Introducing the Super Lotsa Added Stuff Hack - Extended Magic , or slash'EM, a variant on Nethack.
Ali's page can get you started on slash'em here. Detailed installation instructions for the latest stable versions as well as plenty of spoilers. http://avrc.city.ac.uk/nethack/slashem.html
This is a pretty cool variant that mainly adds "more stuff", while it seems that core NetHack hasn't had anything major done with it in a long while.
The main thing I like is that the Monk class is fairly decent, getting the natural AC bonus and bare-handed damage they deserve! :P Various non-mages also have special "techniques" they can use once in a while that makes physical-damage chars more interesting. Go go chained elemental chi dash pummel! And another minor perk is that starting players get more food. (Quite important for the monk, as they can't go eat meat!)
Lately I had gotten down to "Minetown" in the Dwarvish mines, then went back up, and got killed in Sokoban. Stoned to death by a Chickatrice. I had run into them before and killed them easily, but this time, as soon as I attacked, I got petrified. Maybe physically touching them is bad, I think I was wearing gloves previously, but at that point I had lost them and was completely bare-handed.
I never really caught onto Angband that well, but I have on Nethack/Slash'em. Mainly because there's a lot of wierd interactions you can do besides slaying monsters. Boots of leviation are great fun. :D
I would recommend staying away from those GUI versions, or at least try playing without them and get the hang of the text menus and commands. While say the 2D graphical tiles don't hurt, the GUI's for Nethack/Slashem I've used really slow play down. Since no-one seems to have built a dos binary for the latest stable slash'em, I just SSH to my linux machine downstairs and play in the terminal. :)
There's also a place you can play slash'em and nethack online, in case you don't have a linux machine, and you'd like to pick up other people's bones and get your name on a scoreboard. http://www.antisymmetric.com . While the connection is rather fast, I found that the ocassional lag still manages to get me killed (even in a turn-based game!) I hit a few keys, but get no feedback, thus I don't know that I've just stumbled into the maw of a dragon or some such, but I keep on hitting in that direction anyway... very common when you're running around long, normally uneventful areas.
Ali's page can get you started on slash'em here. Detailed installation instructions for the latest stable versions as well as plenty of spoilers. http://avrc.city.ac.uk/nethack/slashem.html
This is a pretty cool variant that mainly adds "more stuff", while it seems that core NetHack hasn't had anything major done with it in a long while.
The main thing I like is that the Monk class is fairly decent, getting the natural AC bonus and bare-handed damage they deserve! :P Various non-mages also have special "techniques" they can use once in a while that makes physical-damage chars more interesting. Go go chained elemental chi dash pummel! And another minor perk is that starting players get more food. (Quite important for the monk, as they can't go eat meat!)
Lately I had gotten down to "Minetown" in the Dwarvish mines, then went back up, and got killed in Sokoban. Stoned to death by a Chickatrice. I had run into them before and killed them easily, but this time, as soon as I attacked, I got petrified. Maybe physically touching them is bad, I think I was wearing gloves previously, but at that point I had lost them and was completely bare-handed.
I never really caught onto Angband that well, but I have on Nethack/Slash'em. Mainly because there's a lot of wierd interactions you can do besides slaying monsters. Boots of leviation are great fun. :D
I would recommend staying away from those GUI versions, or at least try playing without them and get the hang of the text menus and commands. While say the 2D graphical tiles don't hurt, the GUI's for Nethack/Slashem I've used really slow play down. Since no-one seems to have built a dos binary for the latest stable slash'em, I just SSH to my linux machine downstairs and play in the terminal. :)
There's also a place you can play slash'em and nethack online, in case you don't have a linux machine, and you'd like to pick up other people's bones and get your name on a scoreboard. http://www.antisymmetric.com . While the connection is rather fast, I found that the ocassional lag still manages to get me killed (even in a turn-based game!) I hit a few keys, but get no feedback, thus I don't know that I've just stumbled into the maw of a dragon or some such, but I keep on hitting in that direction anyway... very common when you're running around long, normally uneventful areas.