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Dungeon Crawl (view source)

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The game has a similar fantasy setting to most roguelikes, having been inspired by most of the roguelikes of the time: elves, dwarves, and orcs all make an appearance, weapons are medieval, and magic is magic. The plot is minimal: the player's task is to go to the bottom of the dungeon, get the Orb of Zot, and escape.
 
Where ''Crawl'' differs from most roguelikes is in its philosophy, which is explained in the manual. The main goal of the makers is to [[Anti -Grinding|discourage grinding]], which they feel bores the player. For this reason, limits are always in place. Monster generation slows down once the player has cleared a level, and so there's no point in hanging around for more experience; since the player has to eat, they have a reason not to. Shops only sell items; they don't buy, no matter how many lovely items you've picked up from dead monsters. The game is balanced as much as possible: armour protects but makes attacks less accurate and evasion more difficult, powerful spells cause magic contamination which results in mutations, and items are often mixed blessings (for example, a ring which powers up your ice spells, but reduces your resistance to fire).
 
''Crawl'' is also somewhat unique in that class is nothing more than a starting package and has no effect on further advancement, which is all determined by race - a reversal of the usual state of affairs.
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* [[Annoying Arrows]]: Arrow traps are like this; you can normally shrug them off. The first time you meet a centaur, however, you'll find that arrows are not merely annoying, since centaurs really know how to use them. Add to this the fact that they are fast enough to pursue you while still firing an arrow every turn, and you’ll soon respect their ability to kill you.
* [[Anti Frustration Features]]: The game will stop you from doing certain things that would otherwise outright kill you (walking into deep water, auto-moving while starving), and will ask for confirmation on potentially risky actions (moving adjacent to deep water while confused, stepping into dangerous traps while badly injured). You're still likely to die for a thousand other reasons, but at least the game is rooting for you.
* [[Anti -Grinding]]:
** The limited amount of food forces the player to continue deeper and deeper instead of remaining on the same level for extended periods of time. There are a few ways to get off the food clock - mummies and people in lichform do not eat at all and vampires can survive indefinitely without blood, although this stops their regeneration.
** If the player stays on the same level for too long, the game will detect it and start spawning disproportionately tough monsters there. If the player kills them as well, the game may stop monster generation on that level completely.
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* [[Combat Medic]]: The Healer class is actually pretty effective at fighting to begin with, as they begin with skill in unarmed combat.
* [[Combat Tentacles]]: The playable octopode race can their tentacles to slap and squeeze enemies to death. This ability is also available to players who can cast beastly appendage as well as a few nasty enemies...
* [[Combo -Platter Powers]]: The randomly generated artifacts can have any combination of effects. Thus you can have a spear which poisons your enemies, makes you resistant to fire, and lets you teleport. Quite often, one or more of the effects is either situationally or inherently negative, forcing the player to consider if the random artifact is worth using at all.
* [[The Corruption]]: Averted and played straight: it's really more of background radiation induced by [[Functional Magic]] and it doesn't affect your alignment, but it can be annoying (having a level of 5 or above causes you to [[Glowing Eyes of Doom|glow]], which makes you easier to see and can mutate you). If you have a high level of it, there's a chance for a [[Superpower Meltdown]]. Played straight with Demonspawn, who slowly get more and more demonic as they get experience levels.
* [[Cowardly Boss]]: Prince Ribbit will use his teleportation powers to try to escape you if he gets seriously injured.
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* [[Faustian Rebellion]]: It is entirely possible to abandon your god if you no longer find them useful, and/or to choose a new god. This will usually make the god you abandoned [[Evil Is Not a Toy|angry at you]]; however, it is entirely possible to [[Badass|survive their wrath until it runs out]]. Doing this with the necromancy god is an explicit part of one strategy guide for a Mummy Wizard.
* [[Featureless Protagonist]]: You get to choose your name, race, class, maybe a starting weapon, and that's about it. ''Crawl'' never asks the player to supply a gender or any other personalising details. Indeed, for the more humanoid races, the in-game description of them is 'You are rather mundane.'
* [[Fighter, Mage, Thief]]: Crawl divides all the character classes in five different groups - but there is great variation within each (except maybe Adventurer):
** Fighter - includes anything with focus on plain combat, from heavily armored warriors to [[Bare-Fisted Monk]] and stealthy assassins.
** Zealot - includes every class that starts with a religion: priests, berserkers, healers, and knights of some evil gods.
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** Some players may also go for speed runs(lowest number of turns, fastest real time), or ascend with the lowest level humanly possible.
* [[Shapeshifter Mode Lock]]: Vampires can change into bats, giving them increased dexterity. If, however, they have their dexterity drained while in bat form, it's possible to end up such that turning back into a vampire would leave them with zero or less, which would kill them. Therefore they're stuck in bat form until they can regain it.
* [[Shout -Out]]: The spell Maxwell's Silver Hammer, used to make blunt weapons more deadly, is a direct reference to a [[The Beatles|Beatles]] song of the same name about a man who murders people with a hammer.
** ''[[The Young Poisoners Handbook]]'', the starting spellbook for venom mages, is a 1995 film about a real life poisoner.
* [[Sibling Rivalry]]: Edmund is jealous of his older brother Sigmund, and for a reason: Sigmund is a notorious killer of junior adventurers while Edmund is more like an average brute with an expensive flail and a [[Informed Ability|good ability with sums]].
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* [[Stat Death]]: If any one of your stats drops to zero and you don’t fix it within a certain number of turns, you're dead. In earlier builds, it was instant death.
* [[Stat Grinding]]: Almost none - the game deliberately tries to avoid this. It was finally stamped out in version 0.9. To train skills, you have to gain experience - however, it doesn't matter ''how'' you gain that experience. For example, you could focus all your training on spellcasting, and you'll level up in that even if you're killing enemies in melee combat. It's a little weird, but it completely solves the grinding problem, while leaving the decisions entirely in the player's hands as to how they actually want to fight.
* [[Sucking in-In Lines]]: Unlike most spells which hit the enemy instantly the [[Names to Run Away From|Orb of Destruction]] spends its first turn hovering stationary in front of the caster. On turn two it takes off, rapidly gaining speed and power before enveloping the target in a tender [[Ludicrous Gibs|9d50 embrace]].
* [[Suicidal Overconfidence]]: Almost any creature in Crawl will attack the player, even if the odds aren't exactly in its favor.
* [[Super Drowning Skills]]: Unless you're Merfolk. Crawl's interface stops the player walking into deep water, but levitating players can still drown if their levitation wears off over water.
* [[Super Weapon, Average Joe]]: Even a mere kobold with a dagger of distortion can banish the player to the Abyss.
* [[Superpower Lottery]]: The [[Planet of Hats|Demonspawn's racial hat]]. While all of their mutations are ''theoretically'' useful developing a power like hollow bones or magic mapping has led to a practice affectionately known as [[Press X to Die|"gnoll time"]].
* [[Superpower Meltdown]]: Have a high enough level of [[The Corruption]], and there's a chance you might [[Stuff Blowing Up|spontaneously explode]].
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[[Category:Freeware Games]]
[[Category:Dungeon Crawl]]
[[Category:Trope]]
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