Welcome to yet another Indie Roleplaying.

I was waiting for the release of a particular game, but it's not out yet and there hasn't been much in the way of news, either. Thus, I'm going to take this opportunity to talk about one of my favorite games of all time - Ancient Domains Of Mystery. ADOM is a roguelike game developed by a single author, a man named Thomas Biskup. It is one of the most detailed and fun games I've ever played, and also one of the hardest.

Before I start ranting, let's take a look at the history of roguelike games. They have acquired their name from an old game called Rogue, which was a dungeon-crawling game with ASCII graphics. Most roguelikes have the same basic structure - a town where you can buy and sell equipment, and a dungeon which you have to explore in order to find the object of your quest and/or defeat the head honcho of evil. Most of these games have ASCII graphics (everything is represented by letters), but some have been graphical, such as Diablo. Thankfully, however, most of these games have way more depth than Diablo.

ADOM, like most roguelikes, has been in development for years. It's fully playable, but every once in a while, a new version with new features comes out. In other words, it keeps getting better. Please don't misunderstand me; ADOM is a complete game. The new versions improve it, but it's quite good the way it is. There are no missing features.

ADOM is possibly the most complex of all roguelikes. You start the game by creating a character. You can choose between many classic fantasy races, and an incredible number of professions (including original ones such as Farmer and Blacksmith). Unlike other games, however, where your choices have little impact on the way the game is played, your choices in ADOM will transform the entire playing experience. Not only will you have different skills and stats - you will also gain different unique abilities as your character progresses. An Elementalist, for example, will become resistant to fire, while another character might learn how to perform a special attack, or be seen as a friend by animals, or be immune to the weather, or something completely different. I think this description should give you an idea of just how deep the game is.

What differentiates ADOM from most other roguelikes is that fact that there is a world map, and several locations on it (a lot more than you'd think). The typical town-dungeon structure is somewhat missing, and it makes the game a lot more fun. Add to that a ton of unique monsters, hundreds of items and artifacts, dozens of original skills (including many non-combat skills that give incredible depth to the game), a fantasy world which does, somehow, feel unique (even though it's not greatly developed), and a level of detail that makes modern RPGs look like Pong, and you've got one hell of a great game.

Did I mention that it's free? And that it takes less space on your hard drive than other games need for a single save file?

However, there are some things that will scare off many players. First of all, permanent character death. When your character dies, he's gone. You can save and load, but when a character is gone, he's gone - no loading. You can cheat, of course, by copying your save file to another folder - but if you want to play the game the way it was meant to be played, you'll have to forget your suicidal save-load strategies, and start thinking like your character. This is, after all, what true roleplaying is about.

Then, there's the controls. It's worse than a flight simulator. Just about every key on the keyboard has several different functions, from viewing your inventory to wiping your face. Thankfully, by typing '?' you can access a most comprehensive help system. My recommendation is this: play the game until you get used to it. At first it may seem awful and impossible to remember all the different keystrokes and combinations, but once you've learned them, you'll notice that this system gives you an enormous sense of freedom, of having control over your character. Trust me, you can learn it, and it's worth it.

Another possible problem for some players is the difficulty, especially to those used to cookie-cutter modern RPGs. In ADOM, getting yourself killed is easy. You can also get yourself burned, fall into a pit, blow yourself into oblivion with your own magic, or just have a big rock fall on your head. But most of the time, you'll just starve to death. Starvation is the one problem that all new ADOM players face (other than being ripped to pieces by wolves on the world map), and all that I can say is *be careful*. Plan your journeys. Always take food with you. Learn your character's rhythms. Try learning how to cook, and possibly create a character with the food preservation skill. It can be done. When all else fails, remember that I finished the game with my human Elementalist character without once copying my save file. It can be done.

Finally, there are those who will be turned off by the lack of graphics. To those I can only say, you'll be sorry if you don't try it. After playing a game for a while, you cease to see the graphics, and only see their meaning. In the end, a tunnel in Morrowind is not much different from one in ADOM.

Give ADOM a chance. It is a game that requires patience and perseverance. It's not for people with short attention spans. It's for real hardcore roleplayers. And if you're not one of those, this is your chance to become one.

Get ADOM and ADOM-related information at http://www.adom.de and have fun playing.

That's it for now. Go download the games, and I'll see you again soon, with more indie-RPG info.

- Jonas Kyratzes
www.jonas-kyratzes.net