Starting as Bilbo

[Iniquity]

Hi

I used to play Moria many years ago and have occassionally dipped into Angband and have recently returned. I thought it would be interesting to set myself up as Bilbo and play.

To that end I wanted to play with the following rules. (I know this is technicaly cheating)

No returning to the town.
Start with the One Ring.

In order for me to try to achieve this I changed the monster file for white worm mass to have the following flag

F: DROP_4 | DROP_GOOD | DROP_GREAT | ONLY_ITEM

I changed the artifact file to have the one ring have the same depth, rariety and cost as the Phial. so:

# The Ring of Power 'The One Ring'

N:13: of Power 'The One Ring'
I:ring:55:4
W:5:3:10:10000
P:0:0d0:15:15:0
etc.

I went down one level and started breeding white worm masses. But after a lot of worm masses no ring!

Is there something I'm doing wrong or is this just a silly idea?

[konijn_]

Hi

Is there something I'm doing wrong or is this just a silly idea?

Try to copy the one ring artifact instead , make sure to remove flags that might stop it from generating like INSTA_ART.

T.

[d_m]

The easiest way to do this is to leave your edit files unmodified. Start your game and then enter debug mode (CTRL-A and agree to the disclaimer). Then type "C" (capital C, to create an artifact) and then enter "13" (the one ring's ID).

It won't score your character since you're a "wizard" but it sounds to me like the score is not the point

[Sirridan]

Try to copy the one ring artifact instead , make sure to remove flags that might stop it from generating like INSTA_ART.

T.

Why not just edit a class file and make your starting pack the one ring? (And sting too, cmon he had it!)

[konijn_]

Why not just edit a class file and make your starting pack the one ring? (And sting too, cmon he had it!)

True, its funny that Angband does not have Mithril vests..


T.

[Pete Mack]

Bilbo didn't start with much of anything--he started essentially empty handed and came home a very successful burglar.

[Schroeder]

IMO, the best way to do this is have smeagol drop the one ring, and any of the 3 trolls drop sting. You *must* wear both once you find them, and you should probably edit sting to make it permacursed (otherwise, wheres the fun

You can probably do both of these in a similar way to how morgoth always drops his arts, but I don't know for sure. To make sting permacursed, you just have to add that flag to it.

You could probably even make a custom permacursed mithril chain mail for smog to drop, if you *really* wanted to get into it Perhapse...dwarven(+2) + resist base, fear, dark, slow digest, feather falling, and 2 stealth? It seams like a reasonable art to me. Good for the depth, but not too great, and its gonna make the end tougher, to offset the one ring. Oh wait...several things in there (stealth, for example) don't matter at all, cus you have the one ring...lol)

[will_asher]

(sorry, not being very helpful..)
You can't really use the One Ring as it is in Angband for any role-playing. For one thing, Bilbo didn't know what the ring was. He knew it was magic and that it made him invisible, but he didn't know anything more about it. (I re-read LOTR last year. When Frodo and the others are on their way back to the Shire after destroying the ring, they stopped by Rivendell. There, Bilbo asks if Frodo still has his old ring and if maybe he could see it again. He didn't even know that they had destroyed it.)
In Angband, the ring doesn't even make you invisible, it does the opposite: aggravation. IMO, the ring should aggravate only undead, but against everything else it raises your stealth. It should have some other kind of major drawback(s) though.

..Whenever someone mentions the One Ring here, it gets me off on how it's nothing like it was in the story.

[Magnate]

True, its funny that Angband does not have Mithril vests..T.

If you look at the weight of Mithril Chain Mail, I reckon that's exactly what it is.

[PowerDiver]

IMO, the ring should aggravate only undead,

From that perspective, perhaps it should only aggravate the RingWraiths.

[Pete Mack]

It did a pretty good job of aggravating powerful hominids, too. (Galadriel, Boromir, Faramir, Tom Bombadil)

[Eagle]

Bilbo actually isn't in the same era as Sauron or Morgoth (not even close). He probably even never heard of Morgoth's stronghold Angband.
Still let me know about your progress with him, because diving with the One ring, with no return visits, seems still a tough game.

[PowerDiver]

It did a pretty good job of aggravating powerful hominids, too. (Galadriel, Boromir, Faramir, Tom Bombadil)

Remember that aggravation means to notice the wielder when it is wielded. I don't think Boromir or Faramir count.

I didn't include owners of the elven rings, since they don't appear as foes, but if you want to aggravate Elrond, Galadriel and Gandalf go ahead. Toss in anyone with the seven dwarven rings too.

I'm not up on Bombadil lore enough to comment.

[PowerDiver]

It's not quite what you want, but a long time ago I submitted a competition for a hobbit warrior wielding a permacursed Sting.

http://www.angband-comp.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/results16.html

I doubt the savefile will load correctly into 3.1, but you might be able to use 3.0.9.

[d_m]

Bilbo actually isn't in the same era as Sauron or Morgoth (not even close).

It's true that Morgoth was banished to the Void long before Bilbo came upon the scene, but Sauron was still active.

Bilbo gives the ring to Frodo, and while Bilbo is still alive Frodo takes it to Mount Doom, destroying Sauron. I think this is pretty clear evidence that Sauron was in the same era as Bilbo (the Third Age of Middle Earth).