With the exception of its scrolls of enchantment - which allowed players to customize their characters not by some up-front character generation choices but by which pieces of equipment they chose to enchant - Brogue was quite similar to the original Rogue on first release. The big news is that Brogue has reached v1.7, with some major changes. It’s time for another roundup of updates to the various roguelikes I’ve covered on this blog. This post will have spoilers (although not as many as Urist Redbeard’s epic saga), so players who are new to the game and wish to learn about magic themselves should probably skip this one. So I decided to write about the things I’ve learned about magic in Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup, and the story of my latest Conjurer, who came painfully close to winning the game.

I kept playing new Conjurers instead of finishing the other games I’ve been meaning to write about. And once I finally started to learn it, I was drawn into the game more strongly than I’ve been for a long time. To be fair, however, there is a lot to learn. I don’t blame them it’s kind of ridiculous that I’ve played the game for so long without ever learning the art of spellcasting.

I was even gently mocked for my ignorance over at the official forums. In my last real post (no, I’m not counting the obvious filler) I wrote about my first, clumsy attempts to seriously play a magic caster in Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup. Lastly, as always, you may click on images to view larger versions. I’ve also posted about Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup a lot, so you might want to read those posts too, but keep in mind that the game is continually updating so the older posts may not reflect the current state of the game. Readers unfamiliar with roguelikes (or should I say deathcrawls?) may wish to read my introduction to the genre first. And you’ll want to read that post too, if this post is to make much sense. There will be spoilers in this post, like last time. But I will remember v0.18.1 for another reason: it was the version in which I had my first successful foray into the “extended game”, going beyond simply winning in favor of tackling the toughest challenges the game has to offer. It might even be the improved interface graphics and tiles. Or it might be the new monsters and items, or the revamped Charms spell school, or the changes to the Orcish Mines, Elven Halls and Abyss branches. For many players, the most exciting part of this update may be the new god, Pakellas, who specializes in evokable devices like wands (and the associated changes to wands in the game). My favorite roguelike, Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup, has updated to v0.18.1. Also, as always, you can click on images to view larger versions. And maybe read about why we might want to start calling them deathcrawls instead.

Readers unfamiliar with roguelikes may wish to read my introduction to the genre, and possibly peruse some of my Roguelike Highlights posts.

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