Share stories from when you were new and bad at Crawl

[Arrhythmia]

I found a leather armour of fire resistance and thought "hell yeah now I can do Gehenna".

I did not make it to Gehenna.

[gammafunk]

Once I was on a streak and worshiping Nem. I went down some stairs and Erolcha was nearby. I draw a card from a deck of summons and a bunch of hostile wasps appeared. They killed me before I could go back up. I just knew it was the wrong play even before I made it, and I felt so bad that I never really played much crawl after that crippling loss. From that point on I'd mostly just spectate games and chat while eating my morning bowl of oatmeal and reading the news.

[Hellmonk]

I died to a worm

[ZoFy]

When i finally reached the Orcish Mines with a MiBe, i decided to check that place out and predictably died at the last floor of that branch.
"I should not visit other locations until i finish the main dungeon" — I thought, and eventually went from D:1 to D:27 with another MiBe. That character died in the Abyss to a tentacled monstrosity because 0.10 constriction was too fair and balanced.

When i finally got my first character to Zot, i barely escaped from a draconian pack and decided to kill myself in Tomb instead.

[tabstorm]

When I first started playing (offline), I had to grind in Hell for necromutation because I was going to run out of food. This was because I kept topping off my nutrition to "engorged" whenever I went down to "very full" by using a ration.

[duvessa]

Back when stat death happened instantly upon a stat reaching 0, I did Tomb with a DE while in lich form. I got my str drained to 2. This was when Necromutation gave +3 str, so if I untransformed, my str would go to -1 and I would die. Since I was in lich form, I couldn't quaff restore abilities. So I walked one step at a time back up to something like D:5, recasting Necromutation constantly (I didn't know how to make "Your transformation is almost over" interrupt autotravel), where I had left a randart hand axe with +4 str, which I wielded so I could end lich form and quaff restore abilities.

[HardboiledGargoyle]

that story has nothing to do with you being new or bad, duvessa

[duvessa]

Yes it does. I was using necromutation and thought it was good. That makes me pretty bad.

[KoboldLord]

To be fair, it did save that character from certain death literally dozens of times just walking around.

[Rast]

I played over 50 MuWz because a character guide on the wiki said it was strong.

It was written by some idiot who only played offline and won the game maybe once, ever.

http://crawl.chaosforge.org/ARCHIVED_Ca ... zard_guide

[Hands]

The first rune I ever got was from the slime pits. For my first win I was wearing the hat of pondering, and I wasn't even casting spells.

[tedric]

I'm pretty sure it took me a couple years of (infrequent, offline) play before I discovered not only that you *could* chop up corpses for food, but that the game was explicitly designed around the assumption that you should get a significant amount of your nutrition this way. (I starved to death more times than I'd like to admit, but I'm pretty sure there was less food in the game then.)

I spent even more years dismissing both gods and magic -- *entirely* -- because the systems felt too fiddly and I just wanted to collect gold and buy artifacts and tab through the game (which I routinely failed to do). It wasn't until I started regularly lurking Tavern that I cottoned on to the idea that having a god was actually worth the hassle of learning how to use at least a few gods' abilities. Then it was another few years until I had the same begrudging shift about magic.

[HardboiledGargoyle]

ah yes, that moment when you find The Temple and spend at least half an hour going altar to altar, trying to figure out what each god does and why the game feels the need to tell you all this stuff in fine print:

  Code:

Makhleb likes it when you or your allies kill living beings, you or your allies kill the undead, you or your allies kill demons and you or your allies kill holy beings.

instead of saying "you get piety for killing stuff"

[Cheibrodos]

I would fight every enemy I encountered to the death, no matter how many scrolls and potions it took. It's no wonder I took a liking to Cheibriados.

[Arrhythmia]

ah yes, that moment when you find The Temple and spend at least half an hour going altar to altar, trying to figure out what each god does and why the game feels the need to tell you all this stuff in fine print:

  Code:

Makhleb likes it when you or your allies kill living beings, you or your allies kill the undead, you or your allies kill demons and you or your allies kill holy beings.

instead of saying "you get piety for killing stuff"

why did you edit this one from the wordier yred one, i'm honestly kind of curious

[4Hooves2Appendages]

When I first started playing, offline, I used to obsess (i.e. take a long time) over some fairly inconsequential details like character name and god choice (yep, before starting). I also took a long time to pick a combo, thinking that I had to pick something really strong! My 2nd character, I think, was a DECj (really strong combo, right?) that got squished by an Ogre. Dazzling Spray killed the first two or three ogres just fine. Why didn't I just walk away?

[Sar]

I was playing a lot of Trolls and once I got really, really far (D:8) and then I got killed by a fucking goldfish. I was sure I'll never win the game, but it was fun enough.

[prozacelf]

Once I was on a streak and worshiping Nem. I went down some stairs and Erolcha was nearby. I draw a card from a deck of summons and a bunch of hostile wasps appeared. They killed me before I could go back up. I just knew it was the wrong play even before I made it, and I felt so bad that I never really played much crawl after that crippling loss. From that point on I'd mostly just spectate games and chat while eating my morning bowl of oatmeal and reading the news.

He still does this, he just quit eating oatmeal in the morning.

[Arrhythmia]

Once I was on a streak and worshiping Nem. I went down some stairs and Erolcha was nearby. I draw a card from a deck of summons and a bunch of hostile wasps appeared. They killed me before I could go back up. I just knew it was the wrong play even before I made it, and I felt so bad that I never really played much crawl after that crippling loss. From that point on I'd mostly just spectate games and chat while eating my morning bowl of oatmeal and reading the news.

Hey me too! Another story: one time I killed enough high elves to be tried for a war crime because I couldn't stand the thought of not being the best at a video game.

[Sprucery]

Whenever I found the glaive of Prune in Linley's Dungeon Crawl I didn't dare to use it, because I was afraid of what happens when you turn into a prune.

[DracheReborn]

Um, what if you're not new and still bad at crawl

[Sprucery]

Um, what if you're not new and still bad at crawl :?

I like to think that overall I'm a decent player but I just occasionally play very badly.

[4Hooves2Appendages]

Um, what if you're not new and still bad at crawl

I like to think that overall I'm a decent player but I just occasionally play very badly.

Temporary Insanity shortly before death?

[Scalding Steam]

I drowned in That Fucking Hive Vault With A Secret Door Behind Deep Water. That was when there was still a Hive. And secret doors.

Another one: I paid my way into the River Trove and left with nothing because I didn't know there were secret doors. I just assumed it'd been empty, a cruel joke made by some sadistic dev.

[dynast]

I was never bad at crawl, it was just that back then gnolls could throw dragon slaying spears at your ass... and i was playing DrTm... and i was going for jiyva altar even though i couldnt even reach lair.

[Reptisaurus]

Electric eel just destroyed me. I had NO IDEA what to do.

Aizul ripped me apart the first time I ran into him, too. The descdiption said "No more dangerous than others of his kind up close" or something, so I figured he was like a centaur and my sludge elf wouldn't have any problem if I could just get next to him.

[robbcorp]

"when I was bad at crawl". I don't think i'll ever call myself good

I used mixed up Invocations and Evocations. Oka is wonderful with high evocations....

[Arrhythmia]

Um, what if you're not new and still bad at crawl

That's fine just share stories from when you were new.

[Eyesburn]

when I was new I was using statue form and my main attack was with exec axe, also I had two weapon skills trained to 20,
I was playing Chei and was clueless, still now Im playing Chei but Im not so much clueless

[Sandman25]

when I was new I was using statue form and my main attack was with exec axe, also I had two weapon skills trained to 20,
I was playing Chei and was clueless, still now Im playing Chie but Im not so much clueless

How is it bad? In my current game I had bardiche, battleaxe and lajatang at min delay before third rune. Also statue form with melee is very good in extended.

Edit. With Chei it is even better because you don't need to train magic high due to Int bonus.

[moocowmoocow]

I played over 50 MuWz because a character guide on the wiki said it was strong.

It was written by some idiot who only played offline and won the game maybe once, ever.

http://crawl.chaosforge.org/ARCHIVED_Ca ... zard_guide

I did the same thing lol.

[Eyesburn]

could put that exp into dodging (had 10 dodging skill points, 11 EV with 28 Dex)

[pubby]

I didn't know how to butcher so I would only play spriggans and mummies.

[Shard1697]

My first win I for some reason went down to Gehenna and got obsidian rune for my 4th rune, then went into Dis, realized I was rotted down by a lot(and also running out of food) and fled to finish the game(after drinking potions I still was missing like 20 HP due to rot). At some point during this I also got my GDA corroded down to -1, and I was only wearing 2 rings with the macabre finger necklace since I didn't realize what it did.

[4Hooves2Appendages]

Um, what if you're not new and still bad at crawl

That's fine just share stories from when you were new.

What if you were never new?

[Tiktacy]

I played over 50 MuWz because a character guide on the wiki said it was strong.

It was written by some idiot who only played offline and won the game maybe once, ever.

http://crawl.chaosforge.org/ARCHIVED_Ca ... zard_guide

I did the same thing lol.

Oh god, so did I! I remember reading that exact guide too.

[Shtopit]

I once grabbed a cursed club on D:1 and starved.

I also had a DDFi named Zeus and was very excited about him, because he had reached D:7 and I thought the Orb was in D:10.

[Rast]

I also had a DDFi named Zeus and was very excited about him, because he had reached D:7 and I thought the Orb was in D:10.

That sounds like it would be fun tbh.

[Shard1697]

I've always wanted a RL that was that short, to be honest.

[Shtopit]

It would be fun. Maybe it could be a special mode for DC, like the dungeon sprints. Altars always appearing on D:1, somewhat faster piety growth, exp cap at 14, maybe 1 random temporary gate + 1 random branch 1 or 2 levels deep with some loot and a single, better stocked market, and, once the orb is taken, being banished to an abyss-like reality for an equivalent of 1 or 2 levels, to be spat out near a "conspicuous marker" between D:2 and D:4, at which point you only have to get back to the exit. In total, it would be something like 15 levels, of which 3 would be skippable. It would take some adjusting, but I think it's doable.

[amalloy]

I've always wanted a RL that was that short, to be honest.

I've been playing a fair bit of 868-HACK recently (you can watch me play if you want). It's quite short, with even a slow/careful player like me typically getting through a game, while narrating, in 30-45 minutes.

[Tiktacy]

When I had a really strong character really early on, I thought I was hot shit so I delved deep into the dungeon(like D:25?) and got blasted to shit by a bunch of dragons.

[ManMan]

I tried to fight in corridors in Slime.

[zxc23]

I was playing a Healer and Ely for the first time (HOHe), on my first streak, and wasn't used to the extreme hunger pressure in the early game. I had no food left and I was starving, chased by a group of enemies (probably yaks) in a corridor which looped around. I was able to kill one enemy that dropped a corpse, but other enemies immediately filled its place and I couldn't hope to kill them all. I ran around in a loop to reach the corpse with about 30hp, had no time to chop and I was about to die so I read teleport and picked up the corpse. I teleported away to safety, dropped the corpse, chopped and ate it, and managed to solve my hunger issues after that.

Edit: Did some digging and found the moment on footv. As you might imagine, my memory of this game over two years later was not perfect but I had the rough idea down. !lg zxc hohe 1 -tv:T8940

[Tiktacy]

Why does thanking you give me a fatal error message zxc23?

[Sprucery]

Why does thanking you give me a fatal error message zxc23?

It's a bug that occasionally happens... the thank is registered despite that message (at least has been every time it has happened to me).

[Hands]

One time I found Yiuf's vault, and I had an attack wand so I figured I'd take a couple of shots at him and if necessary I'd walk back to the stairs and reset the situation. Unfortunately as soon as he sees me he quaffs !berserk. Luckily with his first hit he berserks me and I manage to beat him to death with a sliver of health left.

Anyway, the point is that I immediately went and added this pro Yiuf strat to my 10000 word character guide on the wiki.

[jwoodward48ss]

Why does thanking you give me a fatal error message zxc23?

The thanking attempt hits the server!!!! The thanking attempt kills the website!

[Sandman25]

I don't remember stories when I was new and bad at crawl, I will share a story when I was old and good at crawl instead. It happened 5 minutes ago.

  Code:

The tengu reaver hits your mana viper with the +8 mithril axe "Arga" {speed, MR+ Str+2}!!
You hit the tengu reaver but do no damage.
The tengu reaver writhes in agony.
The tengu reaver is almost dead.
You hit the tengu reaver.
You kill the tengu reaver!
You hear a splash. x3

That was deep water

[genericpseudonym]

I don't remember stories when I was new and bad at crawl, I will share a story when I was old and good at crawl instead. It happened 5 minutes ago.

  Code:

The tengu reaver hits your mana viper with the +8 mithril axe "Arga" {speed, MR+ Str+2}!!
You hit the tengu reaver but do no damage.
The tengu reaver writhes in agony.
The tengu reaver is almost dead.
You hit the tengu reaver.
You kill the tengu reaver!
You hear a splash. x3

That was deep water

Time to abandon your god and switch to Fedhas!