Classic or Roleplay for a new player

[Errko]

Hi everyone, i bought the game a few years back but only play like 40 min to see is the game was good for me. Now with the big update coming im going to start my truly first run.
I love difficult games but in the RPG gender i love to explore, read all the lore i found and appreciate every detail of the enviroment and cities, etc, so i have this doubt:
A- Is Roleplay to easy compared to Classic?
B- Is possible to enjoy the lore and the exploration in Classic?

Thx for your time, sorry for my english, its not my native language.

[Bwixie]

roleplay is great for learning the game! i wouldn't say it's "easy" though, it's the same game and you will die many times, you just won't need to restart from the beginning.

[derf]

You can certainly enjoy the lore and exploration in classic, id argue it's even more enjoyable to stumble into a brand new place after trying and failing to make it there 3,4,10,20 tries prior. Early game local lore will get old as you run through it several times but it's a turn based game so you can take your time looking and reading every new thing you see, even during combat

[glass zebra]

Roleplay basically removes the danger of death and risk vs reward gameplay, but does not make the fights or mechanics any easier otherwise. In roleplay mode it is kinda easier to ignore mechanics and get into a rush mode, until you meet enemies that do bad things to you that do not kill you.

If you wanna explore stuff and soak in every detail, that would probably not be much of an issue though. Some choices are much less appealing for roleplay mode though (like precognition) and there is probably not much reason to build pretty tanky or stack escape options into your build.


How much you can enjoy the lore in classic probably depends on your experience with roguelikes and not just RPGs. Some of the lore is generated each run, but the basics of the world remain the same. How/if you find some of the lore also depends on generation and a new world might give you some book early on that you just did not find in your last run.

It is very much possible to enjoy the lore of the world in classic, but if you are totally new to roguelikes, you might very much fall victim to creating multiple characters before you even get much chance to dive into the lore beyond the "I arrived in some village, there is a statue and there are problems". Most of the stuff you might be looking for comes slightly after super early game. If you are unsure, try classic and swap before you get annoyed or try roleplay until you feel it lacks something. If you like a mode or not will probably come to you pretty quickly

[Errko]

Originally posted by glass zebra:

Some of the lore is generated each run, but the basics of the world remain the same. How/if you find some of the lore also depends on generation and a new world might give you some book early on that you just did not find in your last run.

This is really good info, because i assume (very badly) that the lore was mostly part of the main story and the main quests so having books or info generated randomly in every new run put a good plus into the Classic. I know im going to see a lot of lore or conversations being the same every time but in other hand having the chance of discover new things is a little of fresh air in every run.

[Ralidor]

I recommend Classic even if you are new but yeah the game is hard. Mainstory feels a lot more impactful with permadeath and plays with it in mind. Mainlore is also not random and i think it's pretty cool.

Qud is a lot about learning what you are up against and prepping for it. Experiment what works and enjoy.

[Dizz]

I used the dark souls style campfire checkpoint mod. I've still died plenty, but I used this to help learn the game mechanics and such.

Once I clear the mainquest, I'll make a new char and probably go permadeath from here on. The game is well designed by allowing the player to be creative with lots of tools at their disposal to handle most if not all situations. That said, getting the knowledge to get to that point takes some trial and error.

Key in point: Sludges are terrifying. If you see a pack of them and they absorbed a bunch of liquids, run for the hills of Qud. lol

[Ostrava of Boletaria]

Depends. CoQ is less tactics-focused and more of a series of knowledge checks. A lot of you r deaths will equate to "what the actual ♥♥♥♥ even happened here" because the game can be pretty wacky.

In that respect classic can be frustrating if you're brand new because you're pretty much garunteed will die a bunch because you didn't know relatively esoteric knowledge like "yeah the black anti-prism slime will create evil entropic clones of yourself that try and kill you" and "my character equipped the funny amulet and died from ego death", down to the more standard mechanical knowledge checks like certain enemies being able to straight up cut off limbs/decapitate you.

The game is technically balanced around classic (i.e. roleplay mode was a more recent edition, and most of the game's lifespan just had classic) but I think roleplay is good to start out with so you're actually encouraged to try stuff out instead of being afraid of losing hours of progress every time you try and interact with an interesting mechanic/feature

[glass zebra]

Originally posted by Ostrava of Boletaria:

In that respect classic can be frustrating if you're brand new because you're pretty much garunteed will die a bunch because you didn't know relatively esoteric knowledge like "yeah the black anti-prism slime will create evil entropic clones of yourself that try and kill you" and "my character equipped the funny amulet and died from ego death", down to the more standard mechanical knowledge checks like certain enemies being able to straight up cut off limbs/decapitate you.

Learning that oozes are the big melee enemy and should be avoided to melee at all cost comes pretty early. The first ooze is the only one that does not do anything evil in melee range except being able to hit menacingly and everyone after that should make you fear their faction. The funny amulet is directly described as making everyone who wears it insane by the quest giver and he directly says "Finally, once you recover the prism, do not under any circumstances wield it.". Dismember and decapitate are both skills the player can use, so it should be of no surprise that enemies can also have access to those (granted though a new player will probably not read through the entire list of skills presented to them as choices).

Qud is somewhat special because it gives players enemies and choices that have an "avoid me" mechanic and is less about killing everything you see in the same way, but I'd say most of the stuff you encounter is either somewhat slowly introduced so players can extrapolate for later encounters (like oozes or damage in with low AV), give warning (even if it is a harsh one like damaging you permanently) from which you can decide to sprint away or has some "lore" warning for players. Not everything is fully in that design, but I think the game is a lot fairer than many people make it sound. It is just mean

[Sigvuld]

Roleplay is literally just the same game except you don't have to deal with permadeath, do that to learn