Message 5300 : Wimps and Studs: a newbie guide (Petrel)
Written on Tue Jan 24 07:37:20 1995

Well, it has taken me a while, but after hearing enough *orcs*, *trolls*,
and whitie legends yell back and forth at each other, and at me, I think
I now understand the applicable principles and can explain how to tell
the wimps from the studs in different battle situations you will 
encounter.  These principles are equally useful to the Sauronic player btw.

Situation A.  You encounter a stronger opponent and:
   A1.  You get killed.  Well, this is typical wimpish loser behavior,
        killing the other side's newbies and low or lower levels.
        You, on the other hand, were heroic to even be out there
        fighting, died bravely, and are a stud.
   A2.  You get away.  This makes you the real winner of the battle.
        You have made a fool of your superior opponent and are a stud.
        Your opponent, who bungled his chance at you, is a wimp.
   A3.  You get the better of your opponent somehow and kill him/her
        or make him/her flee!  You must have used some clever trick
        or intelligently taken advantage of an opportunity afforded you
        by fate.  Brains AND brawn: you super-stud you!  Your opponent
        is an ultra-wimp.

Situation B.  You encounter a weaker opponent and:
   A1.  You kill him/her.  Well, it took you a lot of work to get
        those levels!  What can you say?  You rule!  You're a stud.
              Your opponent is a corpse, the ultimate criterion of wimpiness.
   B   B2.  Your opponent flees like a craven coward, leaving the field of
        battle to you, you victorious stud!  Come back here and fight,
        you cowardly wimp!
   B3.  Your opponent somehow gets the better of you and kills you or
        forces you to flee.  This could only have come about through
        his/her use of some dubious and cowardly tactic, like sneaking,
        hiding, backstabbing, attacking you while you were wounded,
        assisting a mob, fighting as part of a large group, casting
        on autoflee, using a wizkill weapon or spell, etc.  These are
        the tactics of wimps.  It just shows that you are such a
        stud that they fear to face you and battle you man-to-man, or
        elf-to-troll, or whatever.

Well, I think this covers all the possible situations!  A1 above should
be B1, of course.  I hope this meets the invective needs of a lot of
players!

Petrel the stud

(sorry for the typos due to sleep-is-imminent messages)