gistfile1.txt

1) Don't behead your players
   Gameplay should never be unreasonable. For example,
   the player should never be killed or damaged by a 
   single attack. Instant death and other unfair 
   situations break the immersion of the game. 
   
2) Don't add cyanide!
   Unidentified items should never be immediately 
   fatal. While negative identify outcomes are okay,
   something like an instant death discourages players
   from experiencing that aspect of the game. The same
   goes for items which have curse effects or anything
   that would force the game into an unwinnable state. 
   
3) The Item Masquerade
   Items should have similarities with other items of 
   the same type. This makes it harder to identify a
   specific item. This rule should not be strictly 
   adhered to, as observant players should be rewarded
   however keeping things confusing prevents the game 
   from losing playability. One example is making a 
   potion healing the same color as a potion of fruit
   juice. Or rings which look similar and have vague
   descriptions. An example of making things aparent
   to observant players, would be things like distinct
   weight values.
   
4) Situational Identification Advantage
   In some situations, it is beneficial for a player to
   identify the usage of an item more than others. For 
   example, if there is no potion that gives the player
   combat disadvanteges, it might be in their best 
   interest to identify potions during combat. If none
   of them do direct damage to the player, it becomes
   an advantage to identify them when below max HP.
   It is very easy to destroy these advantages however
   a good designer is aware of these advantages and the
   influence they will have on gameplay. These should be
   kept to a minimum, but not completely removed. 
   
5) Item use should matter!
   Most rogue likes give items to the player which have
   windows of usefulness. For example, the major rogues
   have scrolls which can be consumed to apply an enchant
   to an item. Although if the player finds better gear,
   that scroll is wasted. The longer the player waits
   to see if something better shows up, the less use they
   get out of the scroll. 
   
6) Useless Items Suck
   When an item is fully identified, it should never be
   useless. This allows players to be rewarded for their
   information gathered, and alos lestens the effect of 
   players being screwed over by poor item generation.
   For example, in Rogue, the potion of blindness can 
   be useful in fights against medussa. In some games 
   like Shiren then Wanderer, most bad items can simply
   be thrown at enemies lol.
   
7) Reduce grind pls
   There should be some form of constant resource drain
   on the player, which discourages grinding. This is 
   usually done by adding a food bar or similar which
   can only be increased by finding food, which is 
   only found by generating new levels. This prevents
   players from just grinding rats and getting lv 20 lol
   
8) Unwinnable Race
   A balance is needed between the dificulty curve, the
   skill of the player, and the items they have found. 
   Players should rely on items and experience to get 
   them to the end. If they don't depend on items they
   will loose interest in the game. The same is true if 
   the items given are way too powerful and make the game
   too easy. This is best acomplished by setting the enemy
   curve to be slightly higher than that of the player. 
   In Rogue, you can't slice through all the mosters, even
   with the best weapons. And some enemies require other items
   to be defeatable.