Average White Angband

 

My character at the beginning of this session.

     

Unless you want another hiatus while I amass enough material for a meatier post on Angband, I might as well just narrate a detailed session. This will be particularly valuable to readers unversed in roguelikes. For the rest of you, perhaps you can help me clear up some points of confusion.

   

Chester the Dunadan Paladin begins at Level 4 with 39 hit points and 5 mana. He is "excellent" at fighting, "bad" at perception, "poor" at searching, and "fair" or "good" at everything else. He begins in town, wielding a broadsword in one hand and a pick-axe in the other, wearing leather armor and gloves. He carries a Holy Book of Prayers, three rations of food, three torches, a brass lantern, and four unidentified potions, two unidentified scrolls, and two unidentified staffs. He has only 201 gold pieces, not really enough to buy anything interesting.

   

Like most roguelikes, the unidentified items are color-coded. He has, for instance, an icky green potion, a light brown potion, a scroll titled "ionere st," and a walnut staff. Once he figures out what the icky green potion is, he'll know what every icky green potion is for the rest of the game. The only ways to find out are testing (which is risky) or finding a Scroll of Identification, which itself must first be identified, but I think I did that in the first session.

   

I've already cleared Level 1 twice, but I'm still having a little trouble on Level 2, and I want to avoid death as long as possible. I thus settle in for at least one more loop through Level 1. I head down the stairs from the town and the dungeon generates a new level. I can only see one square in each direction with my existing light source. I begin exploration in a follow-the-right-wall pattern.

          

My carried and worn items, which are separate from my "inventory."

        

I soon come to a door, which I open with "o" and the direction. Doors are sometimes locked and have to be picked or bashed, but not this one. You can close doors, too, and even spike them closed--one of Angband's concessions to a staple of tabletop RPGs. I don't know why you can't do that in, say, Skyrim.

    

Occasionally during this session, I come to the end of a dead-end corridor, in a place that it seems likely that there is a secret door. In such cases, I try to s)earch for it. Because the command so often fails, you either have to do it multiple times or type a number like 9 before the command so that it automatically executes 9 times. Even though my paladin is "poor" at searching, he usually finds things within a few searches. However, I typically only do it when the secret door is obvious. I know I miss a lot of them along the walls of big rooms and other non-obvious places. Given that all the levels are randomly-generated, however, I know that there are no major plot points behind secret doors.

   

Soon I'm in a corridor. Suddenly a message pops up that says, "You hit it. You have slain it." I didn't see what "it" is. There does seem to be some low-level invisible enemy that runs around on the first level, occasionally "touching" you for a few hit points' damage. A few minutes later, I kill a fruit bat. Enemies do not leave corpses for you to eat or otherwise do anything with. This isn't NetHack. Enemies rarely even drop anything. Most loot is found independently of enemies.

    

Some rubble blocks my way. I tunnel through by using "x" to swap my pick-axe and broadsword, then T)unneling in the appropriate direction. To get this to work, I turn off the "roguelike commands" option, because with those turned on, the game wants me to use CTRL with the direction, but from that weird key cluster that I'll never master.

 

A chamber lies beyond containing a down stairway and a giant centipede skeleton. I wouldn't mind an explicit spoiler on what use skeletons have. I find another stairway a little ways to the north, near some money embedded in the wall. Three hits of my pick-axe, and I have 51 gold pieces' worth of silver.

   

I find a magenta potion, slay a giant yellow centipede and a fruit bat, and fall through a trap door to Level 2. Fortunately, that only causes a few hit points' damage. This session overall is relatively merciful with traps. In practice sessions, I got hit with traps that hold me, damage me, blind me, and destroy my armor. The only way to avoid them is to search for them every step. I'm willing to do that in NetHack, with its 30 or so small levels, but not in Angband, with its 100 or so huge ones.

       

The plot thickens.

        

The room I end up in on Level 2 looks more "constructed" than randomly generated. It looks a bit like a hall full of pillars and alcoves. There's a stairway down and two deposits of copper, which together are worth 42 gold pieces. Suddenly a "blubbering icky thing" appears, represented by a white letter "i." It "crawls on me" and poisons me. I swing at it with my sword. In the next round, it destroys one of my food rations. Duly noted. I kill it on the third round. I've lost 18 hit points and they're depleting by 1 per round. I'm just about to start trying random potions when the game announces that I feel better and the poison wears off. I s)earch in place for a few turns while my hit points regenerate. I grow "hungry" after a few such turns and eat one of my remaining rations. Hunger is a longtime staple of roguelikes, but it is far less difficult here than in NetHack or especially Rogue; the onset is slower, and it's generally easy to get back to town to buy more food. Still, I can't get complacent, and wandering around for too long with only one meal is pretty complacent. I'd better find the stairs.

      

This room seems less random than most.

         

A small gray "p" approaches me in the next chamber. I attack, and the game tells me that I've scored an "excellent hit" that has immediately slain the "novice rogue." I guess there's some kind of critical hit system at work here; I don't remember if Moria had that.

   

Big trouble in the next chamber: a swamp of six gray "S" characters. A check of the character listing tells me that I'm seeing giant scorpions or spiders. I back up into the hallway so at least they have to approach me one at a time. As I do, they close the distance (they're faster than me), and one of them bites me for 2 hit points. The game identifies my attacker as a cave spider. This seems like maybe a good time to try one of my staffs. I use the mulberry one, and it turns out to be a Staff of Light. No help. The walnut one is a Staff of Door/Stair Location. That'll help after the battle, but not now.

       

Oh, hell.

      

I sigh and start swinging my sword, but I'm down to 26 hit points by the time I kill the first spider. I try a "Cure Light Wounds" prayer, and not only does it work, it elevates me to Level 5. I guess you get a few experience points per successful casting, and I was right on the cusp. Either the extra level gives me more power or I just get lucky, but the other cave spiders fall in quick succession to my sword. When things are calm again, I G)et a new prayer (I can get one per level), and the game gives me both "Remove Fear" and "Call Light," adding them to my existing prayers of "Detect Evil," "Cure Light Wounds," and "Bless."

   

Mindful of what just happened, I experiment with "Detect Evil." It takes two tries to get it to work (my success rate is only 15%), but when it does, it shows me another thief and a kobold nearby. I suppose it probably doesn't highlight animal enemies like spiders. Oddly, I'm attacked by a "novice mage" in the very next chamber, but I guess maybe he wasn't evil. He dies in a few hits.

      

Sensing the presence of evil.

       

Other enemies fall: a giant white mouse, the kobold, the novice rogue (after he fails to grab my money pouch), a white jelly (which briefly poisons me), a floating eye, a novice warrior, a giant green frog, a large brown snake, a metallic green centipede, a blue yeek, and another one of those invisible things. These enemies have different colors, but I don't know what they denote. I pick up a chromium wand, a zirconium wand, a robe, a hazy potion, a black potion, a scroll titled "condan vi," and some gold, and leave an elf skeleton.

 

I periodically use my Staff of Door/Stair Location to no avail. When I finally find a stairway up, it's after I've explored most of the level. It takes me to a brand new randomized Level 1. "You feel there is something special about this level," it says as I arrive. I've never had this message before and don't know what it means. 

        

The game is usually generous with stairways, but I had to explore all of this before I found one up.

      

As I hunt for the stairs back to town, I find a shiny phial and a Potion of Heroism (I identified it last session), but I can't carry either because I'm overloaded. I decide to take a chance on the two unidentified scrolls. The first is a Scroll of Darkness, the second a Scroll of Light. How convenient. Emboldened, I try some potions. Magenta is Resist Cold; hazy is Resist Heat; black is Cure Light Wounds; light brown is Apple Juice. I quit while I'm ahead and pick up the two items. The "shining phial" turns out to be a light source. It doesn't light any bigger a radius than my lamp, but it doesn't have a specified number of turns. I'm not sure how long it will last. Maybe I don't need to keep so many extra torches while I have it.

   

I find a stairway up, but I'm not sure I want to take it until I figure out what's special about the level. I try some of my wands on a kobold, and they turn out to be Confuse Monster, Magic Missile, and Haste Monster. I guess there's no reason to keep the latter one. When I finally kill the poor thing, I go up to Level 6. I've learned all the prayers in my existing spellbook, so I won't learn any new ones until I find a new book.

   

A Scroll titled "imre kle" turns out to be a Scroll of Treasure Detection, and it shows me a couple of deposits on the other side of a wall, so I tunnel through to get to them. I find that while I can tunnel through "quartz veins" just fine, I don't seem to be able break through "granite walls." You can't tell the composition of a particular wall until you test it. It takes me a while to find a path. By the time I'm done, I'm hungry again and eat my last meal. I decide that whatever is special about the level, it's not worth sacrificing everything I've gained, and I return to the stairs and the surface.

         

Trying to get at that sweet, sweet cash.

          

Back in town, I have 509 gold pieces plus a few things to sell. If you try to sell bad items, the shopkeepers not only don't want them but get angry. Everything else, you really have to haggle. The shopkeeper always starts by offering 1 gold piece. I decide to sell my Staff of Door/Stair Location because it didn't really seem to work. I ask 50 for it and the shopkeeper counters with 30. I agree. "What a fool!" the shopkeeper (or the game) says as the shopkeeper turns around and lists it for sale for 3,009.

   

Eventually, I get up to 613 gold. I start looking for the best way to spend it. I eventually spend 188 on the next-level Book of Prayers, but when I try to G)et a spell, the game says, "You seem to be missing a book," so I'm not sure what's happening there. I spend 20 on 5 rations of food, 250 on a Scroll of Word of Recall (so I have an emergency way back to town), 23 on a pair of hard leather boots, and 55 on a metal cap. As I do, I eye some of the things I might eventually be able to save for, including a Ring of Searching +5 (1,008), Scrolls of Enchant Weapon (265; there are separate ones for "to hit" and "damage"), a Pike of Troll Slaying (4,611), and a Staff of Genocide (16,925).

           

Negotiating with a shopkeeper. I love his all-purpose insult.

        

As I move from shop to shop, I kill at least half a dozen village idiots, mangy lepers, mean mercenaries, blubbering fools, filthy street urchins, and other townsfolk, sometimes because they annoy me, sometimes accidentally because they just walk into my path. You get no experience from them. What are they for?!

    

Finally, I CTRL-X to save the character and quit the game. I then back up the character file. I have decided only to allow myself to do this in town, and to go as long as possible before I have to use the backups. So far, no deaths yet. 

       

My character at the end of the session. He's gained two levels, gone from "excellent" to "superb" in fighting, and from "good" to "very good" in bows, saving throws, and magic devices. His experience has doubled and his armor class has gone up by 6.

       

There is an extent to which Angband feels somewhat "basic"--and I use that term in the modern pejorative sense of offering little that's unique or special. It feels like a generic roguelike, offering the same mechanics as dozens of other roguelikes without (aside from some minor mechanics) doing much that's original, surprising, or exciting. In that way, it's not only a basic roguelike but a basic CRPG. It's always nice to experience character leveling, wealth acquisition, and equipment upgrades, but I'm experiencing those same things in Dark Sun with a lot more plot and role-playing. No ice cream is bad, but some ice cream is vanilla.

    

This surprises me because I've had a lot of commenters praise Angband and say they were looking forward to my entries. I'm assuming that most of them are thinking of later versions, but if that's not the case and you particularly prize even this edition, what is it that you find compelling about it?

Time so far: 5 hours