Slash'Em is a variant of
Nethack with many new features. Some of
the new features in Nethack 3.3.0 were first introduced in Slash'Em:
There are many more features which are unique to Slash'Em. The
first thing you'll notice on starting a game of Slash'Em is that there
are five new classes (Flame Mage, Ice Mage, Necromancer, Undead
Slayer and Yeoman) and five new races (Doppelganger,
Drow, Hobbit, Lycanthrope and Vampire). You may also notice
differences in your starting inventory, and in the valid race/class
combinations, particularly for Elven characters. In Nethack, elves
are always chaotic, but in Slash'Em, elves are based on
Tolkien's elves and are lawful or neutral -
chaotic elves have been replaced by Drow.
A feature you can begin to experiment with immediately is
techniques, or special abilities, such as practising to improve your
weapon skills for a Valkyrie or raising the dead for a high-level
Healer. Most techniques are associated with your character's
class or race, and you may learn more techniques as your experience
level increases.
When you find a shop, try paying the shopkeeper when you don't owe
any money. You will be given the opportunity to try their other
services. All shops offer to identify your items for a price, and
some shops also offer to uncurse your items, tell you how much damage
your weapon does (appraise it), carry out improvements to your
weapons and armour, or recharge items. A good use of the identify
service is to pay a shopkeeper to identify your entire gem
collection, selling a few whenever you run low on gold. One word of
warning: sometimes shopkeepers will try to cheat you.
As you travel on through the dungeon, you'll notice many new special
levels. In the main dungeon, the one to watch out for is the Guild of
Disgruntled Adventurers, where you will meet huge numbers of player
monsters, often equipped with offensive wands. In Gehennom,
you'll find that every demon lord has his own special level - so if
you've never met Demogorgon before, you'll meet him now.
Slash'Em has a large number of new monsters, items, and artifacts, and
many other minor differences from vanilla Nethack. Discover these
for yourself, or look at the Slash'Em spoilers on the Web.