http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VideoGame/DungeonCrawl

— <nrook>, as quoted by the Dungeon Crawl knowledge bots under "fair." That's what's so great about Crawl: every time, you don't even have rage at the chance of the heavens to sustain you; you know, with a cold certainty something like that of a priest who has lost his faith in God, that your death was caused by none other than yourself, and that a better man could have avoided it.

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Dungeon Crawl (called Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup in full, or more often Crawl for short) is an open-source roguelike game, based on the late 1990s roguelike Linley's Dungeon Crawl. Along with NetHack, Angband, ADOM, and ToME, it is considered one of the major modern roguelikes, with a large fanbase and active player community and devteam.

Crawl sets itself apart from other roguelikes with a number of distinguishing features:

emphasis on game balance : Crawl goes to lengths to avoid the problem of Unstable Equilibrium, mostly by carefully limiting the resources available to the player, and their usefulness.

: Crawl goes to lengths to avoid the problem of Unstable Equilibrium, mostly by carefully limiting the resources available to the player, and their usefulness. emphasis on simplicity : The devteam prefers to simplify rather than complicate the game mechanics, and often remove features from the game if they're turning out to be cumbersome, repetitive, or redundant.

: The devteam prefers to simplify rather than complicate the game mechanics, and often remove features from the game if they're turning out to be cumbersome, repetitive, or redundant. Advertisement: emphasis on playstyle : The game tries to accommodate many different styles of play, which is one reason why the game has such a huge roster of races, classes, and gods - and also why this roster changes with each new version, as the devteam tries out new ideas and discards flawed ones.

: The game tries to accommodate many different styles of play, which is one reason why the game has such a huge roster of races, classes, and gods - and also why this roster changes with each new version, as the devteam tries out new ideas and discards flawed ones. emphasis on race over class : character classes in Crawl are little more than a starting package of skills and equipment. It's possible for a player to change their character's role entirely over the course of a game. Race, on the other hand, makes a huge difference in what a player can do: a vampire plays very differently to a minotaur, for example. This is a reversal of the class-based gameplay in most other roguelikes.

: character classes in Crawl are little more than a starting package of skills and equipment. It's possible for a player to change their character's role entirely over the course of a game. Race, on the other hand, makes a huge difference in what a player can do: a vampire plays very differently to a minotaur, for example. This is a reversal of the class-based gameplay in most other roguelikes. anti-grinding : The only way to gain experience in Crawl is to defeat enemies, and there is only a limited number of enemies per dungeon floor. (There's still a lot of dungeon, so you'll never be lacking in places to get experience - the question is whether you'll survive the attempt.) Skill grinding is also impossible for the same reason, as your skill points come directly from your experience - you can't improve your skills without challenging and defeating monsters.

: The only way to gain experience in Crawl is to defeat enemies, and there is only a limited number of enemies per dungeon floor. (There's still a lot of dungeon, so you'll never be lacking in places to get experience - the question is whether you'll survive the attempt.) Skill grinding is also impossible for the same reason, as your skill points come directly from your experience - you can't improve your skills without challenging and defeating monsters. Advertisement: anti-scumming : The need to eat requires the player to be on the move most of the time, preventing them from hanging around on a dungeon level. It wouldn't do much good anyway; most of the monsters will be gone by then, which means no more experience, and nothing on the level can be sold.

: The need to eat requires the player to be on the move most of the time, preventing them from hanging around on a dungeon level. It wouldn't do much good anyway; most of the monsters will be gone by then, which means no more experience, and nothing on the level can be sold. anti-frustration : Crawl tries to make cheap-shots as rare as possible. Being killed without warning is almost unheard of - the game will always warn you if you're about to do something that may have adverse consequences. A basic threat-level system will warn you when you're facing a dangerous enemy, so you can generally always see the danger coming, and there are many different ways to escape a dangerous encounter. Weapons and armor are indestructible and cannot be taken from you (although they can be temporarily degraded).

: Crawl tries to make cheap-shots as rare as possible. Being killed without warning is almost unheard of - the game will always warn you if you're about to do something that may have adverse consequences. A basic threat-level system will warn you when you're facing a dangerous enemy, so you can generally always see the danger coming, and there are many different ways to escape a dangerous encounter. Weapons and armor are indestructible and cannot be taken from you (although they can be temporarily degraded). skill customization : At any time, players can choose which skills they would like to favor over others, which means that every player is effectively multiclassing. For example, it's possible to start as a Squishy Wizard and put all your skill points into Fighting, eventually turning them into a Magic Knight. In keeping with the emphasis on simplicity, customizing your skills is entirely optional - the game will actually manage this for you by default (by keeping track of whatever it is you do the most, and assigning your earned skill points to those skills).

: At any time, players can choose which skills they would like to favor over others, which means that every player is effectively multiclassing. For example, it's possible to start as a Squishy Wizard and put all your skill points into Fighting, eventually turning them into a Magic Knight. In keeping with the emphasis on simplicity, customizing your skills is entirely optional - the game will actually manage this for you by default (by keeping track of whatever it is you do the most, and assigning your earned skill points to those skills). religion : Crawl has an entire pantheon of gods for players to follow, which grant special powers and abilities while adding restrictions to what you can do in game (followers of good gods, for example, cannot use evil weapons or dark magic). This adds a third dimension of religion to the race/class combination.

: Crawl has an entire pantheon of gods for players to follow, which grant special powers and abilities while adding restrictions to what you can do in game (followers of good gods, for example, cannot use evil weapons or dark magic). This adds a third dimension of religion to the race/class combination. auto-explore : A single key-command will cause your character to explore the dungeon by themselves until they encounter something interesting or dangerous, rather than making the the player trawl every inch of the dungeon manually. This makes for smooth, fast gameplay. It's especially good when playing in a terminal over SSH, or on a mobile device, where moving about can be slow or fiddly. Crawl even has a single-key "auto-attack" command, which will make your character attempt to attack the nearest enemy (moving toward them if necessary).

: A single key-command will cause your character to explore the dungeon by themselves until they encounter something interesting or dangerous, rather than making the the player trawl every inch of the dungeon manually. This makes for smooth, fast gameplay. It's especially good when playing in a terminal over SSH, or on a mobile device, where moving about can be slow or fiddly. Crawl even has a single-key "auto-attack" command, which will make your character attempt to attack the nearest enemy (moving toward them if necessary). screen scrolling: Your player character is always centered on screen. This is quite rare in terminal-based roguelikes — most roguelikes had their beginnings in the 1980s, when shifting large numbers of text characters on a terminal wasn't always a fast operation. Nowadays, it's less of a problem.

In terms of flavor, the game has a similar medieval fantasy setting to most roguelikes, having been inspired by most of them: elves, dwarves, and orcs all make an appearance; weapons are the typical array of medieval blades, sticks, and bows; magical wands, potions, and scrolls can be found everywhere, and of course, there are many, many, many monsters waiting to kill you. The plot is minimal: the player's task is to go to the bottom of the dungeon, nab the Orb of Zot, and escape.

You can download it here or play it online .

This game provides examples of: