I was just thinking, are the manuals taking the place of other items? Actually I don’t know how the dungeon is generated, does it pick X items to place, or does it do something else? If it does, although the manuals are useful, I don’t think they’re worth not getting something else, so the quota should be increased if they’re placed.
Yes, but blood magic takes health, not permanent health, so you’re only a wreck until you win your next fight. Which might mean you’re not much of a wreck at all, if the fight is easy.
Yes. But maybe on average one manual will be placed, and I believe the amount of minor items in the dungeon is something like 12? Plus, manuals do make scrolls better, because a scroll is much better if you know what it does. So any effects on balance will be small.
But we can always tweak the items amounts if we want to, of course! They were set based on wild intuitive guesses during early development, not based on sophisticated mathematical models. 
But I think what capmikee is envisioning is this: You attack me with your fists, I parry your fists with my sword, haven’t I just hit you on the fists with my sword?
O, wait, I completely misread. 
Let me respond when it’s not half past one in the night here.
Ah, and so I’ve misunderstood the blood magic proposal all along. I thought we were trading permanent health for blood magic benefits…
Ah! No, the idea is that blood magic will tempt the player to sacrifice his health either before a simple fight, or during a fight that seems to go very well; because if you actually win the fight, all health you have put into the blood magic item will be recovered. It is a mechanism that makes the optimal strategy a strategy where the player always seeks to approach, but never cross, the limit of the winnable.
Thanks for your replies, Victor. I am going to experiment more with the glass cannon. And sorry for rambling… I’ll use edit more in this already long thread!
I finally got the Stunning Performance achievement, and I got it on Level 2! Although I suspect it’s less of an achievement than it was before stunning was improved. I’ve been thinking of other achievements… is that the sort of thing I could add as a contributor?
Yes! We’ve started discussing achievements here: github.com/i7/kerkerkruip/issues/32
Perhaps you could move the entire thread there. I fail to see what an RPG has to do with interactive fiction.
I fail to see what you have to do with interactive fiction.
This morning I was trying to think of weapons that would make parrying more interesting…
Blade of Reflection
1d6+0, -2 attack, good at parrying, easy to parry
can parry ranged attacks; successfully parried attacks sometimes reflect back on the attacker; attack bonus in Hall of Mirrors?
Tiny Living Staff
This staff was carved from the Tree of Life, and living roots and branches extend from the ends.
1d4+0, good at parrying
can parry even hard-to-parry attacks, grows when parrying successfully
Glass Saber
This lightweight weapon has a hard, razor-sharp edge, and is difficult to see, but has a tendency to shatter.
1d4+4, +1 attack, parrying bonus with hard-to-parry weapons, but may shatter when it hits another weapon, causing double damage to defender if it is used to parry
Magnetic Nunchucks
When parrying successfully, there is a chance that defender will take the attacker’s steel weapon and ready it immediately. Wielding this weapon makes dodging steel weapons harder.
Venomous Dagger
When parried successfully, it becomes a venomous snake, a (demonic?) level 0 creature hostile to everyone.
I was also thinking about parrying with bare hands. Aren’t there techniques for doing this, like clapping both hands against the flat of a sword, or grabbing a knife-wielder’s hand? This might also give the defender a chance to disarm the attacker.
On an unrelated note, what happened with using ment during combat? Is that change still coming? I realized one reason I don’t use ment is that it doesn’t last long enough to defeat Malygris the first time you see him, and the sense ability doesn’t tell you how close he is, so it’s hard to tell if it’s going to run out while you’re looking for him.
I write and review interactive fiction. Apart from being a snotty little shit, what’s your contribution?
Dear Mr. Pudlo: It has come to my notice that you desire attention. I hereby acknowledge that I have paid you attention. I hope we have now concluded this transaction to both our satisfaction.
The hand-clap parry does not work in real life, mostly due to body mechanics and utterly insufficient friction. That said, in Kerkerkruip, it’d probably fit in just fine. But if you do that, you might as well go the whole hog and put in some kind of unarmed combat system complete with the Five-Finger-Five-Foe-One-Nose Death Touch.
There must be hundreds of RPG fora out there where I’m sure this thread would be more than welcome. There is only one interactive fiction forum. Could we please keep this forum on topic, or is that too much to ask?
Apparently we have not concluded the transaction to your satisfaction! OK, I’m withdrawing my half.
What, you mean apart from him creating and maintaing Parchment, the first browser interpreter that opened the way to Quixe and the web version of TADS?
(There might be more, Danii, so sorry if I’m leaving something important out, but Parchment is the first thing that comes to my mind!)
EDIT - Blast, and thus Pudlo made me derail this thread a little bit further, giving him another little victory.
Ah well, it could be worse. I could actually care.
I was thinking about some kind of dodging bonus item, like a swirling cloak, maybe, when I discovered that the boots of the war dance have been changed from an initiative bonus to a dodging bonus. Right on!
A couple of times I’ve been tripped up by the rage ability - it’s not mentioned in the status output when you can’t retreat. Could effects like this please be included?