Fear of the dark?

[Stingray1]

Yeah, games are a place where we can escape to from reality, where we can do what we feel like without it having any influence on others. Not muti-players thouh, remember that. Some people seem to miss that one.

By all means be evil in ADOM, this is a place where it is perfectly fine.

[Orfeni]

Believe it or not - I really feel "uneasy" when eating humanoid corpses Mostly @'s tho, I don't feel the same about g's and o's

[Utnapishtim]

Congrats Orfeni, it seems that you are able to really immerse yourself in the gameworld and probably get quite a bit more enjoyment out of it that way.

For me the game is foremost a challenge and a question of objectives, strategy, tactics, trying to maximize reward/risk of particular decisions etc. The foremost enjoyment I get is the feeling of having achieved something difficult, and also being creative, finding new ways to accomplish things and new things to accomplish. The roleplaying and fantasy aspects are there, but much more in the background.

That being said, the first time I got the healing by chaotic means, I did pause just for a moment, facing the healer, sighed a bit and thought "Well our character here is a devout adherent of chaotic principles. What has to be done has to be done." So I'm not completely immune. Oh well... at least via backstabbing it was instantaneous, the healer never knew what hit him.

E: Part of the reason why I'm never deeply immersed in the Adom gameworld moralwise is that it's very hard to take the religious and ethical aspects of that world seriously, as many have pointed out. Although I suspect this might be beside the point, as you might feel uneasy eating humanoids in a game even if it was counted as a lawful act in that particular gameworld.

[sylph]

I always revel in playing the character exactly as expected. I make up character personality traits, or quirks, before I play the game, then play through (even more than 1 character) with that set of traits.

For example, I'm currently on a reformed orcish thief. He was brought up evil by his parents, but left for the drakalor chain to do good. His background makes him absolutely fine with all kinds of chaotic activity, as long as the big, important stuff is good. He's take out the minotaur's home, but not assist the black unicorn. He'd pickpocket just about everyone, but wouldn't lead a dwarf off to murder him for a pickaxe.

Before this it was a neutral human fighter, she was desperate to save the world, but even more desperate to prove herself! She was fiercely independant - refusing the sheriff's gold, not collecting healing after rescuing the carpenter, even sneaking past the eternal guardian instead of placating him with the ring!

On the topic of this thread - I look forward to playing a chaotic ratling duelist next, who revels in murder and corruption, so no, I have nothing against playing an evil character. I think the immersion of playing as 'yourself' is great, but gets boring after a while, and playing different characters shakes things up and keeps ADOM interesting.

[anon123]

Believe it or not - I really feel "uneasy" when eating humanoid corpses Mostly @'s tho, I don't feel the same about g's and o's

The first time I ate a corpse in NetHack (first roguelike I ever played), I felt the same way: "damnit, that's really gross and disgusting". Over time I was desensitized, most likely because corpses are more easily available than "real" food, and in the end, this is a game and I want to keep my character alive.

And yeah, alignment as implemented in ADOM is a pretty flawed system. You can go from terribly evil to maximum goodness by overfeeding beggars, healing monsters you carefully arranged to indirectly hurt beforehand, self-flagellation marathons, or just buying your way through by sacrificing gold or giving it to Ruun. And somehow, just wearing a certain amulet around your neck can make actions severely less chaotic or lawful if you're neutral.

[Tyrnyx]

I always play neutral. I like the option of having access to training from the thieves guild. I like the fact that I can crown early if I want. I like that I can get all the quests. I really really like the Ring of Ice (although not sure if lawfuls get this along with the Axe). I like the chance of getting scrolls of chaos removal even though I usually get cheated. I never dig graves unless it's a certain dwarfs. I never pickpocket unless it's to get into a Guild. I never attack monsters that are my friends.

But, I'm a power player through and through. I don't think I've ever really "roll played" adom.

[grobblewobble]

I find it hard to feel the immersion too, there is just so little connection between your actions and your alignment. Murder all of dwarftown, sac a few coins to convert, sac the money from their cold bodies and you're a champion of balance / law. The "good" gods looooove blood money.

The best roleplay experience was playing the first chaos knights, before I knew you can convert. The feeling of the whole world being against you is really impressive.

I also still like the cute dog quest. There isn't really any reward for succeeding. (You get the vault and ant corpses, but you don't need to succeed in the quest for that.) Yeah, you get a little L boost, but you could get that same boost far easier in other ways, just grab a bagger and give him all your burb roots. So essentially, it is a quest with *no* reward.
But precisely because there is no reward.. except for seeing the little girl and her dog happy.. it really gives you that warm feeling to do it.

The most intense roleplay moment I ever had in ADOM was when I had a quickling queen companion. I gave her a name and had fun times adventuring with a friend like that. Until we encountered a corruption trap. She stepped into it like 7 times in one of my turns. There was nothing I could do. And then there was "Alice, the writhing mass of primal chaos" attacking me. I never felt such pure horror in a computer game. Died too, of course.