It makes me feel so... un-rogue-ish. There's this little annoying voice in my head that says "Oh, well why don't you just turn explore mode - or even better, wizard mode on, you wuss?" And I'm like "but... it's not cheating, Rodney, it's one of the options, see?" and the voice is like "you are such a chickenshit, I don't even know you." And Rodney always wins and I click permadeath.
If it makes you feel better, I don't feel bad about not using permadeath. Though I'm not using it very often, for a slightly different reason. You see, I perceive the difference between playing with permadeath on and off as the difference between playing casually and playing for the challenge. If I only want to have fun and get through the game, then lack of permadeath isn't that bad, since I can simply get through it without worrying about a bad roll. And if I want the game to go as hard on me as possible, so that I'll have to plan for the possibility of RNG hating me, then permadeath is obviously going to be turned on, as the risk of having one's character deleted makes it more real. Elona once had something similar, and nobody (or at least not many people) though that it was cheating. And the only reason I'm not playing without permadeath that often is lack of time to spend playing casually, meaning that I prefer to challenge myself instead of steadily strolling through the game.
If you're playing a mage, there's no excuse for avoiding permadeath play. Your life is easy. If you're a ranged rogue with an escape or two, I'd feel about the same way. Melee warriors, or worse, melee rogues, however, have very little chance of ever meeting Dredmor with permadeath on.
I'm a melee wizard, and I'm doing just fine. Had a few close calls with archdiggles, but that's to be expected.
Depends on why I'm playing. If I'm just goofing off, I leave Permadeath off and play a caster. When I'm serious as hell, I go Permadeath and play a melee crafter. I've never made it past DL5 when I was serious as hell.
I've always played with the assumption that non-Permadeath was for people who weren't good enough to play Permadeath and still enjoy the game. When I play on non-Permadeath, my overall feeling is "jeez, why not give me Knights of Round, a BFG9000 and the Masakados magatama while you're at it?" Conversely, when my partner plays on non-Permadeath, her overall feeling is "yay, this way I get to thwack monsters and have fun without having to start again every few floors". Permadeath caters well to RPG addicts like me, while non-Permadeath caters well to casual gamers like her.
I have to agree with Velorien; Just play whichever you find more fun (or even both if you enjoy both options), I personally won't touch non-perma death though.. lately when I have been trying to make a successful GR character build, I almost reconsider though ^^
I've compromised with Rodney and reduced the difficulty to DM while keeping Permadeath. It's making my games a fair amount longer, seeing as how I always play a non-mage. I don't think Rodney really appreciates that difficulty curves in games need not all be a sheer wall instead of a steep hill, but as long as he gets to claim the souls of my fallen (and then boast about it) he feels that he's punished me enough.
I've got /one/ non-perma detah charcater i mae so i could see the end... but I keep losing the will to play it. I needs perma death XD
No I don't feel bad about NOT turning Permadeath on at all. ..because I never turn it off But yeah: do what you wish: be your own standard: measure yourself against yourself with your own values. Don't go making my opinion (nor those of other non-you's) more important than they should be (which in case is: at all!). (Or do if you wish, but I'd have to ask why you would?)
