Has there ever been a dungeon crawler that doesn't rely on potions to keep your health up?
- Thread starter Eric the Orange
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I can't believe this hasn't been mentioned yet, but Desktop Dungeons [http://www.desktopdungeons.net/] uses the mechanic that, for each square of the dungeon you explore, you regain an amount of life equal to your current level. (as do all the other monsters in the dungeon, except based on that monster's level!) There are potions, but they are to be used as sparingly as possible, as you can't save them up between dungeons, and you can't guarantee you'll end up with all that many of them (even if you pick a race that can create them). If you like dungeon crawlers and you haven't played this yet, you really have to, it's one of my favorites, and addicting though it may be, if you can restrict yourself you can get a rewarding game session from only about 10 minutes, as that's the amount of time you'll generally spend on each dungeon.
Well, one of the first dungeon crawlers (Stonekeep, by name) didn't rely ENTIRELY on potions...
Sure, they existed, but there were other methods...
Magick (as spelt in the game) could heal you...
Also, in the earlier levels, you had to eat healing "Roots"
Although potions were introduced in later levels, I like to think that there were alternatives...
Sure, they existed, but there were other methods...
Magick (as spelt in the game) could heal you...
Also, in the earlier levels, you had to eat healing "Roots"
Although potions were introduced in later levels, I like to think that there were alternatives...
OMG that's brilliant. One of my complaints with crawlers has always been the ability -- and often the need -- to drip-feed yourself potions all day. Healing is powerful magic. When powerful magic goes wrong you get things like minotaurs, water flowing uphill, and plagues of undead.GothmogII said:
Geeks will remember the D&D spell Contact Other Plane. On a good roll a deity would answer a question for you. On a bad roll your mind would be ripped from your skull and sodomized by some unnameable malevolent cosmic horror. And that's not an overdose, that's just casting the spell once. Surely even benign healing magic comes with *some* sort of risk??
But no, it doesn't. I thought I was the only one who had ever thought of this.
Ooh, it seems I *do* own The Witcher. Something to look forward to, then.
I think it's a bit unfair to call all dungeon crawlers Diablo clones. We can't honestly expect people to invent a complete set of completely original mechanics with every game. That's like expecting every musician to invent a new genera with each song. So i guess the question is, do they understand the genera well enough to add something meaningful to it, or are they blindly copying to try to ride the success of good games?
In any case, you got me. I can't think of any dungeon crawlers that don't take place in a magical, medieval-themed universe. And of all thous I don't know one that doesn't use potions, but then I don't know many. They could use other mechanics though. If they wanted a more suspenseful and intense game they could make the only method of health recovery make you very vulnerable for a long period of time. But then you'd have to make the game comprised of a few large encounters rather than constantly throwing trash at the player. Death would then have to be relatively sever to avoid the player from wanting to die to regain health on the re-spawn. Like it would have to completely reset the encounter, maybe force the player to track through a length of bobby-trapped dungeon to get back to where they were. In-fact, why not limit a players ability to self medicate any more by only allowing a complete heal after completing an encounter. Then traps are truly dangerous instead of annoying.
I wouldn't mind playing a game like this.
In any case, you got me. I can't think of any dungeon crawlers that don't take place in a magical, medieval-themed universe. And of all thous I don't know one that doesn't use potions, but then I don't know many. They could use other mechanics though. If they wanted a more suspenseful and intense game they could make the only method of health recovery make you very vulnerable for a long period of time. But then you'd have to make the game comprised of a few large encounters rather than constantly throwing trash at the player. Death would then have to be relatively sever to avoid the player from wanting to die to regain health on the re-spawn. Like it would have to completely reset the encounter, maybe force the player to track through a length of bobby-trapped dungeon to get back to where they were. In-fact, why not limit a players ability to self medicate any more by only allowing a complete heal after completing an encounter. Then traps are truly dangerous instead of annoying.
I wouldn't mind playing a game like this.
It's an antiquated term, much like how all FPSs were called "doom clones" or sandbox games "GTA clones". I only put it there so people understood what style of dungeon crawler I was talking about (apparently it didn't worktimeadept said:
).