On Roguelikes

Contents

1. What are "roguelikes"?
2. Why roguelikes?
3. Stuff I play
4. Roguelike recommendations
5. Stories
6. The Philosophy of Roguelikes

What are "roguelikes"?

1. Permaconsequence, commonly lumped under Permadeath: There is no Savegame. Just like real life. You are your player. The game is over once your character dies. There is absolutely nothing you can do about it.
2. Turn and tile based: Basically both space and time are quantized into discrete values. Simplification of space (the game world) allows much more range in content and turn based throws out twitch/reaction based gameplay and allows greater use of strategy and tactics.
3. Procedural generation: The above 2 points means that you can generate a wide variety of content and have to generate a wide variety of content if the character keeps dying on you.

(Note: the above is a simplified view, we can spend all day ranting about how the market is flooded with roguelites that bill themselves as roguelikes and whether the Berlin interpretation is too loose, but this is an introduction for people who are not aware of roguelikes at all)

Why roguelikes?

• Meaningful actions: Everything you do is going to have repercussions, and since you can't save at any point to go back, you are going to pay attention to everything you do and enjoy the results, one way or another.
  
  Can you step into that room and take care of that orc battalion? What if they have a Shaman who can blind you? Can you *really* take them then? Should you? What will it cost you? Only one way to find out.
  
• Realism (where it matters): Ok, some parts of roguelikes are not realistic, like how is a dragon fitting in a corridor? But generally video games are so. Except, roguelikes are very realistic, in the things that matter.
  
  For example, you have a weight limit on how much you can carry. This is not like your average RPG where you can carry 20 different swords and swap any time. No, you are carrying a best of 3 swords and even that with difficulty. Similarly, if you are surrounded by 4 weak monsters (like orcs, say), you are getting shredded, these monsters are not going to wait to attack you one at a time. Again, be prepared to lose your scrolls, books, staffs (anything else made out of wood, really) if you get attacked by a flame throwing creature. Just because you are a hero, does not mean that nature won't run it's course.
  
• Object variety: Simplifying the graphics allows roguelikes to focus on the content and the result is that player have access to a huge number of objects, status effects, monsters, weapons, armor, powerups, spells - you name it. Add to this, procedural and random generation and this leads to a huge variety in gameplay with a lot of options for the players allowing different playthroughs and styles.
  
  By midgame in Angband, the player has access to dozens of scrolls, potions, wands, staffs, rods and spells all doing different things. By then, the player has absolute freedom in gameplay. When faced off against a troll, do you face him in melee? Shoot him with a ranged weapon? Quaff a potion to make you faster? Throw a potion of confusion at it to buy time? Aim a wand of Slow monster to ease your attack? Use a staff of Teleport Other to just push it away. Activate your "Phial of Galadrial" to shine bright light and blind it for a few turns? Zap a "Hold monster" rod to freeze it in place? It really is your game, you chose what you want.
  
• Emergent gameplay: One of the things roguelikes are really good at is emerging gameplay and narratives that form as a result of your actions. There is nothing scripted here, just the sheer number of elements interacting to form something that never existed before. Unlike the forced storylines and object interactions normal games offer, which cannot be deviated from, roguelikes lead you to genuine unique incidents and stories that will never occur again. As in Chaos theory (Butterfly effect), starting from a simple set of initial paramters, the systems evolve into dynamic non-predictable behaviour as the game progresses.
  
  Everyone knows of the Nethack story where a wizard ran out of mana cornered against a bunch of goblins. As he desparately rifled through his spellbooks in search of cheap offensive spell to take out the last partially injured goblin, he realizes that magic has failed him here. In one last attempt, he chucks the hefty spell book at the goblin and the goblin crumples with a smack on his head, allowing the wizard to make an undignified escape with an hilarious story and to live another day.
  
• Earning power: Other genres hand over power to you to run around. As a result, the player never truly understands the worth of the freedom in his hands. In roguelikes, the character makes an humble start and has to crawl up in life, every single gain of power hard earned. One cannot value power without first experienceing powerlessness and the early game in every roguelike is exactly that.
  
  In Angband, priests start out fearing ants and dogs. Forget meeting a soldier and escaping. By midgame, they have enough power to dispel a room full of orcs, talking about 30 orcs surrounding you with no way out. A snap of the fingers and about half them will dissolve into nothingness. This power curve is extremely pronounced in roguelikes and makes for truly wonderful gameplay.
  

Stuff I play

My Angband ladder where I upload my decent characters. Mind you, this is just the tip of the spear, countless forgotten heroes are lost in Angband. This is after 2 years of regular playing. I am getting better at this though.

Roguelike Recommendations

1. Angband
2. Dwarf Fortress
3. CDDA
4. Sil
5. DoomRL
6. Tales of Maj'Eyal
7. Tome 2.3.5
8. Nethack

Stories

The Philosophy of Roguelikes