History VideoGame / Angband

* '''non-persistent dungeon levels''' - dungeon levels are randomly generated, but crucially, only ''one'' dungeon level is ever generated at a time. If you leave the floor you're on and then come back, the game will generate a completely new dungeon level, replacing the previous one entirely. The result of this is that you ''cannot'' revisit a dungeon level once you leave it; it's wiped from existence, and anything left there is gone forever. This is the defining feature of ''Angband'' that sets it apart from almost every other kind of roguelike.
* '''infinite dungeon''' - a side-effect of the non-persistent levels is that the dungeon is effectively infinite - there's nothing to stop you from visiting the same depth as many times as you like and taking as much as you can carry away from it. The game will always generate a new dungeon level each time you go, with new loot to collect and new enemies to fight. This means that the resources available to the player are effectively limitless. The dungeon itself still has a finite depth (100 floors).

* '''emphasis on [[MinMaxing character advancement]]''' - *bands are ultimately about gaining experience and improving the character's survivability, by any means necessary. LevelGrinding and Scumming are not as discouraged as in other games, and the design of *bands often makes this easy to do (for example, exploiting a self-replicating enemy for experience, or going up and down stairs repeatedly to generate new levels until you find one with some good items).

** This also means that they don't fall for the common roguelike trick of 'lure them into a tight corridor then pick them off one at a time' - they'll instead wait for you to come out into the open where they can surround you.

* DungeonBypass: practically a way of life in ''Angband''. As long as you know where the stairs are, there's nothing compelling you to remain on the current dungeon level. (Well, unless an enemy has paralysed you, or has the ability to teleport you to its location. But that's rare.) You can pretty much choose whichever depth you're most comfortable fighting at, and you can also use stairs as an immediate escape from danger if you can reach them.

* VoodooShark: The game's explanation for the non-persistent levels is that there is a 'maze of staircases' between each level, in which your character always gets lost and therefore is unable to find his way back to that same level again. Considering that the dungeons take up significant floor space, and that your character also has access to mining tools (and, if really smart, could just leave a trail or something), it seems highly unlikely that an entire dungeon could simply be 'lost' like this. Not to mention the sheer area that this neverending collection of dungeons must take up (and we know that all dungeons of the same level occur at the same depth, because the game tells you exactly how many feet underground you are!).

* MassiveRaceSelection: Angband itself only has eight races, but variants tend to go crazy with this. ''ZAngband'' has one of the most extensive selections. The ''ZAngband'' variant ''Entroband'' has thirty-seven races and twenty-seven classes. Averted by a newer variant ''Sil'', in which you can only choose Noldor (High Elves), Sindar (Grey Elves), Naugrim (Dwarf) or Edain (Human).

** In ZAngband, you can kill the [[HarsherInHindsight Finnish president and Nobel Peace prize laureate]] Martti Ahtisaari - or rather, a parody version of him.

* VendorTrash: Since version 3.5.0, the ability to sell items has been turned off by default, precisely to prevent players from simply trawling through the dungeon for trash to sell. It can be enabled in the options however.

''Angband'' is a {{roguelike}} game [[TheThemeparkVersion loosely]] [[AnachronismStew based]] on Creator/JRRTolkien's books set in Middle-earth, but with stuff from other games, mostly ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' and ''{{Rolemaster}}'', as well as original content. Along with ''VideoGame/NetHack'', ''DungeonCrawl'', ''[[VideoGame/AncientDomainsOfMystery ADOM]]'', and ''[[VideoGame/TalesOfMajEyal ToME]]'', it is considered one of the five major modern roguelikes. It has been in continuous development since 1990.

Although not the first in its roguelike line (that distinction goes to ''VideoGame/{{Moria}}'', of which Angband is a descendant), Angband is the grandfather of an entire family of roguelikes collectively known as *bands, thanks to its relatively easy-to-fork source code.

* CycleOfHurting: if you've fallen victim to an enemy with a debilitating status effect (confusion, poison, etc) and you can't kill it, this is probably how you'll die - being slowly picked to death and unable to recover.

* DisabilityImmunity: warriors have this in some ways. They cannot use magic, and so have no mana, which makes them immune to the mana-draining abilities of jellies. They also aren't bothered so much by blindness; a blind warrior can still swing a weapon in front of them (which, since they're a warrior, will hit with a lot of damage), whereas a blinded mage cannot read their spell book and is therefore completely cut off from their primary source of defense.

* ElementalPowers: some enemies have them, or have resistances to certain elements. Players usually have to rely on hard-to-come-by magic devices and high-level spells if they want to do much elemental magic. They can also get elemental-branded weapons, but those are even harder to obtain.

* MookMaker: enemy summoners.

* SpiderSense: all characters have an innate ability to sense things about the dungeon level that they're on, and can sense potential danger, even if they don't know exactly what the danger is.

* VoodooShark: the game's explanation for the non-persistent levels is that there is a 'maze of staircases' between each level, in which your character always gets lost and therefore is unable to find his way back to that same level again. Considering that the dungeons take up significant floor space, and that your character also has access to mining tools (and, if really smart, could just leave a trail or something), it seems highly unlikely that an entire dungeon could simply be 'lost' like this. Not to mention the sheer area that this neverending collection of dungeons must take up (and we know that all dungeons of the same level occur at the same depth, because the game tells you exactly how many feet underground you are!).

In terms of objective, it's fairly simple: your goal is to defeat Morgoth, the BigBad of Middle Earth. To get to him, you must first descend through 100 levels of increasingly hostile dungeons, and hopefully acquire enough experience and equipment to defeat him. The challenge comes from learning how best to deal with the vast menagerie of enemies in the dungeon, and knowing when and when not to take risks.

* VoodooShark: the game's explanation for the non-persistent levels is that there is a 'maze of staircases' between each level, in which your character always gets lost and therefore is unable to find his way back to that same level again. Considering that the dungeons take up significant floor space, and that your character also has access to mining tools (and, if really smart, could just leave a trail or something), it seems highly unlikely that an entire dungeon could simply be 'lost' like this. Not to mention the sheer area that this neverending collection of dungeons must take up (we know they're all on the same level, because the game tells you exactly how many feet underground you are!).

''Angband'' is a {{roguelike}} game [[TheThemeparkVersion loosely]] [[AnachronismStew based]] on Creator/JRRTolkien's books set in Middle-earth, but with stuff from other games, mostly ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' and ''{{Rolemaster}}'', as well as original content. Along with ''VideoGame/NetHack'', ''DungeonCrawl'', ''[[VideoGame/AncientDomainsOfMystery ADOM]]'', and ''[[TalesOfMajEyal ToME]]'', it is considered one of the five major modern roguelikes. It has been in continuous development since 1990.

** Also, in [[TalesOfMajEyal ToME]], don't equip that yellow ~ lying on the ground right away. It could be the Phial of Galadriel, or something really evil...

* WarpWhistle: Scrolls of Word of Recall, one of the most essential items in the game. These teleport you from the dungeon to the home town, and can also teleport you back into the dungeon again. They're also commonly used to escape threats, although the several-turn delay between invocation and the teleport means that it's not a foolproof way of getting out of trouble. Also available as a cleric spell.

''Angband'' is a {{roguelike}} game [[TheThemeparkVersion loosely]] [[AnachronismStew based]] on Creator/JRRTolkien's books set in Middle-earth, but with stuff from other games, mostly ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' and ''{{Rolemaster}}'', as well as original content. Along with ''NetHack'', ''DungeonCrawl'', ''[[VideoGame/AncientDomainsOfMystery ADOM]]'', and ''[[TalesOfMajEyal ToME]]'', it is considered one of the five major modern roguelikes. It has been in continuous development since 1990.

* WarpWhistle: Scrolls of Recall. Also available as a cleric spell.
* WeaponOfXSlaying: One of many properties ego and artifact weapons can have is bonus damage against particular types of enemies. This is controlled by a set of independent boolean flags, allowing (in the extreme) the artifact sword Crisdurian, which has ''all'' the Slay X flags set (and has the damage dice to make it count).

** Creatures with the ability to produce copies of themselves will generally kill you in this manner - they're relatively harmless by themselves, but once they start multiplying they can block passages and totally surround you, picking you off a little at a time.

Angband and other *bands have a few features that make them distinct from other roguelike families:

* '''non-persistent dungeon levels''' - dungeon levels are randomly generated, but crucially, only ''one'' dungeon level is ever generated at a time. If you leave the floor you're on and then come back, the game will generate a completely new dungeon level, replacing the previous one entirely. The result of this is that you ''cannot'' revisit a dungeon level once you leave it; anything left there is gone forever.
* '''infinite dungeon''' - a side-effect of the non-persistent levels is that the dungeon is effectively infinite - there's nothing to stop you from visiting the same depth as many times as you like and taking as much as you can carry away from it. The game will always generate a new dungeon level each time you go, with new loot to collect and new enemies to fight. This means that the resources available to the player are effectively limitless.

* ElementalEmbodiment: various elementals can be met throughout the game, mostly sticking to the classical elements, but occasionally venturing into more abstract territory (smoke elemental, ooze elemental).

* EnemySummoner: Better learn to make an anti-summoning corridor.
* EvilIsDeathlyCold: Cursed items.
* ExplosiveBreeder: Many low-level creatures have the 'reproducing' ability, meaning they can spawn copies of themselves. This is something fairly unique to *bands - ''Angband'' can get away with it because of its non-persistent dungeons (in any other roguelike, they would clog up the level permanently, which could unbalance the game). Reproducing creatures include worm masses, lice, and rats, each of which which have many [[UndergroundMonkey annoying]] [[PaletteSwap colour]] [[UndergroundMonkey variants]]. These can be [[LevelGrinding ground upon]] to gain levels, but unless you're using a borg (a bot which plays the game) this is too dull to do for more than a few levels.

''Angband'' is a {{roguelike}} game [[TheThemeparkVersion loosely]] [[AnachronismStew based]] on Creator/JRRTolkien's books set in Middle-earth, but with stuff from other games, mostly ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' and ''{{Rolemaster}}'', as well as original content.

It was intended to be an enhanced port of Umoria, an earlier roguelike. The game takes place in an extremely deep dungeon beneath a town. The goal of the game is to descend into the dungeon and amass enough experience and loot to defeat Morgoth, the BigBad of Middle-Earth.

* '''large dungeons''' - dungeons in ''Angband'' and other *bands are many screens wide and tall.

* '''non-persistent dungeon levels''' - Dungeons are randomly generated, and a new one is generated each time you visit that floor. The result of this is that you ''cannot'' revisit a dungeon once you leave it; anything left there is gone forever, and a new dungeon (with new monsters and items) will be generated in its place. In game, this is explained as there being a 'maze of staircases' between each level, in which you always get lost.
* '''infinite dungeon''' - a side-effect of the non-persistent levels is that the dungeon is effectively infinite. While it has a finite depth (100 levels), you can visit a particular depth as many times as you like, and the dungeon will always be brand new. This also means that the resources available to the player are limitless.

* '''monster memory''' - with each monster encounter, you may learn more about the monsters you're fighting. For example, you may discover that worm masses have a weakness to bright light. Every new piece of information you learn is stored in the monster memory, and can be recalled at any time - even by descendants who have never personally encountered the monster.
* '''feelings''' - ''Angband'' uses a multiple-level identification system for some items, expressed as 'feelings' that your character has. For example, your character may acquire an item in the dungeon, and after carrying it around for some time, may 'feel' that the item is special in some way. They still won't know exactly ''why'' it is special - this may require them to actually use it, or to use magical means of identification.

* ChestMonster: Creeping Coins and various other mimics
* CompanionCube: Slime molds, a food item which many players name and keep as pets

* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: The town level is full of beggars, harmless drunks, street urchins and mercenaries. The urchins of whom will try and steal from you. ''Guess what happens next.'' Even worse, the mercenaries can easily kill a starting character.
** Three words: Killing [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings Farmer Maggot]].
*** Sure, but that's not purely for fun, he usually drops good stuff.

** Some monsters also hunt in packs, and are wise to the common roguelike trick of 'lure them into a tight corridor then pick them off one at a time' - they'll instead wait for you to come out into the open where they can surround you.

* ArtificialBrilliance: Monsters actively avoid tiles that you can see, opting to instead wait in the dark until they can pounce on you. They also learn your resistances ([[TheAllSeeingAI or, if you set the option, know them in advance]]) and will not attempt to use ineffective attacks repeatedly. In the variant/successor ''Sil'' orc packs try to flank you or block your escape routes, while archers will spread out and keep their distance - which is annoying and deadly.

* VendorTrash:
* Unidentified potions of apple juice, slime mold juice and water, which are given the same color qualifier across games (although no longer available in the latest versions). You can also sell other unidentified items as a cheap identification method. Known trashy items cannot be sold. Unknown items, however...
-->You sold 3 Scrolls of Create Trap for 31 gp. [[HeadDesk The shopkeeper bangs his head against the counter]].
** A fairly minor but entertaining example is selling broken swords/daggers and rusted chain mail to shops. The storekeeper will offer you one gold coin for it and then - surprise, surprise - it turns out said item has negative to hit/to dam/armor modifiers, thus making them worthless.
* Since version 3.5.0, selling has been turned off by default, which means this is no longer a problem.

** Rods/Wands of Light in general, which light up a long line of tiles. If you rely in any kind of ranged attack, you'll need to spot monsters from as far away as possible, and these babies really shine in long corridors. You'd also be surprised by how many enemies are damaged by it in the early game.

* DumpStat: If using the point-buy system to create your character, Charisma had practically no use aside from price adjustments - and was generally the easiest stat to improve (due to potions of charisma appearing earleir than other stats.) As of 3.5.0, the stat was removed, with gold drops likewise being toned down.

* '''emphasis on [[MinMaxing character advancement]]''' - *bands are ultimately about gaining experience and improving the character's survivability. LevelGrinding and Scumming are perfectly acceptable ways of achieving this, and the design of *bands often makes this easy to do (for example, exploiting a self-replicating enemy for experience, or going up and down stairs repeatedly to generate new levels until you find one with some good items).

* ArtificialBrilliance: Monsters actively avoid tiles that you can see, opting to instead wait in the dark until they can pounce on you. They also learn your resistances ([[TheAllSeeingAI or, if you set the option, know them in advance]]) and will not attempt to use ineffective attacks repeatedly. In the variant/successor ''Sil'' orc packs try to flank you or block your escape routes, while archers will spead out and keep their distance - which is annoying and deadly.

* '''non-persistent dungeon levels''' - Dungeons are randomly generated, and a new one is generated each time you visit that level. The result of this is that you ''cannot'' revisit a level once you leave it; anything left on the level is gone forever, and a new level will be generated in its place. In game, this is explained as there being a 'maze of staircases' between each level, in which you always get lost.
* infinite dungeon - a side-effect of the non-persistent levels is that the dungeon is effectively infinite. While it has a finite depth (100 levels), you can a particular depth as many times as you like, and the dungeon will always be brand new. This also means that the resources available to the player are limitless.

* MassiveRaceSelection: Angband only has eight races, but variants tend to add a lot more. ''ZAngband'' has one of the most extensive selections. The ''ZAngband'' variant ''Entroband'' has thirty-seven races and twenty-seven classes. Averted by a newer variant ''Sil'', in which you can only choose Noldor (High Elves), Sindar (Grey Elves), Naugrim (Dwarf) or Edain (Human).

* RandomNumberGod: Everything in the dungeon is randomly created.

* VendorTrash: Unidentified potions of apple juice, slime mold juice and water, which are given the same color qualifier across games (although no longer available in the latest versions). You can also sell other unidentified items as a cheap identification method. Known trashy items cannot be sold. Unknown items, however...

* '''emphasis on character advancement''' - *bands are ultimately about gaining experience and improving the character's survivability. LevelGrinding and Scumming are perfectly acceptable ways of achieving this, and the design of *bands often makes this easy to do (for example, exploiting a self-replicating enemy for experience, or going up and down stairs repeatedly to generate new levels until you find one with some useful or sellable items).

* VoodooShark: the game's explanation for the non-persistent levels is that there is a 'maze of staircases' between each level, in which your character always gets lost and therefore is unable to find his way back to that same level again. Considering that the dungeons take up significant floor space, and that your character also has access to mining tools (and, if really smart, could just leave a trail or something), this explanation is a HandWave at best.

* DroneJam: Anti-Summoning Corridors, the fancy name for player-dug corridors with a dead end the player sits on. They are meant to be used as a means to prevent [[MookMaker summoning monsters]] from calling monsters behind you and surrounding you. While they are the most reliable means to deal with those, it can take a while for the MookMaker to get in the player's range.

* '''non-persistent dungeon levels''' - Dungeons are randomly generated, and a new one is generated each time you visit that level. The result of this is that you ''cannot'' revisit a level once you leave it; anything left on the level is LostForever. In game, this is explained as there being a 'maze of staircases' between each level, in which you always get lost.

** [[ExplosiveBreeder Explosive breeders.]] Most dangerous for low-level characters, but a sufficient number of them can cause problems even for higher-level players, as they'll spread until they block passages and totally surround you, picking you off a little at a time.

* DumpStat: If using point-buy, Charisma had practically no use aside from price adjustments - and was generally the easiest stat to improve (due to potions of charisma appearing earleir than other stats.) As of 3.5.0, the stat was removed, with gold drops likewise being toned down.

* EvilIsDeathlyCold: Cursed items
* ExplosiveBreeder: Many low-level creatures, including worm masses, lice, and rats, each of which which have many [[UndergroundMonkey annoying]] [[PaletteSwap colour]] [[UndergroundMonkey variants]]. These can be [[LevelGrinding ground upon]] to gain levels, but unless you're using a borg (a bot which plays the game) this is too dull to do for more than a few levels.

* MassiveRaceSelection: Mostly ''ZAngband''. The ''ZAngband'' variant ''Entroband'' has thirty-seven races and twenty-seven classes. Averted by a newer variant ''Sil'', in which you can only choose Noldor (High Elves), Sindar (Grey Elves), Naugrim (Dwarf) or Edain (Human).

* RandomNumberGod: Everything in the dungeon is randomly created. Surviving early on depends entirely on random luck.

* WeaponOfXSlaying: One of many properties ego and artifact weapons can have is bonus damage against particular types of enemies. This is controlled by a set of independent boolean flags, allowing (in the extreme) the artifact sword Crisdurian, which has ''all'' the Slay X flags set (and has the damage dice to make it count).
* YetAnotherStupidDeath: It's a roguelike. This is inevitable.

----

* '''non-persistent dungeon levels''' - Dungeons are randomly generated, and a new one is generated each time you visit that level. The result of this is that you ''cannot'' revisit a level once you leave it; anything left on the level is GoneForever. In game, this is explained as there being a 'maze of staircases' between each level, in which you always get lost.

* '''emphasis on character advancement''' - *bands are ultimately about gaining experience and improving the character's survivability. {{Grinding}} and {{Scumming}} are perfectly acceptable way of achieving this, and the design of *bands often makes this easy to do (for example, exploiting a self-replicating enemy for experience, or going up and down stairs repeatedly to generate new levels until you find one with some useful or sellable items.

* '''DungeonsAndDragons mechanics''' - although all roguelikes borrow from D&D to some extent, ''Angband'' is the most overt about it - it uses the six D&D stats (Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom, Constitution, Charisma) and even has you generate your character by rolling virtual dice. Weapons also use dice notation (eg. 2d6) to determine the amount of damage they do.