This post includes spoilers:  detailed information on
how to play the game.  If you do not want to be spoiled, stop
reading.

        !   "Slash'em"  and  "relatively simple"  do not belong
in the same posting.  

        The power level of most (all?) roguelikes is in a slow
inflationary spiral, heading for powergaming.  (Some day, I
shall write a monograph on the subject.)

        Also, the Dev Teams seem to be getting their player
feedback from the newsgroups instead of unspoiled players.  
This means that difficulty levels escalate to where even an
expert, heavily spoiled player is challenged.  

        Slash'em is one generation further along these paths
than NetHack.  

        I wondered if the fastest way to ascend in Slash'em
might not be to ascend in NetHack, first.  Or at least get
rolling in NetHack.  Me dunno.  Does anyone else have a
view?

        Me, too.  And J. Ali Harlow, one of the Slash'em
Dev Team, who *has never ascended himself*.  Zounds!

        Six months ago, I had a Valkyrie empty out the Black
Market, a store that covers an entire level.  Tons of loot!
Unfortunately, I suspect that Gehennom is very close, and I'm
afraid to find out how it has been mutated.  My character is
parked in a save file.

Suggestions:

        * Learn how to use your class's techniques.  Techniques
are a recent invention, so they are one generation closer to
pure powergaming.

        * Watch for things that don't exist in NetHack.  Again,
these will be one generation closer to powergaming, and will
outgun all items from previous generations.  Example:  all
Australian creatures are overpowered for their depth.

        * Crys knives have been powergamed *twice*, once in
NetHack and again in Slash'em after power inflation set in.
They're better than any mundane sword and almost all of the
older artifacts.  (You make crys knives by using Enchant
Weapon on a worm tooth.  They revert if you drop them...
unless you rust-proof them:  use Enchant Weapon while
confused.)

        * Being able to have shopkeepers ID everything is
a fairly big help.  Thus, I suggest being a Valkyrie or
Caveman.  If you can survive to the quest, you get an
unlimited supply of gems.  You can then set up a trading
cycle with a shopkeeper:  gems for IDs.  I track how much
gold the shopkeeper has.

        Pray when you are weak from hunger.  Warning:  praying
again too soon can annoy your god.

        A quote from J. Ali Harlow:  "The thing that makes
vampires difficult is that they have very little control
over their food supply. They can't eat any food that doesn't
go "off" and the blood in corpses coagulates _very_ fast.
This means that they need a steady supply of monsters to
survive; too few and they start starving; too many and they
start choking.  [If you eat too much, you can choke and die.
-Rob.]  Rings of hunger and slow digestion are essential
bits of kit. Vampires are _supposed_ to be a real challenge."

        The signal portion of this posting has ended.  The
remaining text is noise.

        Commercial games want you to win.

        NetHack doesn't care if you win or lose.

        Slash'em wants you DEAD.

Commercial games cheat for you and against the monsters:
        The unarmed orc falls to the ground, dying.  "Whirling
        Blades of Doom... backpack", he gasps.  "Barbecue
        sauce... left pocket."

NetHack plays fair between you and the monsters:
        The orc wins the race to the Whirling Blades of Doom.  
        He seizes it, grins, and whirls it at you.  You fall
        to the ground, dying.  Your last sight is of the
        orc reaching for his left pocket.

Slash'em cheats against you and for the monsters:
        Staggering and more than half dead, you advance to
        the slain monster.  If you can use the Whirling
        Blades of Doom against the rest of the pack, you
        just might live through this.

        ...There is no weapon at the corpse.  The Whirling
        Blades of Doom are an intrinsic attack, not a
        separate weapon.

        The next platypus in line opens its bill.  This one
        is a fire breather.  Thoroughly barbecued, you fall
        to the ground, dying.  When you hit the ground,
        something breaks in your left pocket.

        Commercial game developers are sometimes interviewed
by gaming magazines and shown in publicity shots.  

        The NetHack Dev Team is faceless and mysterious.  

        The Slash'em Dev Team kills and eats interviewers and
photographers.  All those tentacles are hard to fit into a
photograph, anyway.

        Commercial game developers advertise their games widely.

        The NetHack Dev Team only speak to announce a new release.

        J. Ali Harlow is the Voice of Saur... I mean, of the
Slash'em Dev Team.

        Commercial game developers never release their source
code.

        NetHack releases all source code.  Players "source
dive":  read the code.

        Slash'em releases its source code.  Odd:  I don't
recall ever reading a posting from a Slash'em source diver.
Something must happen if you read the Slash'em code.  Some-
thing that precludes ever posting again....

        To get support for a commercial games, you can go to
the company which made the game.  The advice will be good.

        To get support for NetHack, you can go to the newsgroup
and ask other people who play the game.  The advice is not
always good.

        To get advice for my Slash'em Valkyrie, I could go to
Eva R. Myers.  Unfortunately, she's on the same land mass as
J. Ali Harlow.  Conclusion:  she was killed and eaten years
ago, and it's Ali at the keyboard, pretending to be her.  Or
she is one of THEM, right down to the tips of her tentacles.
(If she advises me to buy barbecue sauce, I'm moving to
Australia!  Err, OK, maybe not Austalia.  I know:  Transyl-
vania!  That should be relatively safe.)

        Does garlic work?  How about silver bullets?  No?
Well, how DO we defend ourselves?  And why did someone mail
me this bottle of Wostershire sauce?

--
  No tentacled monstrosities were harmed in the making of this
  post.  Darn!
Rob "slashed by Slash'em" Ellwood