# Nicely done ten minute distillation of the roguelike genre **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [February 5, 2010, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicely-done-ten-minute-distillation-of-the-roguelike-genre/527834 "2010-02-05T19:57:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2010, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicely-done-ten-minute-distillation-of-the-roguelike-genre/527834/21 "2010-02-10T11:04:11Z")
> [@Malacandra](#): > > You might very well run out of mana first though, given 1st-level characters’ damage ratings. Yes, you’re right. There doesn’t end up being enough explorable space on the screen to support enough hits or enough fireball spells, even against a low HP boss. ---
**Author:** ![MeDrewNotYou](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@MeDrewNotYou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeDrewNotYou)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2010, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicely-done-ten-minute-distillation-of-the-roguelike-genre/527834/22 "2010-02-10T11:16:02Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > Yes, you’re right. There doesn’t end up being enough explorable space on the screen to support enough hits or enough fireball spells, even against a low HP boss. There is the item that bumps up fireball damage by 50%, I think it sells for 80g. You would still probably need a few levels to do realistic damage, but that’s a help. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2010, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicely-done-ten-minute-distillation-of-the-roguelike-genre/527834/23 "2010-02-12T19:56:10Z")
And now I’ve unlocked “Ranked” mode and Malacandra the elf wizard is in there with a score of 16,900. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![MeDrewNotYou](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@MeDrewNotYou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeDrewNotYou)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2010, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicely-done-ten-minute-distillation-of-the-roguelike-genre/527834/24 "2010-02-12T20:45:42Z")
> [@Malacandra](#): > > And now I’ve unlocked “Ranked” mode and Malacandra the elf wizard is in there with a score of 16,900. 🆒 Congrats! Any other Dopers going for high scores? (I’m “Drew” btw, if you’re looking for my scores.) ---
**Author:** ![MeDrewNotYou](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@MeDrewNotYou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeDrewNotYou)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2010, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicely-done-ten-minute-distillation-of-the-roguelike-genre/527834/25 "2010-02-13T01:16:40Z")
**Frylock** - Playing this got me in a mood for some more roguelikes, and after playing a bit of ToME, I stumbled across [a Doom roguelike](http://doom.chaosforge.org/) (yes, the FPS) on their message board. It doesn’t seem terribly well known, so as way of thanking you for giving me a great new game, I’m hopefully returning the favor. ---
**Author:** ![PetW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d2c977/32.png) [@PetW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PetW)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2010, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicely-done-ten-minute-distillation-of-the-roguelike-genre/527834/26 "2010-02-13T21:45:51Z")
> [@MeDrewNotYou](#): > > **Frylock** - Playing this got me in a mood for some more roguelikes, and after playing a bit of ToME, I stumbled across [a Doom roguelike](http://doom.chaosforge.org/) (yes, the FPS) on their message board. It doesn’t seem terribly well known, so as way of thanking you for giving me a great new game, I’m hopefully returning the favor. Nope! You were beaten to it in post #17. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![MeDrewNotYou](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@MeDrewNotYou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeDrewNotYou)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2010, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicely-done-ten-minute-distillation-of-the-roguelike-genre/527834/27 "2010-02-13T23:53:22Z")
> [@PetW](#): > > Nope! You were beaten to it in post #17. 😃 … … … :smack: Well, I can confirm that its a lot of fun… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Dave\_Hartwick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@Dave\_Hartwick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dave_Hartwick)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2010, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicely-done-ten-minute-distillation-of-the-roguelike-genre/527834/28 "2010-02-24T01:42:02Z")
Well, I beat the normal game. The fighter classes took the longest for me. Has anybody here won a ranked game? I’m thinking the only way I’ll get a win on ranked is if I collect, say, 100 gold and then get a lucky game. A lot depends on the boss. Not sure how long I’ll keep trying. My introduction to roguelikes was [ADOM](http://www.adom.de/), which had a lot of quests and was actually very grindy-- meaning you got rewarded for repeating actions. People ended up playing a lot of stupid challenge games, such as winning with a first level character (which has been done) or trying to win just by throwing gold pieces (can’t remember if anybody did that). I much prefer [Crawl](http://crawl-ref.sourceforge.net/), which has no quests and is almost rudimentary in structure: get the McGuffin and get out. It’s built to not reward grinding, avoids spoiler requirements, and has the reputation of being somewhat harder than Angband, NetHack, and ADOM. It’s the only full-length roguelike I’ve won, although it’s been several versions since I’ve pulled it off. It’s also nice in that it’s still being developed. While I’ve only managed a few wins, there are people who have won Crawl many times in a row. They’re playing online, too, so I’m almost certain they can’t be cheating. ---
**Author:** ![Dave\_Hartwick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@Dave\_Hartwick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dave_Hartwick)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2010, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicely-done-ten-minute-distillation-of-the-roguelike-genre/527834/29 "2010-02-24T03:55:28Z")
> [@Dave\_Hartwick](#): > > Has anybody here won a ranked game? I’m thinking the only way I’ll get a win on ranked is if I collect, say, 100 gold and then get a lucky game. A lot depends on the boss. Not sure how long I’ll keep trying. Spoke to soon. Just won a ranked game with a halfling theif. I submitted my score, does it go somewhere? A quick search only turned up discussions. ---
**Author:** ![MeDrewNotYou](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@MeDrewNotYou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeDrewNotYou)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2010, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicely-done-ten-minute-distillation-of-the-roguelike-genre/527834/30 "2010-02-24T04:24:56Z")
> [@Dave\_Hartwick](#): > > Spoke to soon. Just won a ranked game with a halfling theif. I submitted my score, does it go somewhere? A quick search only turned up discussions. Check the bottom right corner on the race/class selection screen. I know that Malacandra and I (under “Drew”) are on there at least, maybe there are some other Dopers. ---
**Author:** ![Dave\_Hartwick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@Dave\_Hartwick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dave_Hartwick)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2010, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicely-done-ten-minute-distillation-of-the-roguelike-genre/527834/31 "2010-02-25T13:17:54Z")
Thank you YouDrewNotMe. Maybe running off topic here, but there’s a new version of the Castlevania RL at [http://slashie.net/news.php](http://slashie.net/news.php) I haven’t played it since the earlies, but should be at least a semi-casual RL. ---
**Author:** ![MeDrewNotYou](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@MeDrewNotYou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeDrewNotYou)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2010, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicely-done-ten-minute-distillation-of-the-roguelike-genre/527834/32 "2010-02-25T14:09:26Z")
> [@Dave\_Hartwick](#): > > Thank you YouDrewNotMe. > > Maybe running off topic here, but there’s a new version of the Castlevania RL at [http://slashie.net/news.php](http://slashie.net/news.php) > > I haven’t played it since the earlies, but should be at least a semi-casual RL. :eek: I owe you an internet sir! More for the MetroidRL on the page, but Castlevania is good too. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2010, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicely-done-ten-minute-distillation-of-the-roguelike-genre/527834/33 "2010-03-08T23:27:44Z")
v0.5 is up, and kicks ass 🆒 Same link as in OP, the target thread has been edited. ---
**Author:** ![Dave\_Hartwick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@Dave\_Hartwick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dave_Hartwick)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2010, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicely-done-ten-minute-distillation-of-the-roguelike-genre/527834/34 "2010-03-27T11:47:48Z")
I’ve been playing quite a lot of 0051, often after giving up yet another attempt to get a sludge elf transmuter going in Crawl. Geez, I really suck at that game lately. Anyway, I’ve finished all the classes and I have ranked win with an elf sorcerer, so I thought I’d bump this thread to see if somebody here’s still playing. Anybody have a high score on the ranked board? Any guesses as to how they get the top scores? I’m thinking they’re mostly down to speed and persistence. Also, I’ve found all the gods at useful in at least a few situations, except the Earth Mother. I think she grants death gaze immunity, so maybe a vampire in the Snake Pit would benefit. I haven’t had much luck with vampires and usually convert all glyphs for greater life steal, so I’ll go with Taurog if available. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicely-done-ten-minute-distillation-of-the-roguelike-genre/527834.md?page=1)