A Guide to the Dungeons of Doom


                       Michael C. Toy
                  Kenneth C. R. C. Arnold


              Computer Systems Research Group
 Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
                  University of California
                Berkeley, California  94720




                          ABSTRACT

    Rogue  is a visual CRT based fantasy game which runs
    under the UNIX timesharing system.  This  paper  de-
    scribes how to play rogue, and gives a few hints for
    those who might otherwise get lost in  the  Dungeons
    of Doom.




1.  Introduction

     You  have  just finished your years as a student at the
local fighter's guild.  After much practice  and  sweat  you
have finally completed your training and are ready to embark
upon a perilous adventure.  As a test of  your  skills,  the
local  guildmasters have sent you into the Dungeons of Doom.
Your task is to return with  the  Amulet  of  Yendor.   Your
reward  for  the completion of this task will be a full mem-
bership in the local guild.  In addition, you are allowed to
keep all the loot you bring back from the dungeons.

     In  preparation  for  your  journey,  you  are given an
enchanted mace, a bow, and a quiver of arrows taken  from  a
dragon's  hoard in the far off Dark Mountains.  You are also
outfitted with elf-crafted armor and given  enough  food  to
reach  the  dungeons.  You say goodbye to family and friends
for what may be the last time and head up the road.

     You set out on your way to the dungeons and after  sev-
eral  days  of  uneventful travel, you see the ancient ruins
that mark the entrance to the Dungeons of Doom.  It is  late
at  night,  so  you  make camp at the entrance and spend the
____________________
   UNIX is a trademark of Bell Laboratories












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night sleeping under the open skies.   In  the  morning  you
gather  your  weapons, put on your armor, eat what is almost
your last food, and enter the dungeons.

2.  What is going on here?

     You have just begun a game of rogue.  Your goal  is  to
grab as much treasure as you can, find the Amulet of Yendor,
and get out of the Dungeons of Doom alive.  On the screen, a
map  of  where  you  have been and what you have seen on the
current dungeon level is kept.  As you explore more  of  the
level, it appears on the screen in front of you.

     Rogue  differs from most computer fantasy games in that
it  is  screen  oriented.   Commands  are  all  one  or  two
keystrokes1  and  the results of your commands are displayed
graphically on the screen rather  than  being  explained  in
words.2

     Another  major  difference between rogue and other com-
puter fantasy games is that once you  have  solved  all  the
puzzles  in a standard fantasy game, it has lost most of its
excitement and it ceases to be fun.   Rogue,  on  the  other
hand,  generates  a  new  dungeon every time you play it and
even the author finds it an entertaining and exciting  game.

3.  What do all those things on the screen mean?

     In  order  to  understand what is going on in rogue you
have to first get some grasp of what rogue is doing with the
screen.   The  rogue  screen is intended to replace the "You
can see ..." descriptions of standard fantasy games.  Figure
1 is a sample of what a rogue screen might look like.

3.1.  The bottom line

     At  the  bottom  line of the screen are a few pieces of
cryptic information describing your current status.  Here is
an explanation of what these things mean:

Level  This  number  indicates how deep you have gone in the
       dungeon.  It starts at one and  goes  up  as  you  go
       deeper into the dungeon.

Gold   The  number  of  gold pieces you have managed to find
       and keep with you so far.
____________________
   1 As opposed to pseudo English sentences.
   2  A minimum screen size of 24 lines by 80 columns is re-
quired.  If the screen is larger,  only  the  24x80  section
will be used for the map.












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____________________________________________________________


                        ------------
                        |..........+
                        |..@....]..|
                        |....B.....|
                        |..........|
                        -----+------



Level: 1  Gold: 0      Hp: 12(12)  Str: 16(16)  Arm: 4  Exp: 1/0

                          Figure 1
____________________________________________________________


Hp     Your  current  and  maximum  health  points.   Health
       points  indicate  how much damage you can take before
       you die.  The more you get hit in a fight, the  lower
       they  get.   You can regain health points by resting.
       The number in parentheses is the maximum number  your
       health points can reach.

Str    Your  current  strength  and  maximum  ever strength.
       This can be any integer less than or equal to 31,  or
       greater  than or equal to three.  The higher the num-
       ber, the stronger you are.  The number in the  paren-
       theses  is  the maximum strength you have attained so
       far this game.

Arm    Your current armor protection.  This number indicates
       how  effective  your  armor is in stopping blows from
       unfriendly creatures.  The higher this number is, the
       more effective the armor.

Exp    These  two numbers give your current experience level
       and experience points.  As you do  things,  you  gain
       experience   points.   At  certain  experience  point
       totals, you gain an experience level.  The more expe-
       rienced you are, the better you are able to fight and
       to withstand magical attacks.

3.2.  The top line

     The top line of the screen  is  reserved  for  printing
messages  that describe things that are impossible to repre-
sent visually.  If you see a "--More--"  on  the  top  line,
this  means that rogue wants to print another message on the
screen, but it wants to make certain that you have read  the
one  that  is  there  first.  To read the next message, just










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type a space.

3.3.  The rest of the screen

     The rest of the screen is the map of the level  as  you
have  explored  it so far.  Each symbol on the screen repre-
sents something.  Here is a list of what the various symbols
mean:

@    This symbol represents you, the adventurer.

-|   These symbols represent the walls of rooms.

+    A door to/from a room.

.    The floor of a room.

#    The floor of a passage between rooms.

*    A pile or pot of gold.

)    A weapon of some sort.

]    A piece of armor.

!    A flask containing a magic potion.

?    A piece of paper, usually a magic scroll.

=    A ring with magic properties

/    A magical staff or wand

^    A trap, watch out for these.

%    A staircase to other levels

:    A piece of food.

A-Z  The uppercase letters represent the various inhabitants
     of the Dungeons of Doom.  Watch out, they can be  nasty
     and vicious.

4.  Commands

     Commands  are given to rogue by typing one or two char-
acters.  Most commands can be preceded by a count to  repeat
them (e.g. typing "10s" will do ten searches).  Commands for
which counts make no sense have the count ignored.  To  can-
cel  a  count  or a prefix, type <ESCAPE>.  The list of com-
mands is rather long, but it can be read at any time  during
the  game  with the "?"  command.  Here it is for reference,
with a short explanation of each command.










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?    The help command.  Asks for a character  to  give  help
     on.   If you type a "*", it will list all the commands,
     otherwise it will explain what the character you  typed
     does.

/    This  is  the "What is that on the screen?" command.  A
     "/" followed by any  character  that  you  see  on  the
     level,  will  tell  you  what  that  character is.  For
     instance, typing "/@" will tell you that the "@" symbol
     represents you, the player.

h, H, ^H
     Move left.  You move one space to the left.  If you use
     upper case "h", you will continue to  move  left  until
     you  run  into  something.  This works for all movement
     commands (e.g.  "L" means run in direction "l") If  you
     use  the "control" "h", you will continue moving in the
     specified direction until you pass something  interest-
     ing  or  run  into  a wall.  You should experiment with
     this, since it is a very useful command, but very  dif-
     ficult  to  describe.  This also works for all movement
     commands.

j    Move down.

k    Move up.

l    Move right.

y    Move diagonally up and left.

u    Move diagonally up and right.

b    Move diagonally down and left.

n    Move diagonally down and right.

t    Throw an object.  This is a prefix command.  When  fol-
     lowed with a direction it throws an object in the spec-
     ified direction.  (e.g. type "th" to throw something to
     the left.)

f    Fight  until someone dies.  When followed with a direc-
     tion this will force you to fight the creature in  that
     direction until either you or it bites the big one.

m    Move  onto  something without picking it up.  This will
     move you one space in the direction you specify and, if
     there  is  an object there you can pick up, it won't do
     it.

z    Zap prefix.  Point a staff or wand in a given direction
     and  fire  it.   Even  non-directional  staves  must be










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     pointed in some direction to be used.

^    Identify trap command.  If a trap is on  your  map  and
     you  can't  remember what type it is, you can get rogue
     to remind you by getting next to it and typing "^" fol-
     lowed  by  the  direction that would move you on top of
     it.

s    Search for traps and secret doors.  Examine each  space
     immediately adjacent to you for the existence of a trap
     or secret door.  There is a large chance that  even  if
     there  is  something  there,  you won't find it, so you
     might have to search a while before you find something.

>    Climb down a staircase to the next level.  Not surpris-
     ingly, this can only be done if  you  are  standing  on
     staircase.

<    Climb up a staircase to the level above.  This can't be
     done without the Amulet of Yendor in your possession.

.    Rest.  This is the "do nothing" command.  This is  good
     for waiting and healing.

,    Pick up something.  This picks up whatever you are cur-
     rently standing on, if you are standing on anything  at
     all.

i    Inventory.  List what you are carrying in your pack.

I    Selective  inventory.   Tells you what a single item in
     your pack is.

q    Quaff one of the potions you are carrying.

r    Read one of the scrolls in your pack.

e    Eat food from your pack.

w    Wield a weapon.  Take a weapon out  of  your  pack  and
     carry  it  for use in combat, replacing the one you are
     currently using (if any).

W    Wear armor.  You can only wear one suit of armor  at  a
     time.  This takes extra time.

T    Take armor off.  You can't remove armor that is cursed.
     This takes extra time.

P    Put on a ring.  You can wear only two rings at  a  time
     (one  on  each hand).  If you aren't wearing any rings,
     this command will ask you which hand you want  to  wear
     it  on, otherwise, it will place it on the unused hand.










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     The program assumes that you wield your sword  in  your
     right hand.

R    Remove  a ring.  If you are only wearing one ring, this
     command takes it off.  If you are wearing two, it  will
     ask you which one you wish to remove,

d    Drop  an  object.   Take something out of your pack and
     leave it lying on  the  floor.   Only  one  object  can
     occupy  each space.  You cannot drop a cursed object at
     all if you are wielding or wearing it.

c    Call an object something.  If you have a type of object
     in  your  pack  which  you  wish  to remember something
     about, you can use the call command to give a  name  to
     that  type  of  object.   This is usually used when you
     figure out what a potion, scroll,  ring,  or  staff  is
     after  you  pick  it  up,  or when you want to remember
     which of those swords in your pack you were wielding.

D    Print out  which  things  you've  discovered  something
     about.   This  command  will ask you what type of thing
     you are interested in.  If you type the character for a
     given  type  of  object (e.g.  "!"  for potion) it will
     tell you which kinds of that type of object you've dis-
     covered  (i.e.,  figured out what they are).  This com-
     mand works for potions, scrolls, rings, and staves  and
     wands.

o    Examine  and  set  options.   This  command  is further
     explained in the section on options.

^R   Redraws the screen.  Useful  if  spurious  messages  or
     transmission errors have messed up the display.

^P   Print  last  message.  Useful when a message disappears
     before you can read it.  This  only  repeats  the  last
     message  that  was  not  a mistyped command so that you
     don't loose anything by accidentally typing  the  wrong
     character instead of ^P.

<ESCAPE&