Vanilla as opposed to Variants?

[Larvitz]

Why do you play Vanilla, as opposed to the variants?

For me, I just wanna finally conquer it, before I go on to destroy the rest of the roguelike world...

What about you?

[Donald Jonker]

Similar reasons... V is also worthy of its name - it's more basic and fundamental, more purist.

I also worry that playing variants will make me worse at Vanilla.

I'm certain that playing ToME makes me worse at Vanilla, for instance, but for NPP or O-based variants...I'm not sure. Faangband is harder than V, or at least I'm worse at it.. but I don't know whether after gaining some savvy at playing it I apply those skills in a constructive way when I come back to home base.

In any case, sometimes I need that extra flavor, even if it means putting off an eventual Vanilla win.

[hugorune]

It's something of a life ambition for me to beat Morgoth. I've never done it, despite playing many versions of Angband - starting with its predecessor Moria.

I have dabbled with variants - at one point I was quite enamoured by Zangband... and ToMe interests me - but I want to beat vanilla first. I find it fun and challenging, and the 3.1.0 beta is very polished to play, from an interface/micromanagement perspective (if that makes sense, struggling for the right word). I get a lot of characters down to below 1500 feet, at which point I usually die a stupid death to gravity hounds or similar. I've got a bad habit of building my character up so well at a particular depth with gear and resists, then meeting an encounter that is far more dangerous than I anticipated - and not watching my moves.

[Narvius]

Purism.
And I like the new changes.
But I also play NPP and O from time to time.
Rarely, but also, Steam.

ToME's cool, indeed. But I just can't. Not after killing several high-level sorcerors. They are way to awesome to be good for my Banding skills.

[buzzkill]

I never played V before this competition. It's nice, but I miss the wilderness, the choice of which way to go. I like FA, I like Z+, I haven't tried any others, but ToME is on my list of things to do someday. I'll probably just explore each variant as the competitions roll on. It's a great method of introduction since you have so many others playing along side and advising you.

[tigpup]

I stopped playing V about 2 years ago, and took up NPP. I play NPP almost exclusively now.

Downloaded V3.1 to see what it's like. It looks very good, but I still miss quests, enhanced squelching and mass_id.

-Neil