Roguelike encyclopedia topics

History

Some features of Rogue existed in earlier games, notably: Adventure (1975), Dungeon (1975), and several written for the PLATO system, such as the multi-user games dnd (1975) and Moria (1975). Both dnd and Moria utilized limited graphics. Moria offered a primitive first-person, three-dimensional view, while dnd presented a top-down map view similar to Rogue.

Most of these earlier games scripted scenarios in advance that varied little from one play session to the next. In Rogue and Moria, the dungeon is randomly regenerated when the player begins, creating a new challenge each time.

Hack was inspired by Rogue which in turn led to its modern day descendant Nethack and still being actively updated.

Gameplay

These games present a plan view. Traditionally, an "@" sign represents the player character. Letters of the alphabet represent other characters (usually opposing monsters). Rogue itself only made use of capital letters, but present-day roguelikes vary capitalization to supply additional visual cues. A dog, for example, may be represented by the letter "d", and a dragon by a "D". Coloration may signal further distinction between creatures. For example, a Red Dragon might be represented by a red "D" and a Blue Dragon by a blue "D", each of differing abilities significant to player strategy. Additional dungeon features are represented by other ASCII (or ANSI) symbols. A traditional sampling follows.

------ - Wall |....| ############ # Unlit hallway |....| # # . Lit area |.$..+######## # $ Some quantity of gold |....| # ---+--- + A door ------ # |.....| | Wall # |.!...| ! A magic potion # |.....| # |..@..| @ The adventurer ---- # |.....| |..| #######+..D..| D A dragon |<.+### # |.....| < Stairs to a higher level ---- # # |.?...| ? A magic scroll ###### -------

Graphical adaptations are available for most early roguelikes, and it is not uncommon for new development projects to adopt a graphical user interface.

Players issue game commands with at most a few keystrokes, rather than with simple sentences interpreted by a parser or by means of a pointing device such as a mouse. For example, in NetHack one would press "r" to read a scroll, "d" to drop an item, and "q" to quaff (drink) a potion.

Features

Roguelike games randomly generate dungeon levels; though they may include static levels as well. Generated layouts typically incorporate rooms connected by corridors, some of which may be preset to a degree (e.g., monster lairs or treasuries). Open areas or natural features, like rivers, may also occur.

The identity of magical items varies across games. Newly discovered objects only offer a vague physical description, with purposes and capabilities left unstated. For example, a "bubbly" potion might heal wounds one game, then poison the player character in the next. Items are often subject to alteration, acquiring specific traits, such as a curse, or direct player modification.

The combat system is turn-based instead of real-time. Gameplay is usually step-based, where player-performed actions take a variable measure of in-game time to complete. Game processes (e.g., monster movement and interaction, progressive effects such as poisoning or starvation) advance based on the passage of time dictated by these actions.

Most are single-player games. On multi-user systems, scoreboards are often shared between players. Some roguelikes allow traces of former player characters to appear in later game sessions in form of ghosts or grave markings. Multi-player derivatives such as TomeNET, MAngband, and Crossfire do exist and are playable online.

Roguelikes traditionally implement permanent death ("permadeath"). Once a character dies, the player must begin a new game. A "save game" feature will only provide suspension of gameplay and not a limitlessly recoverable state; the stored session is deleted upon resumption or character death. Players can circumvent this by manipulating stored game data ("save scumming"), an act that may be considered cheating.

Notable examples

Modern roguelikes

Ancient Domains of Mystery, also called ADOM
Angband and its several variants
Linley's Dungeon Crawl, also called Dungeon Crawl or Crawl
NetHack, a descendant of Hack
Tales of Middle Earth, also called ToME
Dwarf Fortress, roguelike in the adventure game mode.
Mystery Dungeon series

Classic roguelikes

Popularity

Many online communities dedicate themselves to roguelike games, most notably the rec.games.roguelike Usenet hierarchy.

Legacy

The graphical action role-playing game Diablo bears a premise similar to that of Rogue: players slash their way through increasingly difficult monsters and attain treasure while traversing deeper into randomly-generated dungeons to complete quests. As such, some refer to Diablo as a roguelike despite wide differences in actual gameplay.