ToME WikiWell, I'll say off the bat that I hate Wiki, so bear with me here. Anyway, I'm a guy in D.C. who plays Roguelikes from time to time. I currently play ToME and Theme a fair bit (they war with my more graphic intensive favorites, like games from the Fallout series, or Gothic/Gothic 2 and Master of Orion II. Yes, I realize these are all ancient games by today's standards, but if you're playing a Roguelike you probably understand).
I generally bill myself as a "good but not great player". I can consistently get characters past CL40, and generally know what I should be doing, even if I screw up. Generally, I *love* early/midgame, where you're scrambling for everything and each artifact is a precious and glorious find. I get easily bored with the repetition and Dragonball Z - like endgame, where everything has a bazillion HP and is generally too over the top to take seriously. I tend to abandon characters at that point often, or just get them killed out of laziness. I love Lord of the Rings also, so I get a kick out of particularly cool items/events that parallel the books in some form. Similarly, inconsistencies (Great Wyrms of Power? Thunderlords?) piss me off even if I know that many have deep roots in Angband and beyond. Needless to say, I never ever play with Cthulthu/joke monsters. Nor do I ever touch anything with Amber or "clever" pop culture inclusions like Cyberdemons or Barney. In fact, let's pretend those variants never ever existed.
I call myself 'Luck' around here because I freaking love luck in the game. I often play Hobbits for increased luck, and for whatever reason my characters tend to find ridiculously OOD goodies all the time. It plays nicely into my love of the early/midgame, and I'm far more impressed by someone who puts together a great character at low levels (even if they die later) than someone who eventually powergames their way up to a zillion hp damage a round via tricked out stuff they scummed for in Angband. I'm also a huge fan of using randart equipment, since it's so tiresome to see maxxed characters all using the same cookie cutter "true" artifacts like a bunch of Diablo II rejects.
Here are some links to my areas of interest/activity on the forum:
My DiTL for a Gnome Summoner unofficial contest: http://forum.t-o-m-e.net/viewtopic.php?t=6447&start=0
My beginner strategy guide: http://forum.t-o-m-e.net/viewtopic.php?t=3180&start=15
Fun info on great death spirals: http://forum.t-o-m-e.net/viewtopic.php?t=6321
>> Luck's ToME stats <<
Favorite races: Dunadan, Hobbit, sometimes Half-Ogre (highly underrated)
Favorite subraces: Zombie, Skeleton, Vampire
Favorite classes: Swordmaster, Polearmmaster, Sorceror
Wins: Several in Moria, Angband, Zanband, one in ToME (see above DitL), none in Theme yet.
Favorite finds: I love the Greater Rod Tip of Home Summoning, and I always seem to find very cool randart scalemail or rusted chainmail with 3-4 immunities. No explanation for it.
Map style: ASCII. Grew up with it, can't switch to graphics despite dozens of attempts.
Game habits:
- I'm a good power leveler through about CL25, when I start to explore. I have a great nose for loot (legit or stolen from Black Markets) and for whatever reason always get great dungeon towns.
- 98 quests - always
- I play 'themed' characters - while I love FF bonus skills/modifiers, I always try to keep my characters centered around their logical core. A hobbit swordmaster will not end up focusing on Symbiosis or Mindcraft, although some use will probably occur, for example.
- Never use automizer, although I'm competent with macros for mages.
- I attract Genocide and Mass Genocide randarts, and always have at least one of each by CL25. Just thought I'd brag a little.
- My short attention span leads me to often try humorous ways to accomplish things, often leading to tragic (but, again darkly entertaining) results. I call them 'death spirals' - see the above link for more info.
Bad Game Habits:
- Easily bored in late game.
- I push my luck too much, particularly with breath weapons.
- I tend to get surprised by summoners, and while I like ESP I take it as it comes rather than try to find it ASAP.
- I shoot from the hip when it comes to skill point distribution, and although I usually end up in the ballpark, I never plan my spending out in advance from CL1.