Deadly Rooms of Death: Difference between revisions

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As a puzzle game with an editor, there are several different level sets and stories available, but the main releases so far have centered around one man, [[The Hero|Beethro Budkin]], who works as a dungeon exterminator under the Smitemaster's Guild. Kings, lords, and other dungeon owners have a recurring problem of their dungeons becoming infested with monsters and nasties, and will hire experienced smiters to go kill everything and return the dungeons to usable status. There is an ongoing question of how seemingly-enclosed dungeons become infested or reinfested so quickly, but [[Hand Wave|the standing answers]] are typically "job incomplete (unintentional)" or "monsters come from inaccessible places" or "it's a fact of life, they get reinfested every now and then if they aren't supervised". Beethro's adventures lead him towards answering this question, but he gets himself into problems and circumstances far more complicated and sinister than he would have planned.

The games are downloadable at [http://caravelgames.com/Articles/Games.html Caravel Games' main site], although this troper would recommend that new players start with the Journey to Rooted Hold demo.

 

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* [[Already Undone for You]]: If [[NPC|NPCs]] are roaming in the same area that the player is, expect this unless the architect is careful.

* [[And Now for Someone Completely Different]]: Possible to implement. There are two examples in The City Beneath that temporarily follow other people.

* [[Artificial Brilliance]]: The Slayer has perfect swordfighting AI. In an even fight, it's impossible to kill him, and he will always kill you if he has the chance, so you'll have to move very carefully to evade him.

* [[Artificial Stupidity]]: In an ''uneven'' fight, the Slayer's AI is easy to exploit. One early level in ''The City Beneath'' has a Slayer fight you on hot tiles. He will fry himself as soon as he gets close.

** Stalwarts and guards are not nearly as careful as the player, and so are often overwhelmed by roach gangs.

* [[Big Damn Fire Exit]]: Not a fire, but typically whenever the player has to escape from anything collapsing or some other sort of danger, this is the result (although there will be puzzles in the way).

* [[Block Puzzle]]: It's possible to implement a straight one with mirrors, [[Pressure Plate|pressure plates]] or other elements, but most commendable examples will involve the player doing a lot of other stuff. General consensus is that DROD is not and should not be [[Block Puzzle]]: The Game.

* [[Gravity Barrier]]: Beethro's "smitemaster reflexes" keep him from moving into a pit and dying, and indeed no monster will ever move into a pit and fall. However, TCB introduces platforms, which can move out from under things and drop them into pits.

* [[Heroes Prefer Swords]]: There's nothing in the game engine that says that the player's weapon ''has'' to be a sword (and some player characters go without), but almost all weapons in setting are swords. The only exception is the Slayer's hook, and they're typically villains.

* [[Invincible Minor Minion]]: Wubbas are completely immune to swords. However, they also can't harm the player. This means they just usually tend to get in the way. However, they can be destroyed using [[Benevolent Architecture]].

* [[It's Up to You]]: Usually justified: you're the only one doing anything about the problem anyway.

* [[Level Editor]]: DROD: Architect's Edition introduced this feature. There are now ''hundreds'' of user holds and ''tens of thousands'' of rooms available to play.

* [[Marathon Level]]: Most rooms are puzzle rooms with lynchpins or specific manipulation that might only take one hundred to five hundred moves to solve. Some hack and slash rooms might go from three hundred to seven hundred moves, depending upon the room. However, some rooms in user-made holds can take one thousand or more moves to complete.

** There is a list on the forum of [http://forum.caravelgames.com/highscores.php?action=misc&lrs=m the longest rooms to complete], sorted in descending order of the least number of moves anyone has beaten them in.

** There was [http://forum.caravelgames.com/viewtopic.php?TopicID=1678 a contest] where the goal was to make the longest single room possible. The current record is about 1.7 x 10^45 moves. This may epitomize the [[Marathon Level]]:

* [[Metroidvania]]: A limited example: in any typical hold, there are usually several rooms available to play at once, but levels must be completed in order. Depending on the architect and the specific level set, gameplay could be anywhere from completely linear to completely open-ended.

** The MetDROiD series is notable for being true Metroidvania's made with the 2.0 and 3.0 engines.

* [[Multi Mook Melee]]: Possible to set up. Some rooms (entitled "hack and slash") can have the player killing hundreds or thousands of monsters of varying types.

* [[Multiple Endings]]: Averted in the main releases, where there is only one hold ending, but possible to implement in user holds.

** Averted in TCB with two "Interlude" levels, one of which follows one of the Empire's negotiators and the other of which follows a goblin.

* [[Now Where Was I Going Again?]]: Usually averted with the help of the in-game map and restore functions, but very possible with managing all of your holds or trying to find secrets or keep track of [[Event Flag|event flags]] in one hold.

* [[One-Hit-Point Wonder]]: Almost everything: the player and most monsters. The only exceptions are some larger monsters which split or shrink under conditions (usually something attacking them with a sword).

* [[Only Smart People May Pass]]: Essentially ''the entire game''. This is the only security system anyone has.

* [[Path of Most Resistance]]: Secret rooms are completely optional and usually much more difficult than regular rooms. In order to master a hold and obtain [[One Hundred Percent Completion]], you'll have to beat them all.

* [[Point of No Return]]: General consensus is that they're not inherently bad but can be used in bad ways, and that allowing backtracking at most points is best. However, since most levels are self-contained, holds like King Dugan's Dungeon will only allow the player access to the current level. On the other hand, the Restore function allows the user to "go back in time" to any point he ever visited, at the cost of any forward progress, so it's possible to make different choices and then pass the point of no return.

* [[Purely Aesthetic Gender]]: The player may occasionally control a female avatar, which works as every other non-combative NPC.

* [[Random Event]]: Completely averted. The game engine is completely deterministic. However, it's possible to create events that are ''unpredictable'' by any reasonable player. Even with that, though, a player with editing rights can later open the hold in the editor and look for what triggers those events.

* [[Scripted Event]]: A whole scripting language was introduced in Journey to Rooted Hold and The City Beneath, making it possible to create [[NPC|NPCs]] and other story events, including cutscenes. However, most puzzle rooms will do without any of these, and many architecture contest entries include no scripting.

* [[Self-Imposed Challenge]]: What usually happens if a room provides too many resources or if players get bored or think a level set is too easy. There is an entire Challenges board on the forum. Highscore optimization also counts as this.

* [[Sidetrack Bonus]]: Almost always present. Secret or side rooms can contain more difficult puzzles that count towards [[One Hundred Percent Completion]], or interesting plot events or snippets.

* [[Sinister Scythe]]: A Slayer's [[Weapon of Choice]] is the Hook, which may evoke this image.

* [[Sliding Scale of Turn Realism]]: This game is all the way over at Turn By Turn.

* [[Speaking Simlish]]: Usually averted. Speech can have voice clips attached with actual English (or other language) use, or can just be present as text boxes in-game. If you want any gibberish to be played in-game, you'll have to create sound files of it or record people actually saying it.

* [[Story to Gameplay Ratio]]: Varies, but the game usually has more gameplay than story. The gameplay will also usually take more time than the story, due to the difficulty of the puzzles.

* [[Super Drowning Skills]]: The only things that can swim are waterskippers. Anything else - the player, monsters, other room elements - will be killed or destroyed when dropped into water, no matter how close dry land is.

** [[Get EB]] introduces shallow water, which lets the player sneak around like a medieval Rambo.

* [[Three Quarters View]]: Since the entire game is laid out on a grid, this is the art style most of the in-game entities and room features go with.

* [[Time Trial]]: Highscoring is all about this - solving rooms in the last number of moves possible.

* [[Warp Zone]]: Possible to implement. There are actual warp rooms in King Dugan's Dungeon and Journey to Rooted Hold.

 

* [[Alien Geometries]]: The Eighth, the game world, can be best described as a pocket universe the shape of a pizza slice: walk onto another "slice", you're back where you started. Walk off the outer edge, you implode back into the center. {{spoiler|Dig down far enough, you fall into empty space and land back on the surface.}}

* [[Armor Is Useless]]: Smitemasters explicitly go without any meaningful armor, trading it for speed and mobility. For all the armor any friendly or enemy soldiers have, they are all [[One-Hit-Point Wonder|One Hit Point Wonders]] too. However, some monsters (wubbas, intact fegundos, segments of serpents) have invulnerability to swords, averting this trope.

* [[Clock Punk]]: The technology level is mostly medieval-level with some advances in mechanics, city planning and architecture.

* [[Gonk]]: "The Fat Guy With The Big Lips And Pimply Nose" describes Beethro exactly. Beethro is ''ugly'' both out-of and in-universe.

[[Category:Puzzle Game]]

[[Category:Freeware Games]]