I think that the ADOM thread has been useful and interesting, so think it'd be good to do similar threads for other games.
Ragnarok was the second roguelike I have played, after the original Rogue, and it's an old favorite. I'd like to encourage those who haven't tried it before to give it a shot. Anyway, here are a few tips to get you started:
*THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS SPOILERS*
Upon reaching mastery (after 10 level ups), the classes that offer the most powerful abilities are the sage and the alchemist. Beginners may not want to start with these, as they offer almost nothing to the player before that point, and they're two of the weakest classes starting out.
Note that you can change classes every 10 levels, so you're not "stuck" with a bad class for the late game. If you have a hard time beginning, pick viking or woodsman, and change to sage or alchemist later. With that said, I would recommend beginning as a sage once you're more confident. In addition to having what I consider to be the best special ability of any class, they also begin with an otherwise hard-to-find stylus, which is needed to make use of that ability.
Scrolls of wonder are huge wildcards. They can summon destructive monsters that are far too powerful for a low level character to deal with, but they can also offer permanent resistances that are otherwise difficult to obtain, and can even polymorph the player into new, powerful forms. I would consider the best things to be polymorphed into are either borgon viles (high hp, high strength, speed of 20, can wear equipment and can create destructive whirlwinds without limitation), or swordsmen (high hp and strength, incredible speed of 40, can wear equipment, gets the useful origami and weaponmaster abilities). By far the best way to become one of these is through a lucky scroll of wonder.
When reading scrolls of wonder, I recommend choosing a map where the player will not need to pass through often (in case of the "mud" or "retchweed" effects), and where the player has already gone through and taken all the worthwhile items (because they can be turned into enemies), and the player should also have deposited every potion they intend to keep in another map (because all potions on the map, including in the player's inventory can be drained, leaving empty bottles, which can be useful themselves sometimes).
When the player is confused, reading scrolls has different effects. For example, reading a scroll of extinction while confused creates a new, chaotic species. A scroll of identification hides the player's identity. Perhaps the most useful is that a common scroll of blessing, if read while confused, will have a chance of enchanting (as with the very rare scrolls of enchantment) every scroll and potion in the player's inventory. It is possible to exploit this the sage's writing ability, and a rare wand to create a wish engine.
Experimenting with mixing potions is fun (pick alchemist as your starting class if you want to play with this, expect to die almost immediately), but it isn't particularly useful until the player has become a master alchemist, at which point it will allow the player to create potions granting tremendously powerful things, such potions of immortality, or potions that allow the player to become a five-dimensional being.
*END OF SPOILERS*
So does anyone else have tips on how to play, or would anyone, starting out on this game like any more information on it?
Note that since this is an old DOS game, you may need DOSbox to run it.
