Gypsy
@ gypsy 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 24 |
| Attacks |
Claw 2d12 intrinsic theft, Spellcasting 0d0 mage |
| Base level | 20 |
| Base experience | 619 |
| Speed | 12 |
| Base AC | −2 |
| Base MR | 90 |
| Alignment | 0 (neutral) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 2 (Quite rare) |
| Genocidable | Yes |
| Weight | 1450 |
| Nutritional value | 400 |
| Size | Medium |
| Resistances | death magic, sleep, poison |
| Resistances conveyed | causes teleportitis (100%) |
|
A gypsy:
| |
| Reference | SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2/monst.c#line3796 |
A gypsy, @, is a type of monster that appears in SLASH'EM and SlashTHEM. Gypsies are strong female humans that have regeneration, the ability to see invisible and the ability to teleport, and will seek out gold and magical items to pick up.
A gypsy has an intrinsic-stealing claw attack and will cast one mage monster spell during each of her turns. Gypsies possess sleep resistance, poison resistance and death resistance.
Eating a gypsy corpse or tin always grants teleportitis.
Chatting to a gypsy grants access to a unique set of services for characters with the gold to pay her. A gypsy that is somehow tamed will turn traitor.
Contents
Generation
Randomly generated gypsies are always created peaceful. They are not a valid form for polymorph.
The prison in the south half of Grund's Stronghold has a 1⁄10 chance of containing a peaceful gypsy.
A gypsy may appear among the @ generated within the Lawful Quest's Chamber of Junk.
List of services
A gypsy will offer the following services:
- Fortune telling
- Play three card monte
- Play ninety nine
- Pawn gems
The gypsy has a deck of 72 cards that is used for fortunes and ninety-nine (but not three card monte). If the deck is fully exhausted, the gypsy will reshuffle the deck.
Gold and gems given to a gypsy are removed from the game, rather than transferred to her inventory - this is likely to discourage purchasing services or pawning a large number of gems in the hopes of getting a wish and then recovering them by killing the gypsy afterwards.
Fortune telling
The gypsy reads your fortune and charges you 50zm of credit - the effects of the fortune are often directly based on the card. Any card not in the lists below has no effect or special message.
| Card | Image | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Zero of trumps | The Fool | You lose one point of wisdom and 3 points of Luck. |
| 1 of trumps | The Magician | The gypsy reveals the location of the portal to the Wizard's Tower; if the Wizard of Yendor has been killed at least once, he will resurrect and teleport to the character's current location. |
| 2 of trumps | The High Priestess | If you do not have the Amulet of Yendor, the gypsy will see the high altar in Moloch's Sanctum, revealing the number of the level it occupies. If you have the amulet, she will instead see "a high altar in the heavens..." |
| 3 of trumps | The Oracle | "I see an Oracle on level <dungeon level>". |
| 4 of trumps | The Lovers | A foocubus of the opposite sex appears. |
| 5 of trumps | The Chariot | "For 5000 credit I will teleport you to a level of your choosing!" |
| 6 of trumps | Strength | Your strength increases by one point, and you gain the half physical damage intrinsic for 500–1000 turns. |
| 7 of trumps | The Hermit | "You feel like hiding!" You gain teleportitis for 300–600 turns and invisibility for 500–1000 turns. |
| 8 of trumps | The Wheel of Fortune | "You feel lucky!" Your Luck increases by 3. |
| 9 of trumps | Justice | An erinys is summoned, ignoring extinction. |
| 10 of trumps | Punishment | You are punished. If you are already punished when drawing this card, you are subjected to the curse items monster spell's effect. |
| 11 of trumps | The Devil | Moloch summons a minion to attack you. |
| 12 of trumps | Sorcery | Your role's spellcasting stat (either wisdom or intelligence) increases by one point, and you gain the half spell damage intrinsic for 500–1000 turns. |
| 13 of trumps | Death | You are subjected to a touch of death. Note that unlike the monster spell, this touch of death does not have a 13⁄ML chance of failure. |
| 14 of trumps | The Tower | Gives the location of Vlad's Tower. |
| 15 of trumps | The Star | "The gypsy reaches behind your head and pulls out a <gem>." You receive a precious gem, based on the month as described below; this will automatically identify the gem. There is a 1⁄6 chance of getting two gems. |
| 16 of trumps | The Moon | Resets and gives the current phase of the moon, changing Luck to match the possibly new moon phase. |
| 18 of trumps | The Judgment | "I see a quest on level <quest level>" |
| 19 of trumps | Infinity | "For 10000 credit, I will grant you a wish". If you have the required gold and accept, you can wish for an object - afterward, the gypsy is canceled (can be checked with a stethoscope). The next time Infinity is drawn, the gypsy disappears. ("I wish I wasn't here!") |
Gems that a gypsy can give you with "The Star"
| Month | Gem | Value |
|---|---|---|
| January | Garnet | 700 |
| February | Amethyst | 600 |
| March | Aquamarine | 1500 |
| April | Diamond | 4000 |
| May | Emerald | 2500 |
| June | Opal | 800 |
| July | Ruby | 3500 |
| August | Chrysoberyl | 700 |
| September | Sapphire | 3000 |
| October | Black opal | 2500 |
| November | Topaz | 900 |
| December | Turquoise | 2000 |
Cards with messages
| Card | Image | Message |
|---|---|---|
| 2 of rings | Change | Your powers will be put to the test soon. |
| 3 of rings | Works | You will meet new challenges. |
| 4 of rings | Power | Your strength will aid you greatly in times to come. |
| 5 of rings | Worry | Your worst nightmares will come true. |
| 8 of rings | Prudence | Next full moon is an excellent time to try to please your god. |
| 9 of rings | Gain | Your wishes will become true. |
| 3 of swords | Sorrow | Your relationships will be shaky. |
| 6 of swords | Science | Your intellect will aid you soon. |
| 7 of swords | Futility | You should stop trying to bend fate. |
| 9 of swords | Cruelty | The cards are stacked against you. |
| 10 of swords | Ruin | When the full moon rises terrible things will happen to you. |
| 2 of wands | Dominion | You must not let evil overcome you. |
| 3 of wands | Virtue | Keep active or woe will overcome you. |
| 4 of wands | Completion | You should stick to your path. |
| 5 of wands | Strife | When Mars is out, it will be a time of bloodshed for you. |
| 6 of wands | Victory | If you stick to your path, great things will happen to you. |
| 7 of wands | Valour | Your strength will be put to the test in coming times. |
| 9 of wands | Adjustment | Beware, it will not be a safe time for you next full moon. |
| 2 of shields | Love | You should work on your relationships. |
| 5 of shields | Disappointment | Disappointment waits for you around the corner. |
| 6 of shields | Pleasure | The full moon is the time for you to develop relationships/ |
| 7 of shields | Debauch | You will meet someone tall, dark and handsome. |
| 8 of shields | Indolence | Your god will be short tempered during the new moon. |
| 9 of shields | Happiness | Your dreams will come true. |
| 17 of trumps | The Sun | "It is the witching hour. Beware of the undead!" if it's midnight, "It is nighttime. Beware of creatures of the night!" if it's nighttime, "It is daytime. Shouldn't you be working?" if it's daytime |
Three card Monte
The aim of this game is simple: you choose a card, and the card might or might not be the right one. If you choose the right card, you win your bet in credit. Whether or not you win is based on your Luck, the previous card you chose, and the amount and result of your previous bet. Note that your chances of winning a game are independent of the specific gypsy you are betting with: your chance of winning is tracked across all gypsies, based on the above factors.
The formula it follows is complex; a full explanation can be found here, but the relevant points can be summarized as follows:
- The first time you bet, you are guaranteed to win. Note you are only guaranteed to win the first bet played overall, not the first bet played with any specific gypsy.
- Betting larger amounts makes you more likely to lose the next bet you make.
- Losing a bet makes you more like to win the next bet, and vice versa.
- Picking the same card twice in a row makes you less likely to win the next bet.
- When a gypsy says "You win! Wasn't that easy?", provided you have maxed-out Luck, you are very nearly guaranteed to win the next bet (specifically, a 1479⁄1480 chance).
Ninety-nine
The gypsy shuffles the deck at the start of each game of ninety-nine. Each player draws three cards and take turns playing cards, drawing after each turn. Non-trump and non-face cards add to the total score, with a maximum of 99, and a minimum of 0 (see below for other card effects). If your opponent cannot play a card, you win.
Note that the cards held in hand or played in the last game of ninety-nine will be taken out of the deck when you ask for the gypsy to read your fortune.
| Card | Effect | Strategy |
|---|---|---|
| Kings | Put the score to ninety-nine | Can always be played |
| Queens and Jacks | Diminish the points by 10 | Cannot be played unless score is above 10 |
| The Fool | Can't be played | Will stay till the end of the game in your hand |
| All other trumps | Don't do anything to the points | Always safe to play |
| All the other cards | Add their value to score | Cannot exceed 99 points if played. |
Pawn gems
Characters can sell identified gems to the gypsy for an amount of credit equal to the base price of the gem.
Strategy
In general, the main goal of interacting with gypsies is to gain wishes - magic resistance is crucial in the event the Death card comes up, and it is also advisable to have a means of removing punishment and restoring Luck. Beyond this, you should at least be equipped to defeat any demons generated by the fortunes. This is ideally best done before you have awakened and/or killed Rodney. It is a good idea to call a cancelled gypsy so that you do not accidentally waste further gems on her.
You will need 3,600 credit to go through the entire deck of cards - if playing during the month of April, however, the gems received through "The Star" will always be greater than this cost. This gives players the option of repeatedly going through the entire deck while refusing to accept the wish each time, slowly collecting diamonds and other gems/positive effects.
Farming wishes
Through reverse genocide in a safe area such as Sokoban, you can gain a large number of wishes even with no gems and very little gold by exploiting three-card monte. Assuming you have never interacted with gypsies, the procedure is as follows:
- Bet nearly everything with one gypsy. It can be helpful to #call the gypsies to keep track of them.
- Changing the card you choose every time, make 1-gold bets until the gypsy says "You win! Wasn't that easy?"
- Bet nearly everything again.
- Note that the gypsy may occasionally say "You win! Wasn't that easy?" after your large bet - it is not safe to bet everything at this point: only the first "You win! Wasn't that easy?" following a loss is safe.
- Repeat the above two steps until you have 13600 credit.
- Read your fortune until you get a wish.
- Be prepared to restore your Luck if you draw The Fool; a nearby unicorn of your alignment can be handy for this, as you will be getting a good number of gems from drawing your fortune.
- The Hermit card will give you temporary teleportitis; for this reason, it is easier (though not absolutely necessary) to use a no-teleport level.
- If you draw the Punishment card, it is advisable to remove the ball before drawing your fortune with the next gypsy: if you already punished, that card will instead curse your items.
- Make sure to wish for enough magic markers and/or cursed scrolls of genocide to continue reverse genociding gypsies.
While it is possible to employ this strategy with as little as 1 gold (doubling your large wager each time), it goes far more quickly if you have 13600 gold to start with. Once 120 gypsies have been created, they will become extinct and reverse genocide will no longer work.
As mentioned above, magic resistance is critical for attempting this strategy. You must also be able to fight off erinyes and minions of Moloch.
Fighting
Be very careful not to anger gypsies - they are high-level spellcasters with a good AC of -2, regeneration and very high monster MR. They can hit hard and steal intrinsics in the manner of a gremlin, and will gladly curse your items, summon nasties, and possibly even perform a touch of death. Killing peaceful gypsies will also be considered murder for non-chaotic characters.
There is almost no benefit to directly killing a gypsy unless they were hostile to begin with (e.g., the Lawful Quest), especially since they do not retain the gold and gems given to them, unless a player is shooting for extinctionist conduct or looking to try their luck - it is possible to encounter a hostile gypsy in the Lawful Quest. For those looking to kill a peaceful gypsy, leaving them to a powerful pet is the safest approach.
Origin
The word "Gypsy" is the English non-native name used for the Romani people (also spelled Romany or Rromani), who are also colloquially known as the Roma. The word derives from the Middle English word for "Egyptian", based on a medieval misconception that the Romani people originated from Egypt; non-native terms for the Romani in French and Spanish have similar origins. "Romani" comes from the Sanskrit word डोम (doma), which refers to a caste of traveling musicians and dancers.
The Romani are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group who traditionally live a nomadic, itinerant lifestyle, with linguistic and genetic evidence suggesting that they originated in the region of Rajasthan in the Indian subcontinent. The population moved west into the Persian Ghaznavid Empire, and later into the Byzantine Empire, around the 11th century, and arrived in Europe around the 14th century. Although they are dispersed, their most concentrated populations are located in Europe, especially central, eastern and southern Europe (notably southern France), as well as western Asia (mainly Turkey).
The term "Gypsy" is considered a pejorative by some Romani due to its connotations of illegality and irregularity, as well as its historical use as a racial slur against the Roma - the attendees of the first World Romani Congress in 1971 unanimously voted to reject the use of all exonyms for the Romani, including "Gypsy"; in the United Kingdom, the term Gypsies is preferred by some of the English and Welsh Romani there, and is used to refer to them in official documentation.
