Linley's Dungeon Crawl -- New Version Released
 

Linley's Dungeon Crawl is an ASCII Roguelike. Basically, it is a single character RPG where death is permanent and the dungeon(27 levels+numerous side branches) is randomly generated each time. Crawl is the cream of the genre--deeply tactical, fast paced and extremely challenging with great variety of game play based on the race you start with, skills you choose to develop, religion you choose and equipment you find. It is the perfect fit for hardcore text sim gamers who also like RPGs.

Here is the link to the Google Groups Thread:

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.g...8c3ea6fd51fcbd

If anyone is interested, I can post links to helpful strategy and tactics threads on GG to get you started. I recommend Minotaur Chaos Knights of Makhleb w/ hand axe for first characters. I will answer any questions you have--I am a veteran Crawler with 8 wins under my belt(try the game and you'll see that this is no mean feat ;) ).

post away, mon frer.

Okay, here are a few helpful links to help everyone get started:

The following threads chronicle the early-middle game with two sample characters:

"a" the human fighter

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.g...rch+this+group

"b" the deep elf conjurer part 1, 2 respectively

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.g...d053240a6e8c7a

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.g...681fe0f9314c36

Once you've played the game awhile, the following links will be invaluable:

R1 Crawl Spoilers(Documents Skill Aptitudes for different races, Religions, etc)

http://www.eleves.ens.fr/home/grasland/crawl/

Swallowtail Spoilers(A bit outdated, but still useful overall for spell effects, dungeon branches, etc)

http://www.swallowtail.org/crawl/hints.shtml

Thanks - I'm enjoying it so far.

Cool, let me know how it goes. Don't give up hope if you die a lot--the game is pretty damned unforgiving, what with the permadeath and all.

where does one obtain the actual game?

The google groups link in the first post has links to binaries for various operating systems.

i find this game actually fairly fun.. until that orc wizard teleported me to like the bottom level from level 5.. now that sucked

Downloaded, loaded, and played one game.

Found a scroll, ran into a hobgoblin, went toe-to-toe with him in a battle, died.

Looks like an interesting game, though. Thanks for posting this. I just rolled a completely random character and ended up with a Demonspawn Chiller armed with a dagger.

Next time I'm going to try something easier, like they suggest. Maybe an orc with an axe.

Is it possible, in one human lifetime, to get to the bottom, get the Orb, and win?

Second game...

Godzilla_Blitz_2 the Skirmisher (level 1, 0/19 HPs)
Began as an Ogre Fighter on Sept 29, 2006.
Slain by a jackal (2 damage)
... on Dungeon Level 1.

I did manage to kill a jackal and a kobold this time.

I am loving this game right now. Takes me back to the my younger days playing Ultima V for hours and hours.

I love how the game is played completely differently if you are a High Elf hunter versus a Draconian Demonspawn.

Best I've done so far is to get a character to level 5, down to dungeon level 5.

Yep, I've won 8 times in fact. :)

If you want to read my exploits, search for "sterjs YAVP" on rec.games.roguelike.misc on Google Groups.

The early game is brutal... it's problematic because it turns newbies off from the game sometimes, but in general veteran crawlers don't mind that you lose a lot of characters early on. In Crawl, you learn to never get to attached to *any* character.

Do you mean the Abyss? That's the only thing I can think of... otherwise there are no level teleports. There are tricks to surviving in the Abyss, but it is deadly. Luckily you don't get banished there too often before you can handle it.

http://www.swallowtail.org/crawl/abyss.shtml

Oh yeah, one thing I forgot to mention is that Ogre is a challenging race. Their starting weapon really sucks. Later on, they have armour problems and advance slowly in skills

Best choices for beginners IMO:

Minotaur Anything
Hill Dwarf Berserker* or Gladiator
Deep Elf Fire Elementalist or Conjurer[Fire/Earth book] if you want to try spellcasters
Troll Berserker* or Fighter

Minotaurs and Hill Dwarves are more "normal" than Trolls. Trolls regenerate, can eat flesh when not hungry and they have armour restriction and extremely slow skill advancement. If you use Trolls, do *not* use Weapons--stick with Claws.

*: Berserkers require some finesse to play, ironically enough. You need to learn how to manage your food and when to use Trog's invocations and when not to. The "a the human fighter" link earlier in the thread goes over this stuff.