Andy Williams' ADOM pages | Official ADOM site
This document answers some of the most frequently asked questions about the newsgroup rec.games.roguelike.adom, simply referred to as 'the newsgroup' throughout the rest of this document. If you feel that anything important is missing, spot errors, or experience problems downloading the latest FAQ version, please send an e-mail to Léon Planken, who is the official maintainer of the rec.games.roguelike.adom FAQ.
This FAQ is available in HTML and as a text file. The HTML and text versions do not differ in content, but the HTML version has some nicer formatting. To reduce download time and for offline perusal, you can download zip archives of either FAQ version at http://www.adomgb.info/.
This FAQ is for those seeking information about the newsgroup and the traditions and customs of its denizens. It tends to be a friendly group, but some of the newer residents expressed a desire for a guide to assist them through smoother enculturation. Here it is! It does not deal with questions about the game itself, as those are in the ADOM FAQ.
Many thanks to Richard Fowler, Karkadinn and Malte Helmert,
rec.games.roguelike.adom FAQ maintainers, retired.
Also thanks to Helmut Hohberger, Edd Parsons, Josh Singh, Ilija Shumov, Juha
Suvanto, Rachel Walmsley, and Andy Williams for valuable input.
Items that have changed since version 4.0 of this FAQ are marked
with a [changed in 4.x] tag.
Items that have been added since version 4.0 of this FAQ are marked
with an [added in 4.x] tag.
1.1: What is a newsgroup anyway? Is it like a web forum? [added in 4.1]
1.2: What is the newsgroup for?
1.3: Are there any topics I should avoid? [changed in 4.3]
1.4: How and when was the newsgroup born?
1.5: I love newsgroups, but I also love the world wide web! Have you got any links?
2.1: Is there anything I should know before posting in the newsgroup? [changed in 4.1]
2.2: I am new to the newsgroup, and everyone seems to hate me! What is wrong with those people?
2.4: I'm following Netiquette, but somebody still hates me! What should I do?
2.5: What's the deal with the so-called Improved Guidebook? [added in 4.2]
2.7: Somebody posted something that hasn't got anything to do with ADOM. What should I do?
3.1: Why do people keep putting lots of space in the middle of their posts?
3.2: What is or isn't a spoiler?
3.3: How should I compose posts containing spoilers? [changed in 4.1]
3.4: Should I include spoiler space when replying to a spoily post? [changed in 4.1]
3.5: Why the space? Shouldn't the [Spoily] tag be enough?
3.6: Why not use ROT-13 instead?
3.7: What should I do if someone is posting spoilers with no space and no tags?
4.1: What's the meaning of YASD, YAVP, YAGBU, YAFM, and RFE? [changed in 4.3]
4.2: Woohoo! I finally won! Now what?
4.4: My 50th level character drowned in Terinyo! Do you want to hear about it?
4.5: I discovered something new! What should I do?
4.6: I have this nifty idea for the next ADOM release. Should I e-mail Thomas about it?
4.7: Are there any specific features I shouldn't request?
5.1: How do you expect me to read a post when half of it is in code? [changed in 4.3]
5.2: What the hell is a SoCR, and what is a good for?
5.3: How do I recognize a WMoPC?
5.4: Where can I find the ToEF?
1.1: What is a newsgroup anyway? Is it like a web forum? [added in 4.1]
A newsgroup is a forum on Usenet, not on the World Wide Web. Newsgroups have been around a lot longer than web fora. Also, they aren't usually accessed using a web browser, but with a separate application called a newsreader.
A newsgroup differs from a web forum in several important respects:
For more background information, you can take a look at the Wikipedia articles on Usenet and Newsgroups.
1.2: What is the newsgroup for?
The newsgroup is for the discussion of the game ADOM, by Thomas Biskup (referred to as 'Thomas' in the following). ADOM is an ASCII character graphics adventure game in the style of Omega and Nethack. All things pertaining to ADOM are acceptable here, including requests for help locating and playing the game, announcements of new versions of the game, and so forth. Binary files should not be posted to this group. If you have a binary file which is related to ADOM, please place it on an ftp or web site and post a message to this group saying what the file is and how to get it. Commercial posts (advertisements, MAKE.MONEY.FAST, etc.) are not appropriate either.
1.3: Are there any topics I should avoid? [changed in 4.3]
Some topics have led to several ugly discussions and 'flame wars' in the past. If you don't want to come across as rude, you should avoid them. Be warned that some newsgroup denizens will react very angrily if you don't follow this advice. These taboo topics include:
Finally, see 4.7: Are there any specific features I shouldn't request? for a selection of perceived bugs in or new features for ADOM you might do better to avoid.
1.4: How and when was the newsgroup born?
The newsgroup was created after its first proposal with a vote count of 232:21. Its announcement was made on February 22nd 1997 and propagation began soon after. Before this time, ADOM chat was conducted on rec.games.roguelike.misc.
1.5: I love newsgroups, but I also love the world wide web! Have you got any links?
Certainly. I guess you already know the official ADOM web site. Also do check the official ADOM FAQ, which answers basic questions about playing the game and lists the most important ADOM-related Internet resources. If you are sick of trying to solve all the ADOM puzzles yourself and need some information on all the secrets of the game, check the ADOM Guidebook, the definitive source of information about ADOM.
2.1: Is there anything I should know before posting in the newsgroup? [changed in 4.1]
Those who are familiar with web fora but not with Usenet should read 1.1: What is a newsgroup anyway? Is it like a web forum? [added in 4.1] for the most important differences.
If you are new to Usenet, you will need to get accustomed to the written and unwritten laws collectively known as Netiquette. Like all public places, newsgroups have codes of conduct that you should obey, because otherwise you will come across as rude, annoying, and probably stupid. In newsgroups, what you write is what you are!
There are many Internet resources on Netiquette. One that I consider particularly helpful and well-written is Prof. Timo Salmi's Netiquette page. It contains more material than you will need to be aware of, but by all means read at least the first eight topics on the page before posting. You will spare yourself a lot of trouble.
In addition to general Netiquette, each newsgroup has its own little set of rules which you need to be aware of. For this reason and others, it is considered good practice to first lurk, i.e. to only read but not write, for a few weeks before making a public appearance. In this group, the most important 'house rules' deal with the way spoilers are to be presented. See 3.1: Why do people keep putting lots of space in the middle of their posts? for more information.
2.2: I am new to the newsgroup, and everyone seems to hate me! What is wrong with those people?
Most probably nothing. Did you pay attention to the previous answer? You really should. Some people in the newsgroup can quickly get angry when other people post in a way that is generally considered impolite. If you happen to end up on the wrong side of such a Netiquette-related post, try not to argue. If you are polite in the future, people will start respecting you. As they say, it is not stupid to make a mistake, but it is stupid to make the same mistake twice.
The 'most popular' breaches of Netiquette observed in the newsgroup are:
Additionally, you should not use all-caps or use chat-room slang, such as 'u' for you, because people will take you less seriously. For explanations of these rules and other useful information, visit the web page mentioned in the previous answer.
While non-Google posts are generally preferred (mostly due to Google Groups not respecting the 72-character line width mentioned above), people will be more affable toward your replies if they include attributions and context. Unfortunately, the ordinary reply mechanism of Google Groups does not include these. In order to reply correctly, use the Reply function, which can be found by following the show options link found at the top of every post, next to the date.
2.4: I'm following Netiquette, but somebody still hates me! What should I do?
For reasons that are hard to understand, some people enjoy being malicious and annoying. This is called trolling. If you are not the only one having trouble with a particular poster, he might be a troll. In this case, the best thing to do is to ignore them. Everything else is just adding fuel to the fire.
Of course, not every unfriendly post is the result of trolling. Sometimes personalities collide, and people get angry. This can lead to lengthy threads that contain little content other than flames and defenses (whether by the original participants or others). If you feel insulted, responding by e-mail is often better than posting.
2.5: What's the deal with the so-called Improved Guidebook? [added in 4.2]
This is a topic that has been the subject of much heated discussion lately. A very brief explanation for the controversy: the original Guidebook has been copied and changed without permission from its author. Among the additions are results found by disassembling the ADOM executable. Thomas has stated very clearly that he doesn't want ADOM to be disassembled for any purpose, which implies that facts found by this method are also out of bounds.
Supporters and opponents of the 'Improved Guidebook' have clashed many times already, and pretty much everything there is to say has been said. Be advised to tread very carefully, if at all, regarding this topic. For historical information and lots of discussion on this subject, search the newsgroup archive, e.g. via Google Groups.
Not at all. These annoying mass-marketing posts are known as spam. Unless you are very lucky, you will already have seen quite a lot of it in your e-mail box. The important bit here is that many news servers have spam filters, so that most readers of the group won't see the post at all -- unless you respond to it, that is. For this reason, many people get annoyed if you post a reply to spam. You can try answering by e-mail or informing the ISP of the offending party if you so desire, but most of the time this won't do any good because the headers that identify the originator of the post are faked.
2.7: Somebody posted something that hasn't got anything to do with ADOM. What should I do?
Again, you shouldn't do anything. It is not unusual for newsgroup discussions to drift to unrelated topics, and this is not a bad thing. However, as a courtesy to people who don't want to read such off-topic posts, you should include the marker [OT] at the start of the subject to make them easy to recognize and ignore.
3.1: Why do people keep putting lots of space in the middle of their posts?
Welcome to the world of spoiler space! The idea of spoiler space is to prevent people from accidentally being exposed to game secrets that they would like to discover for themselves. Some people think that knowing these secrets ruins the game for them in very much the same way as being told the outcome of a detective story. This is why spoiler protection is strongly recommended -- so that those who wish to read spoilers can, and those who wish to avoid them can, too.
3.2: What is or isn't a spoiler?
A spoiler is a piece of information that gives away a secret. It is something that isn't obvious and isn't in the manual, the knowledge of which bypasses the problem solving process in some way. It is hard to give a dictionary definition for this because the border between spoily and non-spoily information is somewhat fuzzy. Use some common sense here.
For instance: It is not a spoiler to say that the sheriff in Terinyo assigns quests. However, it is a spoiler to explain the quests and the rewards for completing them.
It is not a spoiler to say that an artifact named Kinslayer exists, but it is a spoiler to list its powers and statistics (which can normally only be found via great identify) or to reveal the location or acquisition method of any artifacts (which can normally only be found via actually playing).
3.3: How should I compose posts containing spoilers? [changed in 4.1]
Make sure to include a spoiler warning within the text itself. Spoiler space is simply a break between the spoiler warning (or the top of the message) and the spoily content. Don't simply use empty lines, because some newsreaders (including Google Groups) automatically truncate these. Instead, use asterisks or similar every line, for about 20 lines (this can be an opportunity to be clever and expressive). You can really fill this space with anything you want, but it's preferred you don't insert 30k ASCII graphics.
If only part of a post is a spoiler, put the spoiler space before the spoiler section (which should go at the end of the message). This allows you to give 'hints' which are not really spoilers followed by spoiler space before the real spoilers -- so that readers may pick either the hints or the heavy stuff.
If you start a discussion on a spoily subject, you should consider adding a [Spoily] tag, or even something like [Major Spoilers] if you made a ground-breaking discovery. Where appropriate, you can use the [YAGBU] tag explained in question 4.5: I discovered something new! What should I do? instead. It is understood that these posts always contain spoilers. Using these tags doesn't mean you don't need spoiler space, though.
3.4: Should I include spoiler space when replying to a spoily post? [changed in 4.1]
If your reply has a spoily subject matter, or quotes spoily information, spoiler space is still required. Either remove the quotation marks from the quoted spoiler space, or replace it with your own. This is because Google Groups hides quoted text by default, thus effectively rendering quoted spoiler space useless.
On the other hand, if the reply doesn't contain any spoilers (and you don't quote any spoily bits), you should remove the spoiler space and [Spoily] tag.
3.5: Why the space? Shouldn't the [Spoily] tag be enough?
Many people use newsreaders that simply jump from post to post, without looking at the subjects of each post first. Therefore, they will always see the first 'screenful' of each post. Although it is arguable whether this is the best possible way of following the newsgroup, it is a reality, and the wishes of these newsgroup denizens should be respected.
3.6: Why not use ROT-13 instead?
Many people find ROT-13 and similar encryption schemes less convenient to use. There are reasons for and against, and they have been debated many times in the newsgroup. The result of these debates is that most people are in favor of spoiler space, with a few supporters of ROT-13. So using spoiler space is the result of that dictatorship of the majority known as democracy.
3.7: What should I do if someone is posting spoilers with no space and no tags?
You can email them politely (we're a nice bunch, please, no flames!). It's likely they're a new user and not aware that we prefer spoiler posts to be marked. Inform them that some users may not like them posting that way, and refer them to this document.
4.1: What's the meaning of YASD, YAVP, YAGBU, YAFM, and RFE? [changed in 4.3]
These are abbreviations that frequently occur in the subject line of posts. For acronyms in the message text, see 5.1: How do you expect me to read a post when half of it is in code? [changed in 4.3].
The rest of this section is dedicated to these kinds of posts.
4.2: Woohoo! I finally won! Now what?
No doubt you want to share your accomplishment with the whole ADOM community. The first and easiest instinct might be to just copy your character's .flg file into a message and post it. Unfortunately, that usually results in a long post, most of which nobody will ever read. At the very least, you'll want to edit out most of the inventory and monster kill list.
To make your victory post truly enjoyable, add more stuff back in: tell us your character's story. Any unusual strategies used? Any tense times or close calls? Lucky moments? Epic battles in the wilderness? If the story stays in character, all the better ('Grok not want paper with marks, but keep finding them. They good for cleaning big sword. Later learned some reading and wondered what marks meant.'). Have fun with it and we probably will, too.
If you resorted to cheating or save-scumming (see 4.3: What is save scumming?) in any way, please note this. Posts of characters that have been edited or save-scummed are not considered 'wins' but if you still have something interesting to tell, go ahead with your post. You probably shouldn't call it a victory post, though, to avoid less than friendly reactions from some of the more orthodox newsgroup denizens.
By the way, most people don't snip the screenshot when posting a YAVP. Although it is hardly relevant, it makes for excellent spoiler space, and victory posts are almost always spoily -- see 3.1: Why do people keep putting lots of space in the middle of their posts?.
Save scumming is the practice of backing up save files so that they can be restored in case something bad (such as character death) happens. According to the design of the game, this is cheating.
Having said that, many, if not most, have done it at some time. If it makes the game more enjoyable for you, do it, but be aware that completing the game using this method is not considered a victory. More like a tour. Reformed savescummers report an improvement in game enjoyment after kicking the habit, so you might give it a try if you've got hooked on cheating while exploring the Chain.
In summary, sinning in this way is usually accepted and forgiven, but advocating this sin might be met with less than friendly comments.
4.4: My 50th level character drowned in Terinyo! Do you want to hear about it?
My condolences. This sounds like an ideal candidate for a 'Yet Another Stupid Death' (YASD) post. Like for victory posts, most people who post YASDs use the character dump that ADOM offers to generate at the end of game and edit it, snipping irrelevant bits and adding some information on the story of the character. You can keep this short -- many of the more interesting and creative YASD posts don't include a character dump at all. Just browse the group for a few YASDs that sparked discussion and you'll easily get the hang of it.
4.5: I discovered something new! What should I do?
ADOM is a complex game, and thus it can (and will) surprise even the veteran player. Every now and again the common newbie will discover something new, and wishes to share this info with the newsgroup. Most of the time, this information is already documented, so to reduce the workload on the people who collect this knowledge, please follow these guidelines:
If your new discovery passes all these tests, go ahead and send a [YAGBU] post.
4.6: I have this nifty idea for the next ADOM release. Should I e-mail Thomas about it?
Don't send an e-mail, there is a better way. The official ADOM site contains a database filled with RFEs, requests for enhancements to the game. These are submitted by players, commented on by players, and eventually incorporated into the game or rejected by Thomas. Thomas has requested that people post their RFEs on the newsgroup before submission, in order to cut down on the huge amount of work this involves.
There are several reasons for this:
When considering an RFE, always ask yourself this one question: Would this make the game more fun? And remember that every minute that Thomas spends on weeding out the RFE database could be more usefully applied to fixing bugs or implementing new features.
To finally submit an RFE, point your browser to the bug report form to report a 'bug' of the category RFE (request for enhancement). Do follow all instructions given on this page. Most importantly, only include one idea per RFE, or else Thomas will ignore it.
4.7: Are there any specific features I shouldn't request?
Yes! Here is a list of popular suggestions that have been rejected. If you want to know the reasoning behind the rejection, feel free to use the search engine on the official ADOM website. Thomas almost always gives a good reason for not implementing something. Some of the most popular feature request are also discussed in the readme.1st file that is shipped with ADOM.
5.1: How do you expect me to read a post when half of it is in code? [changed in 4.3]
For good or bad, acronyms and abbreviations are thriving all over the Internet, and this newsgroup is no exception. Many acronyms like HAND, LOL, or AFAIK are in common use outside this newsgroup; you can look these up using the Acronym Finder.
Other abbreviations are specific to this newsgroup and are explained in this section. Lets start with some of the most commonly used ones:
Keep in mind that the more cryptic you are, the more likely you are to be misunderstood, so try to keep the abbreviations within the Drakalor Chain dialect and not just SiT (Speak in Tongues). If in doubt, type it out.
5.2: What the hell is a SoCR, and what is a good for?
Telling you what it is good for would be spoily, but I can tell you that it is an item also known as a scroll of chaos resistance. Names of commonly referred to items are often abbreviated; the following list covers the most important ones.
5.3: How do I recognize a WMoPC?
Check if its full description is writhing mass of primal chaos. If so, you have encountered the monster with one of the nicest abbreviations (but not one of the nicest monsters, mind you). This is a short list of creature abbreviations and nicknames:
5.4: Where can I find the ToEF?
It's right on the wilderness map, depicted by a red 'o'. The names of the various game locations are frequently abbreviated, usually using the abbreviation shown on the play screen when on that level. The more common ones are listed here:
© Copyright by Richard Fowler, Matt Chatterley, Karkadinn, Olli Juhala, Malte Helmert and Léon Planken. This FAQ may be freely distributed as long as these two copyright messages are distributed with it. Karmic creatures are exempted from this restriction.
ADOM © Copyright 1994-2008 by Thomas Biskup. All rights reserved.