Since 1980, in-the-know computer gamers have been enthralled by the unpredictable, random, and incredibly deep gameplay of Rogue and those games inspired by it, known to fans as "roguelikes." For decades, this venerable genre was off the radar of most players and developers for a variety of reasons: deceptively simple graphics (often just text characters), high difficulty, and their demand that a player brings more of themselves to the game than your typical AAA title asks. This book covers many of the most prominent titles and explains in great detail what makes them interesting, the ways to get started playing them, the history of the genre, and more. It includes interviews, playthroughs, and hundreds of screenshots. It is a labor of love: if even a fraction of the author’s enthusiasm for these games gets through these pages to you, then you will enjoy it a great deal. Key Features: Playing tips and strategy for newcomers to the genre Core roguelikes Rogue, Angband, NetHack, Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup, ADOM, and Brogue The "lost roguelikes" Super Rogue and XRogue, and the early RPG dnd for PLATO systems The Japanese console roguelikes Taloon’s Mystery Dungeon and Shiren the Wanderer Lesser-known but extremely interesting games like Larn, DoomRL, HyperRogue, Incursion, and Dungeon Hack "Rogue-ish" games that blur the edges of the genre, including Spelunky, HyperRogue, ToeJam & Earl, Defense of the Oasis, Out There, and Zelda Randomizer Interviews with such developers as Keith Burgun (100 Rogues and Auro), Rodain Joubert (Desktop Dungeons), Josh Ge (Cogmind), Dr. Thomas Biskup (ADOM), and Robin Bandy (devnull public NetHack tournament) An interview regarding Strange Adventures in Infinite Space Design issues of interest to developers and enthusiasts Author Bio: John Harris has bumped around the Internet for more than 20 years. In addition to writing the columns @Play and Pixel Journeys for GameSetWatch and developer interviews for Gamasutra, he has spoken at Roguelike Celebration. John Harris has a MA in English Literature from Georgia Southern University.

Table of Contents:
1 An Introduction to Some Rogues 1Section I Basics 2 What the Hell Does Q Do Again? 7 3 A View of the Field 11 4 Tips for Travel in Gridland 17 5 Brought to You Today by the Letter “Q” 23 6 Check and Mate 27 Section II Theory 7 The Berlin Interpretation 37 8 Roguelikes and OD&D 45 9 Storytelling, Bah! 49 10 Pushing the Silver Boulder 51 11 I Never Meta Rogue I Didn’t Like 57 Section III NetHack 12 Giant Eel Stories, Volume 1 13 Giant Eel Stories, Volume 2 67 14 Thou Art Early, but We’ll Admit Thee 71 15 I Believe It Not! 77 16 How to Win at NetHack 83 17 Spoiled for Options 95 18 Hack Hacks 99 19 A Quick Look at the NetHack Sources 105 20 Balancing a Game That Looks Balanceless 109 21 SLASH’EM: NetHack Intensified 113 22 Ten Years of the dev/null NetHack Tournament, Part 1 119 23 Ten Years of the dev/null NetHack Tournament, Part 2 123 Section IV Dungeon Crawl 25 Crawl: Skills and Advancement 137 26 Crawl: Skill Overview 143 27 Crawl: Interesting Class and Race Pairs 153 28 Crawl: Travel Functions and Play Aids 161 29 Crawl: Dungeon Sprint 167 Section V ADOM 30 ADOM, NetHack with a Goatee 175 31 Things to Do While Visiting Ancardia 179 32 Interview: Thomas Biskup on ADOM 183 Section VI Mystery Dungeon 33 The Delights of Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer 199 34 Architecture of the Mystery Dungeon 207 35 Fei’s Problems 213 36 Taloon’s Mystery Dungeon, in Great Detail 217 37 A Journey to Table Mountain, Part 1 233 38 A Journey to Table Mountain, Part 2 243 39 A Journey to Table Mountain, Part 3 251 40 A Journey to Table Mountain, Part 4 261 Section VII Various Roguelikes 41 Angband: At Last! 277 42 Cause for Incursion 283 43 Brogue and the Abandoning of Experience Points 291 44 HyperRogue 299 45 Super-Rogue, Banished to the Deeper Dungeons 307 46 XRogue Has Not Yet Ceased to Be 313 47 Larn, or, I Hocked the Car to Buy a Lance of Death 325 48 Hack’s Lost Brother 333 49 Interview: Keith Burgun on 100 Rogues 339 50 Interview: Josh Ge on Cogmind 345 Section VIII Roguelites and Related Games 51 Pixel Journeys: dnd for PLATO 363 52 ToeJam & Earl, the Roguelike That’s Not an RPG 371 53 Interview: Digital Eel on Infinite Space 375 54 Interview: Rodain Joubert on Desktop Dungeons 385 55 Spelunky 393 56 Exploring the Oasis 401 57 The Rescue of Meta-Zelda 409 58 Space Peeing Out There 415 59 Doom, Doom, Doom, Doom 421 60 DreamForge’s Dungeon Hack 425 Section VIV Design 61 The Eight Rules of Roguelike Design 435 62 Mapping the Infinite Cavern 439 63 Purposes for Randomization in Game Design 445 64 Interface Aids and the Strategy Window 451 65 Modeling Motion on a Dungeon Grid 457 66 Rogue’s Item ID in Too Much Detail 461 67 Item Design: Potions and Scrolls 471 68 Towards Building a Better Dungeon 479 Section VV Miscellaneous 69 A Coward Dies a Thousand Deaths, but My Computer, Several Thousand 487 70 Running Atari ST Rogue in 2016 491 71 Rogue and Its Inspiration 497 72 The Rights to Rogue 501 73 Some Recent Information 505