Superstitious Living Off the Land
by ']['hanee
based on the original LoL rules by Bostic
special thanks to Claudio

Class: Any
Tag: SLoL

Introduction

The changes I made to Bostic's LoL rules while writing this had two main purposes.

One reason was to enforce SLoLs to a change in equipment on a regular basis, thereby further increasing the variation in tactics by choosing from the equipment you have. You won't be able to base your characters tactics on a few good items you found!

The other one was the roleplaying character I had in mind after hearing of LoL. That character did not care about the items found - there will be more to come. It was not driven by the thoughts how to keep those items in a good condition. In fact it did not care about that. New items would always replace the old ones, when they are close to broken. Sometimes those are better, sometimes not, but that depends on what the Land offers you. You have to Live off what the Land has to offer! I wanted to create a set of rules that would enhance that role and I hope I did well.

The main reason is - of course - to make the game more interesting! Like LoL, this should increase the value of any items you find and you will have to change your items regularly, since they WILL BREAK eventually! This is the main addition to original LoL! As a sidenote, the game will also become much harder! ;)

Background

SLoL stands for Superstitious Living Off the Land. It describes a group of people that have sworn themselves to kill the Lord of Terror, Diablo. They are descendants of the ancient brotherhood known as the Horadrim. They believe that the voice of corruption touched their surroundings, and they avoid direct contact with most people in Tristram as much as possible. They shun the greedy townsfolk like Griswold, Wirt and Adria, who seek profit above anything else.

They are nomads, dependant on what they find on their journeys. They live off the land and they are very superstitious. Their superstition stems from the vileness of corruption that lurks everywhere. This has gone so far, that they do not touch any sign of religious origin (shrines) they find in the vicinity of demons and their kin. To preserve their beliefs they use other items to show the respect to the powers of light. Such items that have been left untouched throughout time (indestructible items) are valued so high that the SLoL people do not use them at all. They scatter them throughout the dungeon, to spread the influence of the light and to fight off the darkness. At least they believe this helps!

Their final goal is to kill Diablo! Since his true incarnation is lurking deep in the hell and killing the weaker shadows, that represent his power in normal and nightmare difficulty games, do not hurt the Lord of Terror much, this has to be done in a hell difficulty game! Otherwise they just try to survive and spread the influence of the powers of light throughout the places corrupted by the demons! Of course the character may still be played after the goal has been achieved! :)

Rules

No Gold!
This is the most important (S)LoL rule. You may not use Gold to buy any item or service in Tristram. This includes no buying anything from Griswold, Wirt, Adria or Pepin, no repairing items at Griswold and no recharging Staffs at Adria. There are two exceptions to this rule, but those will be discussed later.

No Inventory expansion!
You may not use storage characters (or even item export/import) to increase your storage capacity. It is of course allowed to stash items away for other characters! Items that cannot be carried by the character(s) that played the game, may not be used by them in the future. Coop partners may of course carry stuff for the others.

No RESTART IN TOWN after death!
When you die, this game is over! Unless someone brings you back to life, e.g. resurrects you with a scroll of resurrect (not one bought in Tristram though), you have to hit NEW GAME and lose all the stuff still in the game. Of course, you may not rejoin the same game after death and hitting NEW GAME!

Cain, the Elder and Identification of items!
Cain is highly respected, and his wisdom is often sought by the people. Therefore you are allowed to let him identify your items. Since you may not use Gold, you have to pay him otherwise. This may be done with Jewelry only by using this procedure:

1. Be sure, you have no Gold in your Inventory before you begin!
2. Sell any ONE piece of Jewelry to Griswold
3. Let Cain identify any ONE item you carry with THAT GOLD only!
4. Throw away any excess Gold you have afterwards!

You may let Cain identify only ONE item per piece of Jewelry. If you have more items to identify, you may not use excess Gold for them, but have to give more Jewels. This procedure should simulate the process of paying Cain with the Jewelry. (Note: If this becomes too easy, you may opt to ignore this rule.)

Pepin the Healer!
Some people seek the use of his mundane healing techniques, others don't! Choose yourself which way suits you most!

Coop and Trade Restrictions!
You may only coop with other (S)LoL's and furthermore may only trade with them. You may not have non-LoL Warriors or Mages use their repair/recharge skills on your items, but (S)LoL Warriors or Mages may do so, only if they are no more than 5 CLvls higher than your character, though.

It is a bit tricky to trade with LoL's, since they are allowed to use Shrines. You should judge for yourself when an item is way beyond its scope durability wise. A good rule of thumb would be, that you don't accept items, that have their durability increased by more than 20 points. Everything beyond that scope makes you suspicious! The hardest restriction would be, that you don't accept any items with a changed dur! You should especially avoid trading items back and forth between LoL's and SLoL's with the purpose of increasing durability or repair/ID them with the use of shrines. This defies the spirit of these restrictions and would corrupt the spirit of trading!

Lag out problems!
When you lag out while dead and before you can be resurrected, you may rejoin the game, but you have to wait in town until someone throws away a scroll of resurrect to represent your actual resurrection! You may then buy a TP scroll from Adria (if necessary) with any Gold (e.g. excess Gold from trading with Cain), to replace one used to get you back down! Until your "resurrection" is done, you may not pick up any items or do anything else, you wouldn't be able to while dead!

Items

No Indestructible Items!
A Superstitious LoL may not use items that are (or have been made) indestructible. This does not include Jewelry, of course.

Shrines

No Shrines!
A Superstitious LoL may not use shrines of any kind. This includes Goat shrines, Fountain of Tears and Cauldrons. A small compensation for this is Cain at least! ;) SLoLs are allowed to use Blood Fountains and Purifying Springs, however.