Linley's Dungeon Crawl
Encyclopedia
Linley's Dungeon Crawl (or just Dungeon Crawl or Crawl) is a roguelike
computer game
originally programmed
by Linley Henzell in 1995
, and first released to the general public on October 1, 1997. Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup, a branch of Dungeon Crawl currently in development, is one of the most popular roguelikes being played today. The original game has been licensed under a quirky license based on Bison
's license and NetHack License
, Stone Soup has contacted every past contributor and relicensed to GPLv2+
.
, two types of dwarves, humans, ogres, octopi, birds, centaurs, merfolk
, and other fantasy beings. Racial selection sets base attributes, future skill advancement, and physical characteristics such as movement, resistances, and special abilities.
Subject to racial exclusions, the player next chooses a character class
from among over twenty selections. Classes include the traditional roles of fighter
, wizard
, and thief
as well as specialty roles, among them monk
s, berserker
s, assassin
s, crusaders, and elemental spellcasters. Wanderers represent an atypical option and receive a random skill set. Together, class and race determine base equipment and skill training, though characters may later attempt to acquire any in-game skill.
The Crawl skill system covers many abilities, including the ability to move freely in armor or silently, mount effective attacks with different categories of weapons (polearms, long
or short
blades, maces, axe
s, and staves), master spells
from different magical colleges (the elements, necromancy
, conjuration, enchantments, summoning, etc.), utilize magical artifacts, and pray to divinities. Training occurs through repetition of skill-related actions (e.g., hitting a monster with a longsword trains long blades and fighting skills), using experience from a pool refilled as the player defeats monsters.
John Harris, in his "@Play" column states that the experience pool system "deftly avoids the many problems of a skill-based development system", mainly praising the need to move on through the course of the game to further improve a PC's skills. In the same article, John Harris states that this experience system "is probably the best skill system yet seen in any roguelike; it could make a claim at being one of the best in any CRPG."
Religion
within Crawl is a central game mechanic. Its diverse pantheon of gods reward character conformance to particular codes of conduct. Trog, the berserker god, expects abstinence from casting spells and offers aid in battle, whereas Sif Muna expects frequent spellcraft in exchange for magical assistance and gifts of spellbooks. Some deities campaign against evil
, matched by a god of death who revels in indiscriminate killing, while others prove unpredictable objects of worship. Xom, an example of the latter, toys with followers, meting out punishments and showering gifts on inscrutable whims.
The goal of Crawl is to recover the "Orb of Zot" hidden deep within a dungeon
complex. To achieve this objective, characters must visit various dungeon branches, such as the Orcish Mines or The Lair, which often branch further in to additional areas, like the Elven Halls or The Swamp, and obtain at least three "Runes of Zot" with which to gain access to the Orb. Fifteen different runes can be obtained in any particular game, and obtaining all of them is generally considered an extra feat. While all the possible 654 race/class combinations have been won on the online servers, only 186 of them were ever played online as an all-rune win (as of 2010-08-24). Dungeon maps in Crawl persist, as in NetHack
.
The game has been ported to the Nintendo DS
as DSCrawl.
repository available publicly.
Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup polled second in a poll of over 500 roguelike players, coming just behind DoomRL
, after winning the same contest the year previous.
Early extensions to Linley Henzell's code base which were folded into the Stone Soup branch include the "travel patch", which allowed automated travel between locations in the dungeon. Stone Soup has since then developed an unprecedented variety of extensions which fit into this general vein of "play aid", such as allowing searching through every item ever discovered by regular expression
.
Additionally, Stone Soup has made a number of user interface
improvements, such as mouse interaction and an (optional) graphical user interface.
In order to avoid featuritis, Stone Soup has also pruned gameplay elements which they considered superfluous, including several races and a magical school. The development team has also expressed a desire to maintain the current total length of the game, and so as new areas are added to the dungeon, old ones have been shortened or even removed to compensate.
Features of online play include automated high-score tracking and real-time recording of online play for later viewing. Also, ghosts of other players' characters are frequently encountered on a player's journey, providing an additional challenge. An annual tournament for all Stone Soup players is held every August on the servers.
Roguelike
The roguelike is a sub-genre of role-playing video games, characterized by randomization for replayability, permanent death, and turn-based movement. Most roguelikes feature ASCII graphics, with newer ones increasingly offering tile-based graphics. Games are typically dungeon crawls, with many...
computer game
Personal computer game
A PC game, also known as a computer game, is a video game played on a personal computer, rather than on a video game console or arcade machine...
originally programmed
Game programming
Game programming, a subset of game development, is the programming of computer, console or arcade games. Though often engaged in by professional game programmers, many novices may program games as a hobby...
by Linley Henzell in 1995
1995 in video gaming
-Events:*May 11 – Introduction of trade magazine GameWeek *May 11-16 — The 1st annual Electronic Entertainment Expo is held in Los Angeles, California...
, and first released to the general public on October 1, 1997. Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup, a branch of Dungeon Crawl currently in development, is one of the most popular roguelikes being played today. The original game has been licensed under a quirky license based on Bison
GNU bison
GNU bison, commonly known as Bison, is a parser generator that is part of the GNU Project. Bison reads a specification of a context-free language, warns about any parsing ambiguities, and generates a parser which reads sequences of tokens and decides whether the sequence conforms to the syntax...
's license and NetHack License
NetHack General Public License
The NetHack General Public License is a copyleft software license primarily used by the roguelike game NetHack. It is certified as an open source license by the Open Source Initiative....
, Stone Soup has contacted every past contributor and relicensed to GPLv2+
GNU General Public License
The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project....
.
Overview
Crawl starts with the player's choice of one of over twenty races: several different types of elvesElf
An elf is a being of Germanic mythology. The elves were originally thought of as a race of divine beings endowed with magical powers, which they use both for the benefit and the injury of mankind...
, two types of dwarves, humans, ogres, octopi, birds, centaurs, merfolk
Merman
Mermen are mythical male equivalents of mermaids – legendary creatures who have the form of a human from the waist up and are fish-like from the waist down.-Mythology:...
, and other fantasy beings. Racial selection sets base attributes, future skill advancement, and physical characteristics such as movement, resistances, and special abilities.
Subject to racial exclusions, the player next chooses a character class
Character class
In role-playing games, a common method of arbitrating the capabilities of different game characters is to assign each one to a character class. A character class aggregates several abilities and aptitudes, and may also sometimes detail aspects of background and social standing or impose behaviour...
from among over twenty selections. Classes include the traditional roles of fighter
Warrior (character class)
Warrior is a character class found in many role-playing games. This class may also be referred to as Fighter, as in Dungeons & Dragons. The class is sometimes also referred to as a Knight, although in some games this is a separate class with a more chivalric aspect...
, wizard
Wizard (character class)
The Wizard is a type of magical character class in certain role-playing games and computer role-playing games. Wizards are considered to be spellcasters who wield powerful spells, but are often physically weak as a trade-off. Wizards are commonly confused with similar offensive spellcasting...
, and thief
Thief (character class)
The Thief or Rogue is a character class in many role-playing games, including Dungeons & Dragons, Final Fantasy, World of Warcraft and many MMORPGs. Thieves are usually stealthy and dextrous characters able to disarm traps, pick locks, and perform backstabs from hiding...
as well as specialty roles, among them monk
Monk (character class)
The monk is a character class in a number of table-top role-playing and computer games. In those games which follow the Dungeons & Dragons traditions, monks are characters with martial arts skills and have very powerful strategies....
s, berserker
Berserker
Berserkers were Norse warriors who are reported in the Old Norse literature to have fought in a nearly uncontrollable, trance-like fury, a characteristic which later gave rise to the English word berserk. Berserkers are attested in numerous Old Norse sources...
s, assassin
Assassin (character class)
Assassin is a character class common to many games. Such characters typically combine elements of combat gaming with strong stealth skills, and specialise in defeating an enemy without becoming involved in a protracted melee...
s, crusaders, and elemental spellcasters. Wanderers represent an atypical option and receive a random skill set. Together, class and race determine base equipment and skill training, though characters may later attempt to acquire any in-game skill.
The Crawl skill system covers many abilities, including the ability to move freely in armor or silently, mount effective attacks with different categories of weapons (polearms, long
Longsword
The longsword is a type of European sword designed for two-handed use, current during the late medieval and Renaissance periods, approximately 1350 to 1550 .Longswords have long cruciform hilts with grips over 10 to 15 cm length The longsword (of which stems the variation called the bastard...
or short
Iron Age sword
Swords made of iron appear from the Early Iron Age , but do not become widespread before the 8th century BC....
blades, maces, axe
Axe
The axe, or ax, is an implement that has been used for millennia to shape, split and cut wood; to harvest timber; as a weapon; and as a ceremonial or heraldic symbol...
s, and staves), master spells
Magic (gaming)
Some role-playing games or game systems can include a set of rules that are used to portray magic in the paranormal sense. These rules simulate the effects that magic would have within the game context, according to how the game designer intended the magic to be portrayed...
from different magical colleges (the elements, necromancy
Necromancy
Necromancy is a claimed form of magic that involves communication with the deceased, either by summoning their spirit in the form of an apparition or raising them bodily, for the purpose of divination, imparting the ability to foretell future events or discover hidden knowledge...
, conjuration, enchantments, summoning, etc.), utilize magical artifacts, and pray to divinities. Training occurs through repetition of skill-related actions (e.g., hitting a monster with a longsword trains long blades and fighting skills), using experience from a pool refilled as the player defeats monsters.
John Harris, in his "@Play" column states that the experience pool system "deftly avoids the many problems of a skill-based development system", mainly praising the need to move on through the course of the game to further improve a PC's skills. In the same article, John Harris states that this experience system "is probably the best skill system yet seen in any roguelike; it could make a claim at being one of the best in any CRPG."
Religion
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
within Crawl is a central game mechanic. Its diverse pantheon of gods reward character conformance to particular codes of conduct. Trog, the berserker god, expects abstinence from casting spells and offers aid in battle, whereas Sif Muna expects frequent spellcraft in exchange for magical assistance and gifts of spellbooks. Some deities campaign against evil
Evil
Evil is the violation of, or intent to violate, some moral code. Evil is usually seen as the dualistic opposite of good. Definitions of evil vary along with analysis of its root motive causes, however general actions commonly considered evil include: conscious and deliberate wrongdoing,...
, matched by a god of death who revels in indiscriminate killing, while others prove unpredictable objects of worship. Xom, an example of the latter, toys with followers, meting out punishments and showering gifts on inscrutable whims.
The goal of Crawl is to recover the "Orb of Zot" hidden deep within a dungeon
Dungeon
A dungeon is a room or cell in which prisoners are held, especially underground. Dungeons are generally associated with medieval castles, though their association with torture probably belongs more to the Renaissance period...
complex. To achieve this objective, characters must visit various dungeon branches, such as the Orcish Mines or The Lair, which often branch further in to additional areas, like the Elven Halls or The Swamp, and obtain at least three "Runes of Zot" with which to gain access to the Orb. Fifteen different runes can be obtained in any particular game, and obtaining all of them is generally considered an extra feat. While all the possible 654 race/class combinations have been won on the online servers, only 186 of them were ever played online as an all-rune win (as of 2010-08-24). Dungeon maps in Crawl persist, as in NetHack
NetHack
NetHack is a single-player roguelike video game originally released in 1987. It is a descendant of an earlier game called Hack , which is a descendant of Rogue...
.
Typical Dungeon Crawl screen
wiki the Stabber
∙∙ High Elf
∙∙∙ #### HP: 5/16
#∙∙[ ##g∙∙ ## Magic: 2/2
#∙∙∙∙ ∙∙∙ ∙∙# AC: 2 (0)
##∙∙∙∙####∙##∙[# EV: 11
#∙∙∙∙∙∙#∙∙<∙∙∙∙# Str: 11
#∙∙∙∙∙∙#∙∙>∙∙∙#### Int: 13
#∙∙∙∙<∙∙∙@∙∙∙%∙# Dex: 16
#####∙∙∙∙##### # Gold: 131
#∙∙#∙∙∙∙ Experience: 2/16 (2)
#∙##∙## Level 2 of the Dungeon
#∙ ∙∙# # a) +0 elf short sword
###### Encumbered
Versions
The last official versions of Linley's Dungeon Crawl were 4.0.0 beta 26, from March 24, 2003, and a later alpha release, version 4.1.0, dating from July 2005.The game has been ported to the Nintendo DS
Nintendo DS
The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...
as DSCrawl.
Stone Soup branch
In 2006, a project was formed to address stalled official development, yielding the variant Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup. Developers of this code branch characterize official Crawl development as "something close to hibernation", with development "largely invisible to the public". The most recent stable version of Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup is 0.9 ("Victory Valedictory"), released on August 15th, 2011. It is developed actively, with a GitGit (software)
Git is a distributed revision control system with an emphasis on speed. Git was initially designed and developed by Linus Torvalds for Linux kernel development. Every Git working directory is a full-fledged repository with complete history and full revision tracking capabilities, not dependent on...
repository available publicly.
Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup polled second in a poll of over 500 roguelike players, coming just behind DoomRL
DoomRL
DoomRL is a roguelike video game for Microsoft Windows and Linux, whose setting is based on the first-person shooters Doom and Doom II...
, after winning the same contest the year previous.
Early extensions to Linley Henzell's code base which were folded into the Stone Soup branch include the "travel patch", which allowed automated travel between locations in the dungeon. Stone Soup has since then developed an unprecedented variety of extensions which fit into this general vein of "play aid", such as allowing searching through every item ever discovered by regular expression
Regular expression
In computing, a regular expression provides a concise and flexible means for "matching" strings of text, such as particular characters, words, or patterns of characters. Abbreviations for "regular expression" include "regex" and "regexp"...
.
Additionally, Stone Soup has made a number of user interface
User interface
The user interface, in the industrial design field of human–machine interaction, is the space where interaction between humans and machines occurs. The goal of interaction between a human and a machine at the user interface is effective operation and control of the machine, and feedback from the...
improvements, such as mouse interaction and an (optional) graphical user interface.
In order to avoid featuritis, Stone Soup has also pruned gameplay elements which they considered superfluous, including several races and a magical school. The development team has also expressed a desire to maintain the current total length of the game, and so as new areas are added to the dungeon, old ones have been shortened or even removed to compensate.
Graphical tile version
One notable addition of the Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup branch is the ability to play locally using a graphical tile version of the game. Players unfamiliar with the genre may find the tile version more accessible.Online play
A few servers support online play through an ssh client, the best known of which are crawl.akrasiac.org and crawl.develz.org. Recently, an online tiles version (called WebTiles) with basic features has become available at tiles.crawl.develz.org.Features of online play include automated high-score tracking and real-time recording of online play for later viewing. Also, ghosts of other players' characters are frequently encountered on a player's journey, providing an additional challenge. An annual tournament for all Stone Soup players is held every August on the servers.
External links
- Official website
- Official website of Stone Soup branch
- Public Stone Soup server (requires a TelnetTELNETTelnet is a network protocol used on the Internet or local area networks to provide a bidirectional interactive text-oriented communications facility using a virtual terminal connection...
or SSHSecure ShellSecure Shell is a network protocol for secure data communication, remote shell services or command execution and other secure network services between two networked computers that it connects via a secure channel over an insecure network: a server and a client...
client) - Public development Stone Soup telnet/ssh server
- Crawl wiki
- on RogueBasin