ToME Wiki
Newbie Subrace
The general idea here is to provide a 'newbie' subrace for newbies, possibly with the following characteristics:
Advantages
+10 to all attributes [Str, Int, Wis, Dex, Con, Cha]
Immune to fear
Immune to confusion
Disadvantages
Quarter the final score
A *NEWBIE* flag in the score table
Chatter
Atarlost: I think that's massive overkill. A nebie doesn't need such advantages, nor would he benefit from them in the long or even medium run. I might countenance some sort of easy subrace featuring an enhanced saving throw, a small (probably +1) luck bonus, and a poison/confusion/paralysis/fear recovery rate bonus (via LUA). Skew the recover rate and saving throw boosts so a typical level 3 charachter can come out of floating eye paralysis. That would knock out some of the annoyingly common early deaths until the new player has some clue what he's doing without totally breaking the game balance in such a way as to stall the new players development by completely removing game mechanics and the luck bonus would make the game a little more interesting for a new player who may have come from commercial RPGs.
ReenenLaurie: I've wanted a newbie subrace in the past. My idea was that you get uberpowerful (almost as powerful as this suggests), though I'd add Resist Blindness and Free action as well. The drawback is the Character dies as it hits level 26. Just a big popup saying, newbies can't go to level 26. And.... death. I'd probably only have +3 additional to all stats, and increase con a bit more.
Also then if you're hit by a floating eye, and your 'newbie' resistance is used, have a lua popup say: "This would've paralyzed you, you should get free action to avoid this".
And obviously similar popups for blinding attacks etc.
TimmyBravo: This sounded interesting, I thought about writing this into a module. However, it turns out that I know nothing. In fact I know less than nothing. so I wrote this: Module Developers Discussion/Determining Resistance Sources. Looks like I tipped a little too much hot sauce on my cornflakes this morning...
Then, I thought, what about giving the subrace a major Spirituality boost? This way, you don't necessarily need to just give away the resists. My thinking is, the character gets a hefty Saving Throw from the beginning, thus protecting you from the status attacks, and whenever something tries to attack you, you get an ingame-help style thing telling you that "someone tried to paralyze/blind/terrify you, better get resistance ASAP".
TheMimic: I have my doubts. You can power up a newbie until nothing can stop him/her, even if you kill them at level 26 they aren't going to learn that much. Ideally, the best way to learn is just to play but that can be really nerve-wracking. It's NEVER FUN to die on dungeon level 1 again and again, because you never see anything new or interesting.
I propose this; and please, be gentle, I understand it violates a sort of (un?)written law of Roguelikes: Have recoverable death, with a (big) penalty, for a newbie subrace. Give it something a little less discouraging then "Newbie", too. It's become more insulting...
Anyways, if the player with this subrace is killed, they are teleported back to town and lose, say, a couple random pieces of equipment, almost everything in your basic inventory, and all your gold. Granted, the player can save stuff in their house, but that's fine. They'll keep their XP. This way, when the player gets paralyzed by an eye and slaughtered right after, they say "Oh... man, that was really bad. I have to look out for those floating eyes!" "Oh, man... you can get ambushed on the wilderness map... by a lot of creatures!"
The idea is it reduces the penalty of death a LOT, but still creates huge incentive not to die! Nobody wants to lose their gold/items/equipment. And you can take it one step further, too!
From the low levels, say, 1~10, the player hardly loses anything. A couple things from their inventory and 1/2 of their gold, or so. As well as the transport to town, that has to stay. In addition, allow certain items to be retained or given back. Mages can get the basic cantrips back, Geomancers can get a new Mages Staff. Swordmasters, a sword, and so on and so fourth.
From levels, hmm... 10~25, the original idea is in place. Heavy item loss but no XP loss. Might be a good idea to let them keep those previously mentioned items, but the player should just be getting clever enough to think of keeping extras around incase they die.
From 25+, the player loses all/almost all of their equipment and also suffers a sizable XP loss, but can't fall below level 25. If you want to be nicer, allow artifacts to be kept some how, or to pop up again. That could be troubling otherwise. Maybe they can get certain artifacts back after recovering lost XP? Oh, and don't get me wrong. Having death not truly be the end is good enough; I wouldn't boost the player in any other way. That way they can see what works and what doesn't. No extra skill points or stat bonuses.
Just random ideas... but I'd love to see something neat like that implemented. In all actuality I sort of got this idea from console style roguelike games: Chocobo's Dungeon, Azure Dreams and such. Also, the Roguelikeish game "GearHead" (Open Source) has a similar system, but with a constant possibility of permanent death, depending on the situation.
*Note*: I'm well aware there is a Wizard mode, just as NetHack has explore mode. But those make you invulnerable. "You die... Well, okay, you don't die." So the player continues hacking away at the dragon. "Oh well, if he breathes fire, I'll just come back!" isn't anything like "Shoot, if he kills me now, I'll lose this awesome flaming sword that shoots lasers!" - Sort of like the "Hardcore" mode on Diablo II.
ShadUs: Personally, I like the idea of a general +x to stats, some bonus luck, some basic resists that kill newbies... although I'd suggest it's implemented as a Subrace, not a primary race... quarter or half the final score "Newbie High-Elf Sorcerer" That way the person could experience with the ins and outs of various races but still have that help on the learning curve of the game. Newbie races should also probably force help/tutorial mode on... just to beat the rules into their heads and help wean them off being a newbie. Just my thoughts.