Dealing with bereavement

[Selkie]

How do others deal with the death of a character?

My clv22 Hobbit rogue had a sling of Buckland (which is basically a stony machine gun) and had just found a trident of Wrath. I spent a couple of dungeon levels blitzing everything and feeling like a God.

Then Old Man Willow shows up and I thought I'd go a few rounds with this fella just to see how things went and teleport myself or the tree tank away if it got sticky. First round my trident took one of his stars away and I was a bit confident. He wakes up, paralyses me and I watch myself die and unable to respond. Obviously the lesson was I needed free action, which is a relatively common armour bonus even at lower levels.

But what I want to know is how you respond? I immediately launched into a new game with the same character but I felt really annoyed and was taking reckless chances and dying a lot. It can feel such a drag having to find the Phial of Galadriel all over again etc.

Sometimes I'll just pick a completely different race/class and just have some fun.

I used to save scum for years because I hated my characters to die, but eventually I realised this was also robbing me of any satisfaction.

I love the early game the most, but after a silly death of a character you're enjoying and have game winning hopes for I want to know how you psych yourself up mentally for another round.

Thoughts?

[Ingwe Ingweron]

First, figure out if you can learn anything from the @ death. Was there something you could have done differently? Anything you can learn? If you dive fast, you will have lots of these deaths, but also have a steep learning curve by examining those deaths. Also, by diving fast you won't have invested a lot of real world time into the @. That said, when you do get a @ all the way to the Boss levels and @ dies, it does suck.

[biini]

get your < clvl30 char killed = Start again
get your clvl50 char killed = quit the game for 6 years :-D

[sffp]

Originally Posted by Selkie

How do others deal with the death of a character?

My clv22 Hobbit rogue had a sling of Buckland (which is basically a stony machine gun) and had just found a trident of Wrath. I spent a couple of dungeon levels blitzing everything and feeling like a God.

Then Old Man Willow shows up and I thought I'd go a few rounds with this fella just to see how things went and teleport myself or the tree tank away if it got sticky. First round my trident took one of his stars away and I was a bit confident. He wakes up, paralyses me and I watch myself die and unable to respond. Obviously the lesson was I needed free action, which is a relatively common armour bonus even at lower levels.

But what I want to know is how you respond? I immediately launched into a new game with the same character but I felt really annoyed and was taking reckless chances and dying a lot. It can feel such a drag having to find the Phial of Galadriel all over again etc.

Sometimes I'll just pick a completely different race/class and just have some fun.

I used to save scum for years because I hated my characters to die, but eventually I realised this was also robbing me of any satisfaction.

I love the early game the most, but after a silly death of a character you're enjoying and have game winning hopes for I want to know how you psych yourself up mentally for another round.

Thoughts?

Unless it's a low-level death - I try and put a day between @ death and starting a new character.

For one thing, new @'s are less powerful and have fewer escapes than powerful characters that just got hammered so you're more likely to get the new @ killed.

I also switch up from race/character class.

One of my goals is a win with each race and a win with each class (not necessarily with each combo - no half-troll mages for me thank you very much ).

So I tend to alternate spell casters and melee characters.

[archolewa]

I go play a different roguelike (and do the same thing after I win). Which roguelike I play varies, mostly because I havent found one I enjoy as much as Angband, though I have managed to beat ADOM and TOME4 twice each this way. These days, Ive been playing Nethack.

[Sky]

HALF TROLL MAGES ROCK !

dude, built-in regen? are you kidding?

[Ugramoth]

You should've read this before trying Old man Willow without free action:
http://angband.oook.cz/forum/showthread.php?t=9952

And by the way, few days ago lost a very powerful Half-Troll Mage level 35 with IN 18/** and 3 immunities by getting stupid with gravity hounds. Today, off to a new start with Dunadan mage and on level 18 found one of the craziest randart rings I've ever seen. Life goes on. Sudden death is what makes Angband interesting, killing Morgoth is just like 'OK, now what?'

[Selkie]

Originally Posted by Ugramoth

You should've read this before trying Old man Willow without free action:
http://angband.oook.cz/forum/showthread.php?t=9952

And by the way, few days ago lost a very powerful Half-Troll Mage level 35 with IN 18/** and 3 immunities by getting stupid with gravity hounds. Today, off to a new start with Dunadan mage and on level 18 found one of the craziest randart rings I've ever seen. Life goes on. Sudden death is what makes Angband interesting, killing Morgoth is just like 'OK, now what?'

Never a truer word spoken. After killing Morgorth for the first time I had never felt so high, my next thousand turns had never felt so low.

At least when I die at clv30-50 I feel genuine emotion and not just elation followed by hollowness

[sffp]

Originally Posted by Sky

HALF TROLL MAGES ROCK !

dude, built-in regen? are you kidding?

Honestly never tried it. I would assume the Intel hit would nerf the character.
It seemed to kill any magic with the HT blackguards I've tried.

[Pete Mack]

You have to play as warrior-mage, at least until partway thru stat gain. But the extra HP and strength makes up for a lot. It's similar to HE priest: class and race characteristics offset each other, making for a well-rounded character.