*Hack is one my top two favourite roguelike categories (since 1993.) Since early days, NetHack had quite a few magic/unique/ artifacts/relic items one might expect--and obscure ones--but misses some related better-known ones, which players might hope to find, or ask for in a wish, first...
For example, there are many more in Greco-Latin & British/Celtic/Germanic mythology (mythos.) In the West, many students learn the former before latter and might hope to obtain. For example, in Greek mythos, Goddess Athena Olympian seemingly uses the most artifacts and has access to almost all: an excellent starting list would be from her myths, which she loaned heroes many artifacts, including divine weapons & armour.
Some she loaned have multiple versions (Aegis) or multiple multi-word names (Hades' helmet, Hermes' sandals, various divine weapons, often adamantine) but NetHack now has longer-name artifacts not always w/given/first name (as one might expect a conscious/ego item to have)... so perhaps more such artifacts would be possible?
Many Greek mythos' artifacts have no one-word/individual name, but are key to major heroic myths... some would be too powerful unless limited; some perhaps not.
Only Zeus used his thunderbolts, but in related Indo-European mythology (Hinduism, possibly largest mythos corpus in number of magic/artifacts/relic & super-weapon items) similar gods' (Indra, Shiva) thunderbolts were handled by humans, such as a sage stored gods' artifacts, and later Indian-Tibetan folklore theorizes enlightenment enables usage of thunderbolts. Some such Hindu mythology super-weapons (used by human super-warriors in Mahabharata) are over-powered, though some take toll on wielder, which might be interesting for such a highly-intellectual roguelike.
interestingly, a NetHack artifact, Excalibur, is actually one of a set of related swords (Clarent, Drynwyn, ...) in a set of related Celtic/British magic/artifact/relic items (linked below.)
Students who stopped reading Greco-Latin mythology might hope to obtain Excalibur... if they've read more what led to all Western civilization (at least more well-known tales than newer fantasy with dozens of swords) they might first hope to obtain Harpe.
Here are some comments, top such search results (the Celtic/British one I read in Wolfe's The Arthurian Quest; ) of course, there's much more than these, and when I started playing NetHack more (early 1990s) most folklore simply wasn't listed online or was hard to find (still the case with some; ) best to research in actual books.
Of course, if this is considered (otherwise, close ticket) it'd have to be without unbalancing NetHack, including without making artifacts more common, probably resulting in some people being disappointed about one or another individual (favourite/most-used) unique/artifact/relic items occuring less frequently. Someone might want to try any in a NetHack fork first...
*Hack is one my top two favourite roguelike categories (since 1993.) Since early days, NetHack had quite a few magic/unique/ artifacts/relic items one might expect--and obscure ones--but misses some related better-known ones, which players might hope to find, or ask for in a wish, first...
For example, there are many more in Greco-Latin & British/Celtic/Germanic mythology (mythos.) In the West, many students learn the former before latter and might hope to obtain. For example, in Greek mythos, Goddess Athena Olympian seemingly uses the most artifacts and has access to almost all: an excellent starting list would be from her myths, which she loaned heroes many artifacts, including divine weapons & armour.
Some she loaned have multiple versions (Aegis) or multiple multi-word names (Hades' helmet, Hermes' sandals, various divine weapons, often adamantine) but NetHack now has longer-name artifacts not always w/given/first name (as one might expect a conscious/ego item to have)... so perhaps more such artifacts would be possible?
Many Greek mythos' artifacts have no one-word/individual name, but are key to major heroic myths... some would be too powerful unless limited; some perhaps not.
Only Zeus used his thunderbolts, but in related Indo-European mythology (Hinduism, possibly largest mythos corpus in number of magic/artifacts/relic & super-weapon items) similar gods' (Indra, Shiva) thunderbolts were handled by humans, such as a sage stored gods' artifacts, and later Indian-Tibetan folklore theorizes enlightenment enables usage of thunderbolts. Some such Hindu mythology super-weapons (used by human super-warriors in Mahabharata) are over-powered, though some take toll on wielder, which might be interesting for such a highly-intellectual roguelike.
interestingly, a NetHack artifact, Excalibur, is actually one of a set of related swords (Clarent, Drynwyn, ...) in a set of related Celtic/British magic/artifact/relic items (linked below.)
Students who stopped reading Greco-Latin mythology might hope to obtain Excalibur... if they've read more what led to all Western civilization (at least more well-known tales than newer fantasy with dozens of swords) they might first hope to obtain Harpe.
Here are some comments, top such search results (the Celtic/British one I read in Wolfe's The Arthurian Quest; ) of course, there's much more than these, and when I started playing NetHack more (early 1990s) most folklore simply wasn't listed online or was hard to find (still the case with some; ) best to research in actual books.
Of course, if this is considered (otherwise, close ticket) it'd have to be without unbalancing NetHack, including without making artifacts more common, probably resulting in some people being disappointed about one or another individual (favourite/most-used) unique/artifact/relic items occuring less frequently. Someone might want to try any in a NetHack fork first...