YASD
I’ve been playing a lot of Nethack lately. Been a while since I’ve played it, but it’s the game I just keep going back to. For those not in the know, nethack is a turn based RPG. There are several versions available, you can play with or without graphics - even if you do play with graphics, they look like something from 1990. I prefer the simple ascii interface.
When you first pick up the game, you inevitably die very quickly due to stupid mistakes - you suffer YASD (yet another stupid death). There are a lot of things out there that can kill you, and fast. Plus you have to worry about eating, I starved to death a lot in the beginning. To make matters worse, once you die, that’s the end, you have to start all over.
Once you learn the basics of not letting monster kill you left and right, you move onto accidental suicide.
That potion you just drank - poison. You die.
You’re riding a horse - you fall off and die.
You’re carrying too much and try to go down the stairs - you fall and die.
That floating eye you just attacked paralyzed you - now a rat comes up and eats your face off.
Over and over and over.
I’m finally able to get to the middle section of the game - clearing out the gnomish mines and completing Sokoban, so I’m running into tougher and tougher monsters. Last night I completed Sokoban and opened the door to the zoo (a room with 20 or so monsters and animals). I was pretty tough, and holding Excalibur, I figured clearing the room would be fairly simple, most monsters I met died in 1 or 2 hits. So I open the door - a giant ant steps out to greet me. One flick of the sword and he is dead. Then I see:
The wererat zaps a wand. The death ray hits the giant beetle! The beetle dies. The death ray hits you! You die…
Oh right. That’s fair. Irony was, my reward for clearing out that zoo would have been an Amulet of Reflection, which would have saved me.
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