Everything I really need to know I learned in the Dungeons of Doom

[barnabas_truman]

Important lesson from NetHack:
If you're going to experiment with casting the "polymorph" spell on various piles of useless junk in hopes of turning them into something more useful, do it FAR FAR AWAY from the chest in which you're storing your stash of really important stuff. It turns out that if you polymorph a chest, it turns into a different chest which happens to be empty. Blah.

Losses include...
*Massive amounts of food: acceptable. Still have a reasonable supply in my bag of holding, and a ring of slow digestion so I don't need to eat much anyway.
*Massive amounts of wands: acceptable. Was keeping the wands I actually use (including the wand of wishing) in the bag of holding, so the lost wands were mostly junk.
*Massive amounts of rings: acceptable. See "wands."
*Some sets of dragon scales: annoying, but acceptable, as I was just keeping them as backup in case something happened to my dragon scale armor.
*Every spellbook I owned: DEVASTATING. Knowledge of spells is gradually forgotten and must eventually be refreshed by rereading the spellbook. Without spellbooks I will eventually forget all spells. Stared at the screen in despair for a bit, then figured, well, I'm already at the mouth of hell; maybe if I just start pressing onwards I can finish the game before I forget everything.

Since then, I've reached the bottom of hell, mapped out everything, and found 14 more spellbooks, so things are going reasonably well.

Comments

[temperance14.livejournal.com]

"...I've reached the bottom of hell, mapped out everything,...so things are going reasonably well."

--would make a pretty good philosophy.

[barnabas-truman.livejournal.com]

As Winston Churchill said, "If you're going through hell, keep going until you find the Amulet of Yendor, then turn around and come back up."

[barnabas-truman.livejournal.com]

Also, I've come to the conclusion that the three best spells EVER are Identify, Magic Mapping, and Charm Monster. I know exactly what I've got, I know exactly where I'm going, and I'm the best friend of every dragon in the dungeon. God himself can't stop me. YES, THAT'S RIGHT, FATE; I SAID GOD HIMSELF CAN'T STOP ME. YOU WANT TO MAKE SOMETHING OF IT?