Item Consumption and Perma-Death

I never, EVER used these things.

Maybe you can relate to this: Throughout my formative years, whenever I was playing an RPG and I picked up a really good one-use item, I'd save it like a chipmunk saving acorns for the winter, because (and this was my logic) eventually I'd fight that one boss that'd be so hard I'd have no choice but to break out the elixers.

The problem was that when I finally did reach that crazy-hard boss fight, instead of using my elixers I'd just continue fighting until I'd get wiped out, and then I'd restart and try again until I beat the bastard. My logic here was that maybe the next boss would be even tougher, so I shouldn't touch those items just yet.

And then I'd beat the game with a hundred or so megalixers rotting in my inventory.






I purchased Dungeons of Dredmor: Realm of the Diggle Gods; partly because I'm always hunting for a good rogue-like (success!), and partly because I can't say, "Realm of the diggle gods," without smiling.

In DoD you're constantly picking up one-shot items, many of which are more powerful than any of your base abilities; so just like in the old days, I find myself hoarding these treasures, but unlike the old days, when I open a door and three-hundred monsters jump out at me, I get psyched because this is when the limiters come off and I quaff my Potion of Fuck Everything Up without a second thought.

And the reason is simple: Dredmor's default setting is perma-death, so if you die, no matter how many hours you've played, it's game over. This means when you find yourself in a situation where your life is on the line, you fight like a maniac and use everything you've got, because a game over isn't, "Restart at the Auto-Save." It's, "Fuck you. Play something else."


Perma-death games are where the powerful, one-shot items really shine, and trust me, Dredmor has a lot of god-damn one-shot items.





Just thought I'd share this: I was looking over the mods for DoD and someone made a skillset called Brofistery.
Even better? One of the skills of Brofistery is called, "I Cast Fist."