UNKOWN POTIONS
This idea comes from a game called Utumno in which you start in a town and explore a dungeon, each level of dungeon being more difficult to survive, so you must kill monsters, gain experience, find awesome items, etc. In this game all magical items are innately unknown to your character. For example, if you find a "bubbling potion" you don't know what it is unless you have some way to identify it via character skill, character's previous knowldedge, or simply risking your life and drinking it. Then "bubbling potion" may turn out to be "potion of healing I" and your character will recognize this potion when encoutering it again.
UNKOWN MAGICAL ITEMS
Usually the potions and magical items you find have beneficial effects. However, you may come across a magical ring and put it on to find that it is cursed. One common cursed ring is a ring of teleportation that randomly teleports you to a random location in the dungeon at some time interval (teleporting you again and again every so often). Cursed rings in this game cannot be taken off without a remove curse spell. Once it's uncursed you can take it off and put it on at your disgretion. A random-teleportationg ring MAY SAVE YOUR LIFE in desparate situations.
This idea can be expanded to unkown magical scrolls, rods, wands, etc.
UKNOWN MAGICAL WEAPONS
When you wield a magical weapon in this game you may recieve a message "you feel strong upon weilding this sword." Use it enough and your character may identify that is has gives you +2 strength. Or your character may never identify it without an identification spell. Other magical effects may be more subtle (like fire resistance or protection against undead) and you will recieve no such message or possibly only recieve the message after using the item extensively. You may later recieve a message "you feel weaker when using this sword" to discover that this has been siphoning your strength this entire time.
MINECRAFT-SPECIFIC IDEA
When characters trade potions, we can assume that during the trade the charcaters exchange knowledge; thus a previously unknown potion to you becomes known upon trading it with a character who knows what it is. If this idea is implemented, it will add to the excitement of discovering new potions. Since throwable potions will always have gun-powder (right?), maybe the character can innately know which potions are meant to be thrown or not by assuming the character can detect gun powder in a liquid via smell. Also, we can assume the person who brews the potions always knows what it is.
That would definitely make it more similar to some of the roguelike games.
What other roguelike games use this kind of idea? I only know of one but would love to learn of more!
By the way, the ideas I explained in my first post are just contextual examples. I don't think a cursed ring of random teleportation would suit Minecraft, for example! It's just to get you thinking about how not knowing the magical properties of an item would be both scary and exciting, and introduce the idea of using something that is usually harmful to your advantage.
What other roguelike games use this kind of idea? I only know of one but would love to learn of more!
By the way, the ideas I explained in my first post are just contextual examples. I don't think a cursed ring of random teleportation would suit Minecraft, for example! It's just to get you thinking about how not knowing the magical properties of an item would be both scary and exciting, and introduce the idea of using something that is usually harmful to your advantage.
I was hoping it was randomized potions from the get-go, but alas, they are not. Nethack is one of the more famous roguelikes out there that has this.
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This idea comes from a game called Utumno in which you start in a town and explore a dungeon, each level of dungeon being more difficult to survive, so you must kill monsters, gain experience, find awesome items, etc. In this game all magical items are innately unknown to your character. For example, if you find a "bubbling potion" you don't know what it is unless you have some way to identify it via character skill, character's previous knowldedge, or simply risking your life and drinking it. Then "bubbling potion" may turn out to be "potion of healing I" and your character will recognize this potion when encoutering it again.
UNKOWN MAGICAL ITEMS
Usually the potions and magical items you find have beneficial effects. However, you may come across a magical ring and put it on to find that it is cursed. One common cursed ring is a ring of teleportation that randomly teleports you to a random location in the dungeon at some time interval (teleporting you again and again every so often). Cursed rings in this game cannot be taken off without a remove curse spell. Once it's uncursed you can take it off and put it on at your disgretion. A random-teleportationg ring MAY SAVE YOUR LIFE in desparate situations.
This idea can be expanded to unkown magical scrolls, rods, wands, etc.
UKNOWN MAGICAL WEAPONS
When you wield a magical weapon in this game you may recieve a message "you feel strong upon weilding this sword." Use it enough and your character may identify that is has gives you +2 strength. Or your character may never identify it without an identification spell. Other magical effects may be more subtle (like fire resistance or protection against undead) and you will recieve no such message or possibly only recieve the message after using the item extensively. You may later recieve a message "you feel weaker when using this sword" to discover that this has been siphoning your strength this entire time.
MINECRAFT-SPECIFIC IDEA
When characters trade potions, we can assume that during the trade the charcaters exchange knowledge; thus a previously unknown potion to you becomes known upon trading it with a character who knows what it is. If this idea is implemented, it will add to the excitement of discovering new potions. Since throwable potions will always have gun-powder (right?), maybe the character can innately know which potions are meant to be thrown or not by assuming the character can detect gun powder in a liquid via smell. Also, we can assume the person who brews the potions always knows what it is.
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By the way, the ideas I explained in my first post are just contextual examples. I don't think a cursed ring of random teleportation would suit Minecraft, for example! It's just to get you thinking about how not knowing the magical properties of an item would be both scary and exciting, and introduce the idea of using something that is usually harmful to your advantage.
I was hoping it was randomized potions from the get-go, but alas, they are not. Nethack is one of the more famous roguelikes out there that has this.