Regarding diggers

[Donald Jonker]

Would it break the game to make shovels work in two turns regardless of rock type, and pickaxes work in one turn?

It would make them useful for something other than breaking into early vaults (escaping, tactical prep), and just maybe worth carrying.

Getting rid of higher diggers (shovels of digging, &c) for simplicity's sake would be no great loss. Stone to Mud could be a beam that could dig multiple tiles.

[buzzkill]

It's a bit unrealistic to think that one could tunnel through rock as quickly as one could walk. Actually, only half as fast, as it would take one turn to tunnel and another to walk into the empty space.

A better solution might be to make the 'high diggers' more easily attainable at low levels when they might be more useful (while trashing the resale value, so they must actually be used to gain GP). But then, what do we do with the 'standard diggers', maybe make then 'standard equipment'.

[Donald Jonker]

It's a bit unrealistic to think that one could tunnel through rock as quickly as one could walk. Actually, only half as fast, as it would take one turn to tunnel and another to walk into the empty space.

The realism argument...meh. There are a lot of actions that ought to take a lot longer than a turn: memorizing a spell, taking off armor, for example. Digging out ten cubic feet of granite would be pretty lengthy, though, I grant. Call them "magical" or something. Whatever.

Anyway, from a gameplay standpoint I think it would work very well. If it costs one turn to dig with a pickaxe, if you're running away, a monster will get one hit on you per tile until you breach another corridor.

A better solution might be to make the 'high diggers' more easily attainable at low levels when they might be more useful (while trashing the resale value, so they must actually be used to gain GP). But then, what do we do with the 'standard diggers', maybe make then 'standard equipment'.

Yes indeedy. Plenty of ways to make it work.

[PowerDiver]

IMO there shouldn't be any diggers at all.