Variant paranoia

Variant paranoia is a phenomenon that can occur when a player begins playing a new NetHack version or variant. It occurs when the player believes that certain events are due to deliberate changes made in the variant whereas they are actually just happening randomly. These usually only happen when the player thinks a change has been made against the player's favor.

Examples include:

• The chance of getting an artifact via wishing has been nerfed. (The RNG is rolling the wrong numbers, or some other artifacts generated that you don't know about.)
• A certain monster has been buffed and is more deadly. (It's just getting high damage rolls.)
• A monster's difficulty number has been changed, because it appeared earlier than it should have. (Bones or a polymorph trap.)

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