My second idea is also designed to increase "playability"
Reduce Tedium
Tedium is probably the single largest problem I see with this game. It all goes back to why a player is playing any game in the first place. They want to have fun, escape boredom, and/or divert themselves from the monotony of daily life. So why do I want to play a game that creates "work" for me and ultimately leads me to doing repetitive boring tasks? Most people are willing to put in some work (even in a game) if it achieves a tangible reward -- however, in too many cases in Oubliette, it appears to be boring tasks that do little to improve the game experience.
1) Rolling Characters. As an old time Oubliette player I certainly understand the work/benefit ratio of spending some time in the character generator. While the roller is very tedious, I think it is a valuable part of the game. Where my issue lies is with what happens next. EXG: A newish player just spent 45 minutes rolling up halflings. His target was to roll a samurai, but he was careful and watched out for any other useful char the roller happened to give him. After 45 minutes he still hadn't achieved a Samurai (not a shocker!) however he happened across a beautiful Paladin with a 21 con. SWEET! He makes his selection, chooses to enter the Knights of the Cross guild, and then bam! DEAD. Not surprisingly, he feels cheated. In this example, I ask what benefit to the game playing experience is having so many chars die immediately after they are rolled? It isn't a skill issue. Not something the player did wrong, it is just another random stroke of fate to be delivered after 45 minutes (or more!) of rolling characters. I suggest you make a modification to allow all characters fresh out of the roller to live. They can still fail in their training and be forced to enter the Peasant's guild ... but nobody dies at level 1. Save that for the level 13 Peasant trying to enter the Sages guild. Additionally, reduce the aging associated with freshly rolled characters. There were several instances where I spent significant time rolling characters, only to have them exit their training as vegetables because they were already more than 1/2 way dead. Same logic applies -- what is fun about this? As it stands now I face the triple threat of having my character live, pass, and not age out. Seems pretty silly to me.
2) Loot. WHOAH! The object of the game is to acquire loot, and I am calling it out as tedious? WTF?
At the risk of sounding insane, as it is currently implemented, Loot is counter productive to fun. There are currently 3 sets of curing items (for example) commonly available in boxes. Potions, gems, and staves. While I understand the differences between gems and potions, I find it odd that I have to put so much effort into storing and using them. I mean I only have so much room for items I am carrying, and when it is time to clean out the pack,
I am going thru these items 1 at a time. Since both the gem and the potion are single use items, wouldn't it be less tedious to only have one of them? Gems are devilishly boring to use in combat (you have to equip them one at a time) and so a player is left with the choice of monotony (storage and selling) or leaving them in the box (which strikes me, at least, as being the main reason I am playing the game -- picking up items.) Or trying to remember to re-equip his gem of "xxx" after every single use. Wouldn't it be easier/simpler to just do away with potions and replace them with gems? Or perhaps vice versa? Couldn't Gems of "xxx" (substitute a combat spell of your choice) be better replaced with a scroll of 'xxx" that you find much less often, but doesn't burn after every single use? After playing for awhile and gaining some insight, I am much more selective about what I pick up now, but really the important issue is why does the game's items function in such a "non fun" way?
3) After reaching dungeon level 6 or so, the boredom of walking up and down begins its slow steady grind, wearing away on "fun." It seems I spend about 1/3 of my time walking up and down. I know there are staves of traveling, but so far I have only found 2 staff/level 5 (one burned on its 1st use, and the other on the 2nd.) I don't mind putting in some work (walking up and down) to have fun (running my target level) but I feel that in this version, it is slanted too heavily towards the work end. I suggest you put a Teleporter fairly near the 7 to 5 stairs (on level 5) that will take you to level 4 in a convenient location to access the stairs to level 3. This would have the effect of greatly reducing the tedium of walking across levels 5 and 4. Another alternate idea would be to create a staff of level 3. I could use it to blast off of 8-9, and get home a lot sooner. Regardless of which scenario you favor, I feel you either need to increase the rate at which travelling items are found or decrease the rate at which they burn.
--If you chose to make it easier to walk down instead of up, (or perhaps both?) you could drop a set of stairs on level 3 that would take you to level 5. I find walking across level 4 to be the most tedious.
4) Lastly -- Oubliette forces me to be a "record keeper." I have found that I need to keep careful notes on my characters. I find running deeper in the dungeon, that I can't always tell when I have been drained. I have to write it all down to keep track of it. The game may tell me that "xxx" lost a level, but it tends to get pushed off the bottom of the notification area, and with so many things happening so quickly, it is easy to miss. When I am poisoned, I get a sticky notification on my characters guild icon, but when I am drained -- I do not. I know this is another coding issue, so maybe in some future version you could include a red border or some other notification that sticks around when draining occurs. Further more, why not include in the HoH an option to restore lost levels. This would be very expensive -- but it would give me something to do with all the cash I am holding anyhow.