Some questions about vanilla Angband

[dayafterday123]

Hey all, hope you're doing good.

I'm planning to dive deep into Angband. I'll be playing the ASCII version in gnome-terminal.

Since I'm quite busy these days, I have only few hours (10 hours max) per month for gaming. This let me almost ditch all other games and just pick up a deep and complex game that rewards player skills, so that I can pick it up at any time, play it a bit, and then leave it until the next time I play again. It is like a story that I read every now and then to unwind.

The thing is, I don't want to "buy-in" into a game and then later find that it contains elements that I find offensive. Therefore, I need you're help answering these questions:

1. Does this game contain any sexual themes? Any sexual innuendo?
2. Does it have any alcohol or drug reference?
3. Does it have vulgar or bad language?
4. Does it contain any thing related to gambling?

Unfortunately, I can't get into Angband if it contains any of the elements listed above.

Now other few questions about RNG and player skills:

1. How is the replay value?
2. Does Angband reward player knowledge and skills?
3. Can I consistently win if I'm good enough?

TLDR:
I'm planning to play Angband but I want to make sure that I'm diving into something that has a lot of play time/replay value, and that rewards player's knowledge, and that doesn't have any bad elements in it.

Many thanks!

[fph]

Hey all, hope you're doing good.

1. Does this game contain any sexual themes? Any sexual innuendo?
2. Does it have any alcohol or drug reference?
3. Does it have vulgar or bad language?
4. Does it contain any thing related to gambling?

1. No sexual themes at all. Even the sex/gender character option has been removed.
2. There are wine and orcish liquor available as a food item (the liquor comes with a drawback, the wine with a small benefit). You can safely ignore them, most players do not use them anyway I believe. Or you can rename them or edit them out in the configuration files.
3. No, not that I know.
4. No explicit gambling, but there are lot of sources of random objects; basically every monster you kill is a "loot box". But you will hardly play any computer game, especially in this genre, if that's a dealbreaker for you.

Note that the game contains 'demons' as an enemy monster class; I don't know if that offends you, too. There used to be also angels and archangels, but they have been replaced by various gods and demigods from Tolkien's mythology (Maiar).

[DavidMedley]

Tolkien's mythology is explicitly monotheistic. It's fair to compare the Ainur to gods in other mythologies, but Tolkien doesn't describe them as such and nether does Angband AFAIK.

[Werbaer]

Since I'm quite busy these days, I have only few hours (10 hours max) per month for gaming.

That's very low for a game with permanent death.
You can play for several hours, then die meeting some unknown monster that's more powerful than you expected, and have to start from scratch.

3. Does it have vulgar or bad language?

There are a few monsters with an "insult" attack which results in text like "xxx makes obscene gestures" or "xxx insults your mother".

[Adam]

[*]Does it have any alcohol or drug reference?

There is a mushroom which has hallucination as side effect. That may be interpreted as drug.

[Selkie]

I seem to remember in old versions that when you drank a potion of confusion it said something like "hiccup" implying it was booze.

Could a potion of strength be considered anabolic steroids?

Ten hours isn't very long to invest in Angband per week. I'd rather do 40 hours in one week and then take a three week break while I get over losing my clvl 40 Hobbit rogue to paralysis because I swapped around my randarts and forgot to check resistances.

[Pete Mack]

10 hr/week is fine for a beginner IF you dive. Otherwise, you'll never get past DL 10. Aim for DL 30 and expect to die. Only requirements are See Invisible and Free Action. (Later tou can do without for a while.) There are plenty of online how-to for this. but the basics are to carry a source of healing; a source of detection (if you can); a source of escapes; and phase door scrolls and a source of damage at a distance. What these are evolves as the game progresses.

[Estie]

Have you read the LotR ? The degree of items which might offend your sensitivity regarding points 1) - 4) is about the same in the game as in the book.

[fph]

Could a potion of strength be considered anabolic steroids?

I don't want to know what is in a potion of speed then.

[DavidMedley]

I don't want to know what is in a potion of speed then.

Amphetamines of course... "greenies"

[whartung]

Now other few questions about RNG and player skills:

1. How is the replay value?
2. Does Angband reward player knowledge and skills?
3. Can I consistently win if I'm good enough?

If you like the general theme of the game (getting items, beating up monsters), it has high replay value.

It certainly rewards player experience. I consider "skill" more of a motor/dexterity/coordination trait, and being a turn by turn game, in THAT sense there's "no skill". To me, it's all experience. Folks are free to quibble on this. There are tactics in this game, but they can be learned. Also perception is important. Patience is a good trait for this game as well.

Good players can and do win this game more so than not. Luck can lose you the game, but you can not win by luck (RNG can always grace you in the end, but luck isn't what gets you there in the first place). The underlying premise of the game is to build up a broad enough toolset in your character (skill, items, etc.) to overcome whatever the RNG decides to throw at you. There is definitely more "bad luck" than "good luck".

That said, there is a lot of avoidance in this game. Running away, avoiding monsters, abandoning levels, etc. is a primary tactic in this game, learned through experience. Learning what monsters to avoid. Arguably the prime tactic in this game is avoidance vs confrontation.

As for the time constraint and issues with perma-death, simply turn death off, and play the game. It's all a matter of what you're looking for. You can't "die" and "win" the game, in the end you'll have to play it "the right way". But early on, especially with limited time, no reason to "waste time" by dying when you can turn it off and continue to learn the game.

[Adam]

Luck can lose you the game, but you can not win by luck (RNG can always grace you in the end, but luck isn't what gets you there in the first place).

Since you mentione luck, one note from me.
I think it is important to learn when someone should treat death as "bad luck".
Some people says "The Tarrasque breathed disenchantement which was my only resistance hole - bad luck".
Others say "5th consecutive mana storm from Morgoth is not bud luck, playing long enough guarantees at one point I get not favourable results n times in a row". So if someone is learning the game, I would prioritize understanding why characters die and not only review the last 1 (2-3) moves but think about when @ should have done something else (usually heal or escape earlier).
Winning also depends on minimizing the chance when the RNG can kill you. If you take that 1% chance too many times, you will probably die.

[fph]

Re "can I consistently win this game": you can win a reasonable percentage of your games, but 100% is unlikely. To get a hang of how frequently an experienced player dies, you can check the recent threads named "Sky's Checklist", where one of our fellow forum users describes his attempts to win with each race/class combination, and mentions explicitly every death (I think).

[DavidMedley]

The first 100 deaths/winners of a new version on Angband.Live are also interesting data points.

BTW, is the 100 limit to the HoF hard-coded, or could Gwarl up that if he so chose?

[dayafterday123]

Thank you all for devoting some time for replying to my questions, you're so friendly.

I think I got a fair idea about what to expect in Angband.