I still find it somewhat fun/rewarding trying to figure out which ring is a Free Action among other runes, such as worrying whether or not I have disenchant or rPois on a new artifact/elvenkind; but I have more or less cracked it at this point. It can be kind of annoying lugging around weapons and trying them on the right types of monsters, though, especially when orcs are still dangerous, in which case learning slay evil is risky business (although I keep forgetting you can *throw* weapons at monsters to learn their runes!) Yeah, for me the rune-mini game is still fun.

@Grotug--
FA, isn't *that* hard to figure out. All it takes is a -1 (or -2) speed amulet and a homunculous. Or boots. There are effectively only two tests for unknown boots: jumping in a pit, or getting hit by a minor paralyzer.

Also: Potions of sleep. I really shouldn't set those on ignore. ^^

Also: anything with SLOW spell can id FrAct.

@Sphara-
Sure. But you need to wait around for it to cast the spell. Letting a u take a shot is easier. Sometimes I change th color on paralyzing traps till I ID FA.

This is actually something I appreciated about rune identification without the town. All of those "bad" potions now had a use. Especially sleep. Paralyzed by humonculus (or carrion crawler) has killed enough of my characters that I really wouldnt want to find out the hard way.

Didnt appreciate it enough to keep using rune ID, but you know. Just one of several ways I found the game improved without a town.