Hotaru's Ninja Niche

Tips for Playerkillers

There are many pages on the internet that have suggestions for new playerkillers, but these are the things I've learned as a young playerkiller. In general though, the best way to avoid unwanted PK interactions is to keep your head low and your nose clean.

Always be polite

• Bad Things(TM) happen to everyone but that's no excuse for being rude. Even if your custom, deluded weapons are stolen by a reputed "git", there is absolutely no chance of you recovering them if you're rude about it. The last thing you want, as a new PK, is to make enemies.

Don't idle in public places

• I would consider "public places" to include any common taxi stop or area of high traffic. You can avoid many discomforts by simply avoiding Filigree Street entirely, for example. If you are going to idle or need a few moments to self-teach, find a room that's off the main roads. Also, I've heard many people suggest hiding if you're going to idle. I actually advise against hiding unless your co.hi.person is good - just what do you think passes through the thoughts of a PK when they see an assassin creeping in the shadows?

Don't carry anything you're not prepared to lose

• To be blunt, money is worthless on Discworld. There are many ways to get money and it can be gotten rather easily. You always run the risk of being stolen from or looted when carrying high-value items, so only carry these things with you if you don't mind the chance of losing them. Remember this important lesson recorded on our communal chest:

  Possessions lead to greed. Greed leads to vanity. Vanity leads to admiring your reflection in your opponent's breastplate while being sliced in two.

• This also goes for XP: it's good to get into the habit of spending XP as you get it rather than waiting to amass that 1 million xp. You lose XP from PK deaths just like NPK deaths.

Tips for aliases

• There are many who have made the mistake of picking a fight with someone who far outstrips their own skills or killing their groupmate with a poorly executed backstab. A simple way to avoid these unpleasantries is to include "except killers" on the ends of your aliases. Here are a few of my aliases that employ this:
  • k: kill $arg1:living thing -1 except killers$ (NOTE: kill all aliases in general are to be avoided, this is just an example)
  • ka: kill all except killers
  • bs: backstab $arg1:living thing -1 except killers$
  • stm: steal money from $arg1:living thing -1 except killers$

Wards

• As a new playerkiller, theft is an unavoidable fact of life. It will happen. You can take steps, however, to help prevent such unpleasantness such as having important items warded. Priests can perform Divine Guard or Divine Sentinel which allows them to impress the item with one or more rituals which are triggered by theft. These rituals can do many nasty things such as cause the thief to fumble their weapon, paralyze them, reduce their stats, etc. Wards aren't fool-proof though. Thieves will still steal your items despite the wards, so you must be ready to react when it happens. Make sure you know exactly which wards will go off so you're ready when the time comes. Also, choose your wards carefully. Some wards can be very damaging (loss of life) which can cause the thief to retaliate further.

Always have fun!

• Remember, Discworld is a game and people play it to have fun. It's good to remind yourself of this whenever you get killed, stolen from, etc. You should also remember this as you become stronger as a PK and gain the ability to detract from other people's enjoyment of the game.