by the demonic assassin, allowing me to sacrifice two Level 4 powers. Without that I think I still could have won, but it would have been more chancy.

[ektemple]

I need to post some of these...

I was the one who said that the Angel of Compassion seemed really easy, but I must have been very lucky in that game. Going up AC with 0 or 1 level is more difficult than most of the other level 2 enemies.

Working statement about difficulty: Some of the level 1 and 2 enemies are too easy, and most of them--and the game--are too easy if you find a quick way to dispatch a level 3 enemy (or the Overmind) early on.

[mciul]

You know what might balance the game a little? Making most enemies tougher to beat, but easier to retreat from (#201).

[mciul]

Difficulty Apprentice (I think) killed by the chain golem Pickaxe Seemed to get off to a promising start, where nobody even tried to hit me for a while. Killed the armadillo, found Bodmall in the Temple of Sul and put her to sleep, winning the lion's shield in the dream of Monty Hall. Sacrificed the power of the armadillo and put on the goggles of acuity. Retreated from the Blood Ape and the Reaper, decided to fight the chain golem in the quartering room. Got in one hit, but then the chain golem hit me for 10 damage. My next hit was intercepted and I took lash damage (body score of 6). After that I couldn't see any decent options for survival, and died quickly. This game seemed way too easy, until suddenly it was way too hard. Overall, probably it was fine.

I made a big mistake, thinking that just 1 favour gives me some divine radiance. Should have checked. I'm starting to think it's greedy to sacrifice the first level 1 soul I get, at least a useful one like the armadillo's.

[mciul]

Difficulty Apprentice killed by the Reaper scroll of the blade scroll of protection First off I found Miranda in the Drawing Room, and discovered this was an Overmind game. Explored as far as possible, finding the Reaper, the chain golem, and the minotaur. Tried to make my way back to Miranda but found that the Reaper was in the Entrance hall. Used the scroll of the blade - maybe a mistake, since I couldn't break his concentration enough (checking my rolls, it wouldn't have made a difference). My biggest mistake, though, was forgetting to use the scroll of protection. This game was on the too hard side with the Overmind, only one Level 1 foe accessible, and a roving Reaper.

[mciul]

Difficulty Apprentice killed by the tentacle Evil dagger I killed the blood ape, then I found Drakul, then I found Drakul's lifeblood.The only temple I found was Sul. I drank the blood right away thinking that Drakul would follow me. That was my first mistake! I went after the tentacle as a vampire bat, thinking I had good enough defence. I thought if I did get grappled I could turn into a vampire and get out. That didn't go well at all - I stayed grappled for 5 turns. The battle was in the space-time discontinuum, but there wasn't as much variation in the turn structure as I am used to - did that get changed? I think I got one extra turn at the beginning and the tentacle got one at the end.

This was a game where I couldn't settle on a strategy. It felt hard, but I also felt stupid, so maybe there was a better way.

[mciul]

Difficulty Apprentice enslaved by the mindslug Evil dagger This was a pretty long exciting game. I used the essence of greed early on - never did that before. Killed the blood ape, sacrificed it to Sul and fed the evil dagger, killed the jumping bomb, fought the mindslug while wearing dragon armour (first time dragon armour seemed in any way useful, and even then only marginally so), killed Mouser, did a little damage to the slug, teleported away, killed the armadillo, sacrificed the power of the bomb to get some radiance, went back to the mindslug without dragon armour, and lost my mind. I had given myself a body bonus instead of a mind bonus after killing the bomb, since I wanted more body points for Bodmall's power. But I should have used it on mind - I might have succeeded if I'd done that. Or maybe I should have used ment.

I got the evil dagger up to 7% but it never activated. Even with the essence of greed, it seemed like I fed it a lot of blood. I wonder if it's a little underpowered? Other than that, I think the difficulty was about right.

[rvdpluijm]

Difficulty: Apprentice Killed by the Chain Golem Scroll of blade, protection

Started off getting the fearsome axe. First opponent found was the chain golem, which I decided to try to take on. It began quite good with a hit with the axe, but the disarming technique made that it took me an extra round to get my weapon back. In one hit, the golem wounded me down to 4 health. Read scrolls of the blade and protection and hit it once hard with the adamantum blade, bringing it down to one hitpoint. however, I couldn't dodge the last hit.

Guess I should have found another creature first and certainly should have used ment.

[VictorGijsbers]

Difficulty: Apprentice Killed by the mummified priest (assisted by the malignant chanter)

Metastasio's hat + grenades, no weapon. Couldn't find a weapon, but did find the adamantine shield in the sarcophagus. Easily disposed of the armadillo. Had a really bad fight with the demon of rage, retreated, found the plate mail, then killed the Reaper after putting him asleep. Tried to fight the minotaur -- still without a weapon! -- but had to reap the daggers. Killed the daggers, sacrificed their power to Nomos, and took on the minotaur again. Nomos's protection effect absorbed the one hit he landed on me, so I didn't get mazed. Then I turned his axe medium with an unguentum diminuendi.

That weapon really sucks. I was almost killed by the rotting corpse I found in the pile of body parts. After reading a scroll of death by accident, I was down to 11 of 30 health, with only the by now very powerful demon of rage, Bodmall and Malygris left. Well! The demon seemed to be my best bet. But first, I used the rod of the master-builder to search for the Mausoleum I knew had to be somewhere (since I saw two undead in the drawing). I found it, occupied by a malignant chanter and a mummified priest. Time for a desperate fight!

Well. I was killed. And I'm going to boost the minotaur's axe, because it really is AWFUL.

[VictorGijsbers]

Difficulty: apprentice Killed by the minotaur.

Scroll of teleportation & gilded rapier. I started by killing the jumping bomb (always worth it on a low difficulty level, I'd say -- you can run away after your first almost-death). I then found Malygris surrounded by treasure, and decided to risk a take all action. Cost me 4 damage and 1 mind, but that's not much for a scroll, the cloak of shadows, the tormenting necklace, the executioner's axe, the psychedelic cloak and the diadem of the priestess! I'd also already found the adamantine shield, so I was now well-equiped.

Hidden, I once again found the Mausoleum which was, once again, protected by the malignant chanter and the mummified priest. I tried to open the coffin, but was thwarted by my own devious code -- if there are enemies, it takes a LONG TIME to open that thing. So I retreated.

Explored the entire dungeon until the demon of rage saw me. Retreated to the minotaur, who, BAM, hit me for 11 damage. That's the moment I realised that make his axe stronger made him stronger as well. Hm. I become hidden, read some scrolls of alteration (not many relevant changes), find the minotaur, snort ment and wait for a good moment to attack. He detects me almost immediately, and proceeds to easily kill me.

[mciul]

I am watching the minotaur situation with interest!

And reading your playthroughs reminded me of some things I missed. That game where I found Drakul and his lifeblood, he was in the mausoleum, and I forgot that there are actually treasures there! That would have helped. Also, in the game where I was enslaved by the mindslug, I tried reading a scroll of summoning while worshipping Sul. Not thinking straight there...

[VictorGijsbers]

Apprentice: victory!

Awesome game, in which I found the overmind using the spade; almost killed it before it managed to call the minotaur, at which point I tried a teleportation grenade; ended up in one room with the minotaur and the hound (oops); used a Morphean grenade and got the Banquet dream; chose the overmind, which only had 6 health left ... and got it damaged for 5 (aargh!); escaped from the sleeping minotaur and hound, killed the overmind; then found the temple of Chton and decided to use the Call / Lich combination. That worked great, though I only managed to get the last point of faith I needed by destroying the statue of Aite. Also, the pale phylactery is awesome!

[VictorGijsbers]

By the way, in that game I got Metastasio's hat, the pale phylactery, the crown of the god king, and the periapt of prophecy. Frustrating!

[mciul]

Difficulty: Apprentice Killed by Miranda Metastasio's hat, 2 fragmentation grenades, 1 morphean grenade I encountered the swarm of daggers, the Reaper, and the Mindslug, and that was all I could explore without risking getting hit. I threw all my grenades into the library where the Mindslug was, not remembering that the chances of having them thrown back are greater when there are more people in the room. Only one fragmentation grenade succeeded in damaging the mindslug team. I got the dream of Monty Hall and was flayed down to 1 health point. Well, at least I threw the fragmentation grenades first! I suppose considering the situation, I did all right from that point onward.

I killed the swarm of daggers, and the Reaper walked in just as I was finishing them off. I had 3 Defensive flow at that point, which enabled me to kill the reaper with no weapon. I explored further and found Miranda with a bunch of nice items including Drakul's lifeblood, the cloak of reflection, and a rusted essence of caution (does it matter if essences are rusted?). I decided to try to get some hits in against the mindslug before reaping Miranda. I managed to kill Mouser, then did the reap, losing 2 permanent health points. At this point I think I had 7 health. My strategy against Miranda was a little shaky. She stunned me for 6 damage and then I decided to drink Drakul's lifeblood. That was probably a waste of 2 turns. She hit me again and I died.

This game was a little too hard, but maybe it would have gone all right if I'd remembered not to throw grenades into a crowd.

[rvdpluijm]

Difficulty: Apprentice Killed by: Miranda Start Kit: warrior (rapier, buckler)

Started with an extra teleportation grenade. When entering the room above, I found the ape, but decided to spare him in order to have his skill. Then walked towards Miranda. First hit was critical, I guess, since she did 9 damage after 2 times of concentration. Tried to attack after one concentration to break her concentration, but the shuriken broke mine. Then concentrated and tried to block, but this was of no avail. Miranda with the shuriken was kinda tough luck this time. Naturally, I should at least have snorted or tried to escape.

2014/1/15 mciul notifications@github.com

Difficulty: Apprentice Killed by Miranda Metastasio's hat, 2 fragmentation grenades, 1 morphean grenade I encountered the swarm of daggers, the Reaper, and the Mindslug, and that was all I could explore without risking getting hit. I threw all my grenades into the library where the Mindslug was, not remembering that the chances of having them thrown back are greater when there are more people in the room. Only one fragmentation grenade succeeded in damaging the mindslug team. I got the dream of Monty Hall and was flayed down to 1 health point. I suppose considering the situation, I did all right from that point onward.

I killed the swarm of daggers, and the Reaper walked in just as I was finishing them off. I had 3 Defensive flow at that point, which enabled me to kill the reaper with no weapon. I explored further and found Miranda with a bunch of nice items including Drakul's lifeblood. I decided to try to get some hits in against the mindslug before reaping Miranda. I managed to kill Mouser, then did the reap, losing 2 permanent health points. At this point I think I had 7 health. My strategy against Miranda was a little shaky. She stunned me for 6 damage and then I decided to drink Drakul's lifeblood. That was probably a waste of 2 turns. She hit me again and I died.

This game was a little too hard, but maybe it would have gone all right if I'd remembered not to throw grenades into a crowd.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/i7/kerkerkruip/issues/195#issuecomment-32369468 .

---

Met vriendelijke groet,

Remko van der Pluijm LinkedIn: http://nl.linkedin.com/in/rvanderpluijm

[mciul]

Difficulty: Apprentice Killed by Drakul Start Kit: Battle scrolls

This was a really fun game, and the first time in a while where I actually looked forward to fighting in the Arena of the Gods. Unfortunately, once I got there the battle was pretty hopeless. I found the staff of insanity very early on, and used it to kill the chain golem. I got super lucky when, right after being driven insane, the chain golem disarmed me! Then I drove the blood ape insane and got him to pump himself up before dying. And I found two scrolls of alteration. The second one made me small. I had a Morphean grenade too, and with all this loot, I went to fight the Fanatics of Aite. I've decided that they're the weakest level 4 enemy (well, the Overmind is weaker, but it makes the early game so much harder). I drove the tormentor insane by lashing, and she died quickly. Then I drove the healer insane and read the scroll of the blade. Killing the defender was harder, but I succeeded eventually. Then I killed the mindslug without giving Fafhrd and Mouser a single scratch, and I enslaved the Reaper who had walked in on the battle. At this point I felt I was ready for Arena of the Gods. I sacrificed the power of the Fanatics. Aite reshuffled my stats and gave me a good mind score, so I figured with the holy sword I would have a chance against Drakul.

Unfortunately, getting hit with a wave of negativity almost every single turn meant I could never concentrate. I managed to hit Drakul twice, but he and Chton sapped me dry. Although the game had been slightly easy up to this point, the intensity of enemy god interventions made it very frustrating from here on out. Having the interventions driven by tension made it a vicious cycle - the more the tension rose, the more I lost concentration and the less I could hit Drakul and break the tension. That might have been all right if they were slightly less frequent overall, but I didn't get enough Aite interventions to make up for it. I still think you should get the favour bonus at the beginning of the battle, not at the end.

The death message was appropriate in an unintended way. Any failure in Arena of the Gods would deserve this message:

*** Quem di diligunt, adolescens moritur ***

[VictorGijsbers]

Difficulty: Adept Victory!

Started with mapping / pickaxe. Quickly found the glass cannon, wielded it (bringing me down to 6 health), and decided to start by killing the sleeping Reaper in the Portal Room. That was trying to be too cure -- I almost died, especially when I entered to portal to escape the Reaper's attack, only to end up in one room with Malygris. I threw a teleportation grenade ... and again ended up in the same room as Malygris! Had to use a Morphean grenade to escape. I also almost died when fighting the fanatics of Aite with just the power of the mindslug.

But once I had the power of the fanatics and the power of the hound, the glass cannon, 3 favour with Sul, and + the maximum wisps-of-pain bonus, killing Malygris was easy.

[VictorGijsbers]

Mike, sounds like the Arena of the Gods should be made easier. The player should be somewhat eager to use this rare room. Maybe just lower divine interventions for non-players? And getting the faith bonus at the start of the fight sounds good to me.

[VictorGijsbers]

Difficulty: Expert Killed by Bodmall.

Found the pickaxe soon, and explored the entire dungeon. Also found the rod of the master builder, so I grabbed the glass cannon in the room where Bodmall was and ran away. I then decided to take on Miranda. It didn't go well, so I decided to risk everything and ready the cannon. With 4 health left, I had a bad roll, and then Miranda attacked me with full concentration. Luckily, I still had a Morphean grenade! I got Monty Hall and won the shield (yes!), then killed the sleeping Miranda.

Next, the demon of rage. Hit him twice, bringing him down to 4 health. I then retreated and sacrificed the power of Miranda to Herm. Returned to the demon of rage, and managed to kill him, even though he got in one good hit (and I only had 12 health). I then easily killed the swarm of daggers, and went after Bodmall. I git her down to just a couple of health, and wanted to retreat, so I could sacrifice my powers and kill her with some frag grenades. Well, THAT didn't work ... I had the power of rage, so I couldn't retreat without having max concentration! I threw a teleportation grenade, but had forgotten that I had turned on the teleportation beacon, so we ended up in the same room.

I decided to try to get to max concentration once, but Bodmall quickly hit me. With my still awful health total, I decided that I had to forget about maximising my faith -- it was to time to survive. A couple of none-too-good rolls later, Bodmall killed me. Aargh!

[VictorGijsbers]

On the positive side: I think the glass cannon is now well-balanced.

[mciul]

Difficulty: Apprentice Killed by Bodmall Starting Kit: Pickaxe

I didn't even use the scroll of mapping, I don't find its information very useful without the graphical map. Instead I mapped the dungeon by hand on paper. After going everywhere except the Bridge of Doom, I found that I had lots of temples to choose from. The hard thing about this game was all the choices available. I killed the Reaper using a scroll of protection, then tried to hit Bodmall unsuccessfully before reaping the tentacle. I got in some hits but the tentacle beat me down to 1 health. I threw a teleportation grenade to interrupt an attack and ended up in the portal room with a teleportation beacon, the tentacle and Miranda. Managed to kill the tentacle anyway using the dagger of the double strike (or was it the scythe of flaming? I kept switching). Ran away from Miranda and decided to try driving Bodmall insane. That failed, and my mind score was too low to do it again, so I used a Morphean grenade. Lucked out with the Banquet! I got her down to 2 health, using plate mail, a (hot and then wooden) dagger of the double strike, and a fragmentation grenade. But when I attacked one more time, she killed me with thorns. Maybe the scythe would have been smarter. I should have used ment - I always forget!

Yeah, I'm getting tired of trying to get tough enough to win in Arena of the Gods. Time to make that change.

[VictorGijsbers]

Difficulty: Adept Killed by Miranda.

I should have taken less risks (tried to get more concentration) and/or have softened her up with some of my grenades.

[VictorGijsbers]

Difficulty: Apprentice Killed by the jumping bomb.

Obviously, I wanted to kill this level 2 monster first. And then even after being "hit" once, I didn't retreat. Just a stupid and deserved death!

[VictorGijsbers]

Difficulty: Apprentice Killed by the demonic assassin.

Awesome game! I once again tried to do the bomb first, but ran away after the first failure. I then killed the armadillo, followed by the angel of light in what was a good fight (I threw a frag grenade on it from above, the angel followed me, and I got in some good stuff using a scroll of protection). I then took out the ape, and explored the dungeon using the cloak of shadows. Which, by the way, is not a good combination with angelic radiance!

I tried to be cute and threw a teleportation grenade at the fanatics of Aite. The healer ended up in the same room as Malygris... so I decided to take on the other two first. That was easy, but it left me with just 10 health. So I killed the bomb, but unfortunately underestimated by own damage output and lost the chance to sacrifice my earlier powers. I once again sneaked past the minotaur and tried to put Malygris and the healer to sleep -- but 3 subsequent Morphean grenades got thrown back! The pain! I ended up with the lion's shield and some severly reduced faculties.

Meanwhile, I had the tormentor's staff, the pale phylactery and the robe of the dead mage. My plan was to get in, concentrate, and kill the healer soon enough to not be killed by the extra damage from the robe. (Note that the pale phylactery and the robe of the dead mage together make you immune to almost all ways of losing your concentration: being hit and attacking!) I got the healer down to a couple of health, then Malygris teleported away. I decided to use this opportunity to go and sacrifice the power of the bomb -- after all, what use is the power of the fanatics if you don't worship a god?

But then I ran into Malygris almost immediately, sneaked past him and his demon, then had the demon follow me into the room with the minotaur who detected me. That fight proved fatal.

[mciul]

Ok, I need to remember this. Don't throw grenades into a room with more than one enemy. One Morphean grenade in the same room might have won you the game!

[mciul]

Difficulty: Apprentice Victory Starting kit: scroll of shadows, gorgeous dagger

This was a fun, easy game - I used a scroll of shadows at the beginning to explore and got the glass cannon, soft slippers and the cloak of shadows. The cloak of shadows was in the Alchemical Laboratory with Bodmall, so I stabbed her with the dagger and then threw a fragmentation grenade and a Morphean grenade before running off to equip the glass cannon and kill the chain golem. Then the I killed the blood ape, and sacrificed the ape to Herm. Then I killed Bodmall and headed for the Hall of Gods to take on the Fanatics of Aite. I got the favour bonus at the beginning, which helped a lot with Herm's intervention. I wonder if maybe Herm's intervention happens a little too often. I'd like to increase his intervention rarity and add a constant intervention bonus. Aite intervened a little, but I think maybe not enough to keep it interesting - she only gave concentration bonuses, no spikes. Then again, I did have the glass cannon and the power of brambles.

I think there's one thing that would make the fanatics of Aite more competitive with the other Level 4 rogues: Let the healer use his healing ability more often. In earlier versions of Kerkerkruip, he did that and it made the battles more challenging. Now he's just a relatively weak attacker and a poor defender, nothing much special about him.

The rest of the game was easy. I killed the tentacle and the Reaper, and saved the swarm of daggers for reaping in an emergency. Then I found Malygris in the Hall of Vapours, and let my brambles grow while hiding in the shadows until the tension gave me +5 attack. I hit him twice, blocked him twice with the lion's shield, launched thorns on his third attack, then killed him. He never tried to teleport away.

[mciul]

I'd like to see one more really nasty dream. Right now, the Morphean grenades are a little too helpful!

[mciul]

Difficulty: Apprentice Killed by the jumping bomb Starting kit: pickaxe Everybody seems to be saying that you can take on the jumping bomb as a first enemy without any risk. Did I misunderstand? If that's true, is the jumping bomb too easy now?

At any rate, it didn't work for me. I got in one hit, missed the second time, then the jumping bomb attacked. I did a "take all" as a reaction, and then retreated. The bomb killed me while I was retreating - it rolled a 10 and the tension was 5. Did I do something dumb?

[mciul]

Difficulty: Apprentice Killed by the jumping bomb Starting kit: grenades I found the jumping bomb right away, in the Hall of Vapours. I missed the first time, then I got flustered. The smoke demon appeared, and attacked only me, repeatedly breaking my concentration. If I were smart, I would have thrown my Morphean grenade when the bomb attacked a second time, but I forgot and died.

[mciul]

Difficulty: Apprentice game aborted because of a bug Starting kit: Evil dagger This started out looking like a great game. I killed the blood ape and found a Morphean grenade, went to fight the mindslug in the Temple of Herm. I sacrificed the ape power and threw the grenade, then went to kill Miranda. I went back and narrowly defeated the mindslug, sacrificing Miranda's power at the last minute. Unfortunately this bit of trickery triggered bug #210, and I was unable to move around the dungeon after that.

[mciul]

Difficulty: apprentice Killed by Miranda Starting kit: Evil dagger I stole a cloak of shadows from the jumping bomb, and then found two Morphean grenades. I figured I had a chance of defeating the tentacle. I did hit it three or four times, but only did 6 damage each time. I used up both Morphean grenades while I was grappled, and got down to 3 health. I went to fight someone easier, and got killed pretty fast by Miranda.

I got Briar Roses and Tungausy Shaman dreams, opting to boost body at the expense of an already negative spirit. This was a game where Morphean grenades did not make it too easy, although they may have tempted me to take unnecessary risks.

[mciul]

Difficulty: Apprentice Killed by Reaper Starting Kit: Metastasio's hat & grenades My exploration options were limited. I found Miranda and the Reaper, and decided to throw a flash grenade into the Workshop of the Blademaster where the Reaper was. I went right in to fight him, and he got up to maximum concentration while I only got to concentrate once. I attacked and missed, he attacked and I threw a fragmentation grenade and he missed me. I tried concentrating twice, and he attacked me with two levels of concentration. I failed to dodge and got killed by the scythe of flaming.

I had an initial spirit of 6. How come the Reaper got so much more initiative than me?

[mciul]

Difficulty: Apprentice Killled by hound Starting kit: battle scrolls Only two ways to go from the Entrance Hall. I found Miranda sleeping, snuck past her to find and kill the swarm of daggers. The only other room I could get to was the drawing room, where I found the hound. I read a scroll of protection to run past it to the room above. There I found a Morphean grenade and Metastasio's hat, so I bombed the hound to sleep. Exploring a little more, I found the mindslug. Went back to the hound. It woke up on my third concentration and immediately hit me, breaking tension and my concentration. I concentrated once and it hit me again. Repeat until dead.

What is it with the hound? Sometimes it seems wimpy, other times you just can't do a thing. This felt like the last game, where I just couldn't do anything because my opponent had more initiative. Not fun.

To make this game more fun: Make the swarm of daggers harder to kill, but with a better attack bonus.

[rvdpluijm]

I'm starting to think we should introduce some sort of attack which enables the actor to change his initiative effect (e.g. taunting or feinting or another form of distraction).

2014/1/23 mciul notifications@github.com

Difficulty: Apprentice Killled by hound Starting kit: battle scrolls Only two ways to go from the Entrance Hall. I found Miranda sleeping, snuck past her to find and kill the swarm of daggers. The only other room I could get to was the drawing room, where I found the hound. I read a scroll of protection to run past it to the room above. There I found a Morphean grenade and Metastasio's hat, so I bombed the hound to sleep. Exploring a little more, I found the mindslug. Went back to the hound. It woke up on my third concentration and immediately hit me, breaking tension and my concentration. I concentrated once and it hit me again. Repeat until dead.

What is it with the hound? Sometimes it seems wimpy, other times you just can't do a thing. This felt like the last game, where I just couldn't do anything because my opponent had more initiative. Not fun.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/i7/kerkerkruip/issues/195#issuecomment-33127625 .

[mciul]

I think feinting is slated for Kerkerkruip 10. An initiative-altering effect might be good.

[mciul]

Level: Apprentice Starting Kit: gorgeous dagger + scroll of shadows Killed by the hound Read the scroll of shadows right away and did a lot of exploring. I think I went too far - as soon as I walked in on the hound, I was discovered. It never occurred to me that when you sneak from one occupied room to another, the tension continues to rise. I had the glass cannon, so I readied it, reducing my health to 6. One blast got the hound down to 1 health. Tried to hit it again and missed. Then it attacked me. I dodged when I should have thrown a Morphean grenade. I died.

[mciul]

Level: Apprentice Starting kit: battle scrolls Killed by Fafhrd Travel was limited - I could only make it to the blood ape and the hound. So I killed the blood ape. I found Azrafel on the bridge of doom with the staff of insanity and the pale phylactery, so I used a scroll of protection and snatched it. I drove Mouser insane, he got kiled, then drove the mindslug insane, but I got hit down to 9 health. I used a teleport to escape an attack, and then had a moment of indecision. Kill Miranda and get healed, or go back to the insane slug? I took a chance on the slug, and lost. Overall a fun game, and it seemed fair. Maybe I should have used ment to kill the slug.

By the way, I love the mindslug's insane waiting text. I never saw it before!

[mciul]

Level: Apprentice Starting kit: rapier and scroll of teleportation Killed by the blood ape I got off to a good start, lots of exploring to do and items to find. I got the cloak of shadows and killed the reaper. Then I tried to fight the mindslug. Got in a couple good hits, but my health was down around 12 or 14. I teleported out to become hidden again and went back to the slug. Couldn't get any more hits in - maybe I should have killed Mouser. I reaped the ape with 2 health and failed to hit him with +4 tension and +3 attack. The ape hit me once and I died.

Note to self: hiding, even with the cloak of shadows, is not that useful against multiple opponents.

[mciul]

Difficulty: Apprentice Starting kit: dagger & shadows Killed by Malygris Whoa, this was a really fun game. I walked into the crypt, which was full of rust moss, but it had an unguentum argenti. I put it on my dagger right away and saved it. In the sarcophagus was a diadem. I killed the rusted swarm of daggers and then had to choose between the tentacle and the hound. I found a scroll of curse removal and then tried on the diadem, which was the demon lord's. I decided to take a chance on the +4 spirit giving me some initiative, and kept it on while I fought the tentacle. It was close, but I killed it. Then I took on the hound, which was still a challenge at this point. I killed Miranda and sacrificed her power to Chton so I could go fight in Arena of the Gods. I defeated the Fanatics of Aite pretty easily, partly because Chton's intervention is so great against them and I had some scrolls of death, but partly because I got divine concentration from Aite two or three times. Then I sacrificed the hound's power and killed the jumping bomb. I found a glass cannon and readied it. I think that might have been a mistake. I fought Israfel until I ran out of scrolls of death, then I sacrificed everything to get lich form and some scrolls of summoning. I summoned an abyss of the soul and a rotting corpse. At this point I had 8 health and a permanent health of -1! Should that be allowed? Not that it matters with the abyss of the soul in the dungeon. Maybe I should have switched to human form and thrown the rusted blessed grenade after I got the abyss. I think I was disappointed with lich form. Maybe if I'd had more scrolls of summoning it would have been worth it. Anyway, I finished off Israfel (in hindsight it was pointless to fight Israfel with an abyss of the soul in the dungeon) and then went to fight Malygris, still with 8 health. I made a special effort to go get the psychedelic cloak, but then I forgot to snort ment! After I used up my scrolls of death and Malygris killed the rotting corpse, I was toast. Malygris never even cowered once! I switched to ghost form when he attacked me, but I lost the coin toss.

Summary: This game was well balanced - on the easy side perhaps but I'm not complaining. I made some big mistakes: readying the glass cannon, fighting Israfel, forgetting to use ment. Not making any one of those might have won me the game.

[VictorGijsbers]

Difficulty Apprentice Victory!

Fun game. I built my strategy around the fearful axe, which is quite good if you can get a lot of mind (but it's not easy to get there). Luckily, Aite shuffled my stats in such a way that I got a lot of mind! The fights with Bodmall and Malygris were quite tough, I nearly ran out of my last package of ment. Which made it extra satisfying to kill him, of course.

[mciul]

Difficulty: Apprentice Starting kit: rapier & teleportation scroll Victory! There was no Hall of Gods in this game, which might have made it easier... I found a cloak of shadows, a crown of the god-king, and a small Giantbane in my initial exploration. So I killed the chain golem with no problem. Then I killed Israfel with no problem! I don't think Israfel ever hit me at all, and it never split. Killing the mindslug with the Giantbane while linked with Mouser was very satisfying. I failed to enslave the hound before my allies killed it, but I did enslave the swarm of daggers after feeding the crown a couple times. My plan was to fight Malygris until the daggers died, and then sacrifice their power to Herm and kill Miranda. But I never had to do that. I was too powerful for Malygris by that point.

I hate to say this, but I wonder if Giantbane's special damage is too big.

Is the crown of the god-king epic? Is Giantbane epic? This game felt a little overburdened with powerful items. I didn't even remember that I also had a magical spade, and I never needed to use my three teleportation grenades or any of the scrolls I got.

[VictorGijsbers]

Difficulty: Adept Killed by demonic assassin / tentacle.

After a failed adventure with the Reaper, I managed to kill the swarm of daggers with 1 health left. I then killed the chain golem, and stumbled upon Malygris in the portal room. Feeling pretty smart, I decided to grab everything then step through the portal to escape Malyrgis's attack! So, I grabbed everything. Then Malygris teleported away. And I was like -- wait, I'm only level 2, and now the demonic assassin is going to come after me!

Tried to find Malygris and stop his summoning, but ended up fighting the tentacle and the assassin in the same room. Even Giantbane and the presence of the holy symbols couldn't save me then.

[VictorGijsbers]

Difficulty: Apprentice. This game is going exactly according to plan. Killed the armadillo, then the imp. Softened up the Reaper, retreated to the temple of Aite, and when he was there I sacrificed the power of the armadillo. Killed the Reaper. Then, I killed the ape after if had become huge. I killed two of the fanatics of Aite (shields are SO good against the tormentor!), retreated to the temple of Aite, sacrificed both powers (got a shuffle that gave me high spirit), readied the glass cannon and went back to kill the tormentor. So I currently have 4 favour, Aite's power, 19 spirit, and still the minotaur and the bomb to go before I have to take on Malygris!

I can't lose.

(Heh.)

[VictorGijsbers]

Yeah, I won easily. But that's how it should be if the early game goes perfectly.