Roguelike Corebook.pdf

ROGUELIKE

A RPG of Commercial At Heroes

Writing and Design

James D. Hargrove

Artwork and Fonts

http://www.lordkyl.net

Additional Credit

This work was inspired by many a roguelike

PC game and by John Garwood’s paper and

pencil RPG entitled “Monsters & Mazes”.

Introduction

Roguelike is a tabletop role-playing game designed to emulate a specific type of computer game commonly

referred to as being “roguelike” - that is, similar to a game called “Rogue” that was unleashed upon the world in 1980.

Traditionally, roguelike games are single-player computer role-playing games, comprised entirely of randomly generated

dungeons that are represented by ASCII characters on the computer screen - the hero (the character being controlled by

the player) is, as you might have already guessed, represented by an Comm ercial At symbol. Despite the extremely

simple nature of roguelike games, they continue to enjoy a large amount of popularity even today.

Despite its stated design goal of recreating the experience of very simple PC games on the table-top, Roguelike

isn’t a beginner’s RPG - it assumes that the reader has at least some basic familiarity with the tenets and terms associated

with table-top role-playing games. That said, if you read Roguelike and feel that you understand it, then run with it (after

all, being adventurous is what the game is about).

Preparation

Roguelike can be played either solo (by yourself) or with other friends, but either way you’re going to need a

few things handy. First, each player is going to need a few six-sided dice (technically, each player can get by with a single

six-sided dice, but ideally they’ll have access to at least three) a piece of paper (or a copy of the character sheet included

at the end of this document), a few sheets of ¼” graphing paper, and a pencil. And it probably goes without saying that

you’ll need a copy of this document.

If you’re playing Roguelike solo, you can go ahead ans skip ahead to the section of this document entitled

“Creating a Character”. If you’re playing Roguelike with friends, you’ll need to appoint one of these friends as the

Referee (the person responsible for telling you how things go down when you roll the dice). Ideally, the Referee should

be the player with the best understanding of the rules.

Now, if you’re playing Roguelike with friends, you may be tempted to work together in an effort to tell a story -

don’t be. Roguelike isn’t about telling stories or working together - like the games that it seeks to emulate, Roguelike

is all about beating the crap out of anything and everything that moves (including those pesky rival Commercial At

symbols), looting bodies, amassing a hoard of wealth, and eventually dying in battle while attempting to smite a ferocious

domesticated house cat.

Creating a Character

Characters in a game of Roguelike are generated

in a random fashion, period. The very idea of a player having

some say as to what kind of character they play is largely

unheard of in most roguelike games - as a result, it’s simply

not an option in this game, either (but a chance can be fun,

anyhow).

First off, you need to determine your character’s

occupation. To do this, pick up a single six-sided die and roll

it. Once you have generated a die result in this manner,

consult the following list to determine what your character’s

occupation will be.

# Character Occupation

1 Priest

2 Thief

3 Warrior

4 Wizard

5 Barbarian

6 Tourist

While it’s not in the spirit of roguelike games to inform the player as to what a given character occupation

actually is or does, this is a pretty standard feature of table-top role-playing games. I thought about this long and hard,

and decided to stay true to my initial design goal of emulating roguelike PC games - if you want to know what a Priest

is or where a Wizard’s magic comes from, use your imagination.

Once you have determined what your character’s occupation will be, you need to determine their race. Again,

you’ll turn to a single six-sided die to make this determination (random all of the way, remember?). Roll it as you did

to determine your character’s occupation and then consult the following list to determine your character’s race.

# Character Race

1 Elf

2 Dwarf

3 Hairfoot

4-6 Human

Much as was the case with character occupations, for a roguelike game to actually describe character races is

extremely rare. Here I’ll leave such description to your imagination again (if you can’t imagine what a Human is, then

you need to put this game down and go find another hobby). Now, once you’ve determined your character’s occupation

and race, you’ll need to record their derived attributes.

Any given character’s derived attributes are governed specifically by their occupation and race - that is, a

character’s occupation and race determine all other aspects of a character. All you need to do is consult the following

charts and record the information that pertains to your character’s occupation and race.

Character Occupation Health Attack Defense Special Abilities

Priest 9 9 5 5 Miracles

Thief 15 6 7 2 Picks, 1 Sneak

Warrior 18 4 9 2 Dodges

Wizard 6 9 4 3 Spells

Barbarian 20 5 5 1 Berserk

Tourist 8 10 4 None

Character Race Speed Power Intellect Special Abilities

Elf 8 6 7 1 Spell

Dwarf 6 9 7 1 Smithing

Hairfoot 4 5 7 1 Heal

Human 7 8 8 None

[Note: These lists denote attributes and abilities for characters of the

first level only . See the section of this document entitled “Leveling

Up” for information on raising a character’s attributes and abilities

above these base values.]

Once you’ve recorded your character’s derived attributes on the character sheet, you need to choose their

starting Spells and/or Miracles as indicated on the lists above. For instance, if your character is an Elven Priest, they will

begin play with one spell and five miracles of your choice (see the section of these rules entitled “Spells and

Miracles”).To cast a spell or enact a miracle, a player only need state that they are doing so and then mark the said spell

or miracle off the list of abilities available to their character (once it’s used, it’s gone). Picks, Heals, Sneaks, Berserks,

Dodges, and R epair require a bit more explanation.

Picks are merely representative of lock picks. If a Thief character comes across a locked chest or door, their

player may expend a Pick ability to unlock it. Sneaks are representative of a Thief character’s well-known ability to move

undetected through shadows and past adversaries. A Thief character may automatically bypass one obstacle that requires

them to move stealthily if their player expends a Sneak ability.

Berserks represent fits of insane bloodlust, during which a Barbarian character doubles the amount of damage

that they deal for three combat rounds. In order for a Barbarian character to enter a berserker rage, their player need only

expend on Berserk ability.

Dodges represent the ability of a W arrior character to maneuver expertly in combat situations and reduce the

amount of damage dealt to such a character in a given combat round by half when they are expended by a player.

Repairs represent a Dwarven character’s ability to repair destroyed or damaged items. Should a Dwarven

character stumble across a broken or damaged item, they may repair it if their player expends a Repair ability.

Finally, Heals represent a Hairfoot character’s knowledge of medicine. A Hairfoot character may heal 4d6

points of damage to any character (including themself - and maybe especially themself) if their player expends a Heal

ability.

[Note: Once a special ability has been expended by a player (to whatever end), it is gone forever . The only way to

replenish a character’s special abilities is to raise their level or discover items that duplicate their effects (Heal Potions,

Lock Picks, Repair K its, Magic Scrolls, etc).]

Finally, every character starts play with the same equipment (hey, the game is called Roguelike )- a rusty dagger,

a burlap sack, and three rations.

[Note: You may say, “Hey! My character would never leave the house equipped like that!” - but then you’d be forgetting

that this is a roguelike game and that your character is also wandering into a bottomless dungeon, risking certain death

or worse just for the hell of it . So, yeah, not only would your character leave the house equipped like that, but they’d also

wander into a deep pit of hell equipped like that. For no good reason. Obviously those Intellect scores briefly mentioned

earlier don’t count for much (oh, and in case you’re wondering, a rusty dagger does one whole point of damage when

wielded against an opponent in combat).]

Killing Stuff

When characters engage in killing stuff (sometimes referred to as “combat” in games with more class than

Roguelike). Action is broken up into sections of time called turns, with each turn representing a space of ten seconds

passing in the dungeon during which a single character or creature takes an action (for example: the Referee will use his

turn to attack your character with the Big Ugly Dragon and you will then use your character’s turn to act out their death).

To determine the order in which players take their turns, each player participating in killing stuff rolls one six-

sided dice and adds their character’s Speed score to the result. Players then take their turn in descending order with the

player who scored the highest result having their character act first, the player who scored the second highest result

having their character act second, and so on. Should two players score the same result, the computer will lock up and

you will need to reinstall your operating system (or alternately, I guess that you could just roll the dice again).

On their turn, a player’s character must perform one of the following actions - Attack, Defend, Cast Spell, Pray,

Use Other Ability, Run Away or Comm it Suicide (they may also die from wounds sustained in the course of killing stuff,

but this isn’t considered an action).

[Note: There is no movement (other than running away) available to a character engaged in killing stuff. Remember that

in roguelike games, killing stuff isn’t a cinematic endeavor - there is no swinging from chandeliers, there are no flying

fists of fury, and there most certainly aren’t wicked cool spell effects. Actions and descriptions thereof should be kept

as dry and simple as possible in a gam e of Roguelike.]

Attack - Players who decide to have their character Attack need to roll two six-sided dice. If the combined result of both

dice equals or exceeds the character’s Attack score, then the attack has successfully hit its intended target unless, perhaps,

if the intended target is defending (see below).

Defend - A character for whom the Defend action was chosen on their turn is assumed to be defending. In this instance,

the player of the defending character rolls two six-sided dice and totals the results whenever a potentially successful

Attack has been scored against them. If the combined result of both dice is equal to or lesser than the character’s Defense

score, the attack has been averted.

Cast Spell - Players who choose to have their character cast a spell merely declare what spell their character will be

casting (remembering to mark it off their character’s list of available spells), specify a target and then announce the effect

of the spell in the plainest terms possible .

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