Dungeon Master Forum

well, to be honest, it isn`t exactly DM-like game. You pick characters (26 to choose), its class (28 to choose) and start exploring dungeon and killing the monsters. there are > 50 kinds of them. Every creature kind has its own characteristic and weak points. While exploring the dungeon(s), you pick up hundreds kinds of items and collect plenty of weapons... Blah blah blah... you know the rest. It`s a typical RPG world, but very well builded. But the look is different comparing to DM/EOB etc.; you see the character from a top.

Each time maps are builded randomly and items/monsters are also places randomly. The deeper you go, the harder monsters attacks you and more valuable items you collect...

As far as I know, there are 2 game versions; one WITHOUT the graphics (I guess if your graphic card dies, you can still play it, because it`s a text-like game; keyboard only) and another is tile based (I prefer that one, because you use both mouse & keyboard). Except that, eyes hurts of playing text version! If you wanna know the commands, just push "]" and "Enter" and the command lines will be shown.

The game is very well made and I`m already addicted!

http://crawlj.sourceforge.jp/down_e.html

Ah... roguelikes...

I recommend ADOM and Nethack (obligatory)

yeah, but ADOM & Nethack doesn`t have 2D tile versions as far as I know.

Nethack has 2D and 3D tile versions.

Well I played the game, Adamo.... My top score was when I accidentally climbed up and out of the dungeon (escaping) after moving around 3 squares.

I have decided to retire from Rogue clones for now.

It isn`t that hard, Ian. You just have to learn all the keyboard controll, which is hard on the beginning (there are a lot of commands), but the game itself starts to be tough from 5 - 6 th levels (deeper level = harder game). First of all, when you`re a beginner, pick a strong character (human/warrior or troll/berseker etc. - forget about elves, magicians etc.), then try to collect strong armours, good weapons and food.

Personally I don`t care about the score, just like exploring the dungeon and kill new monsters.

I...

Ermmm...

Actually...

I found this site which had a simple guide in it and now my heroic halfling hot-shot is now traversing level 3, albeit with a rather short sword.

Another case of 'ohhh one more try'

The thing I really admire about Rogue-likes is the massive variety of things they try to cram into the game. What I don't like is (a) the command-driven interface, (b) the obscene difficulty, which seems mandatory for the genre, and (c) the lack of cohesiveness, particularly in theme. MUD's and MUD-likes have basically the same pros and cons, except you also have to contend with annoying players. Anyway, I was never able to get into the Rogue niche.

Hi Tom,

I agree with (a), as I'm constantly throwing my armour into the face of oncoming enemy, and am finding (b) indeed a steep but rewarding learning curve. As for (c) you are right, that I dont feel that there is an ultimate goal to the thing.

Can you recommend a similar MUD-like game then? Something free, of a similar genre, free, doesnt have to be pretty, and oh... Free.

I remember that somewhere out there ZAngBand (sp?) was a very similar type of thing, in which it had options for ASCII, 2D and 3D versions (it also had (annoying) sampled sound effects(thankfully turn-offable)). IT was free, had a few neato twists and had a relatively shallow learning curv (I regularly brought my characters to around level twelve in rank, and I'm seriously pants at it!). Can'tquite remember ifit was MUD. The best one IMHO(albeit with a serious steep learning curve) is DOOM-the Rogue-alike. This was quite fun, especially if you like DOOM.

I agree about Doom-RL. It's perfect when it comes to transitioning Doom mechanics into turn-based Roguelike dimension

The semi-official (it's no longer maintained by the original author, and some have taken it upon themselves to maintain it) regularly updated version of Crawl now has tile support by a third party, so you can play it with tiles and all the improvements over the quite outdated original tiles version:

http://enne.walker.googlepages.com/stonesouptiles

yeah, I finished this game, but... with cheating! (save&load)
The tiles for DCrawler seems extremally cool, so I used the skulls from the Abbyss (take a look at the skully walls on:
- Abbyss screenshot,
- Lugonu`s Corruption ability screenshot,
in the link that Sabreman gave above) to construct a wallset for CSBwin:
http://dianneandpaul.net/CSBwin/MsgDeliveryDemo.rar
(the skully DC wallset is on level 2).

Back to Dungeon Crawl - this game is awesome!!!
dl here: http://crawlj.sourceforge.jp/down_e.html

First of all, I NEVER save-scum.

I have beaten Dungeon Crawl 3 times, once with a 3-rune game with a orc priest, and 2 full rune games, one with a Dwarf Paladin, and once with a Mummy Wizard.
I have beaten vanilla Nethack 3 times, with a Gnome Ranger, a Dwarf Valkyrie, and a Human Tourist.
I have beaten the Slash'EM mod of Nethack another 4 times, with a Doppelganger rogue, a Doppelganger Valkyrie, a Vampire ice mage, and a human Samurai.
I have beaten ADOM (another roguelike) 8 times, with 1 ultra ending. I got the ultra with a gray-elven wizard, and my standard endings were another gray-elven wizard, a dwarf assassin, a dwarf fighter, a drakeling barbarian, a gnome mindcaster, a dwarven weaponsmith, and a trollish healer.
I have beaten ZAngband once, with human fighter.

I have been playing roguelikes for about 6 years, and have clocked a HUGE amount of time on such games.

Wow.. that`s impressive! I played DCSS only (Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup v0.7) and it`s even harder than previous version.. My favourite gameplay is human berserker.

I keep going back to Stone Soup about once every 3 months. I don't know what it is that gives me the itch.... Dieing probably.

DCSS 0.7 has now good tutorial and lot of t&ts on its pages. Besides, the current version differs significantly from the previous one.

Recently completed another game of Crawl, again with a Mummy Wizard. This time, I got about 40 demonic runes from Pandemonium, as I just stayed there for a long time to harvest runes, in addition to the full rune set.
Also, I finally managed to kill an obnoxious ghost. I had died to Tesla in the Orc Mines, and then the ghost killed 23 of my chars, as it could cast Fire Storm and Lehudib's crystal spear. I just bypassed it and came back later and used Dispel Undead on it until it died. I took about 200 points of damage, though.