(short for '''Ancient Domains of Mystery''') is a
Roguelike Game in which the player's aim is to stop the forces of
Chaos which are invading the world of Ancardia. Like most
Roguelike games, ADOM uses
ASCII graphics to represent the game world.
The player can create their character as
Male or
Female , any of ten
Races and any of twenty
Character Class es, giving 200 possible combinations requiring widely varying playing styles. Races include
Human ,
Troll , high/grey/dark
Elf ,
Dwarf ,
Gnome ,
Orc , hurthling (
Hobbit ), and
Drakeling ; classes include fighter,
Paladin ,
Ranger ,
Thief , assassin, wizard, priest, bard, monk, healer, weaponsmith, archer, merchant, farmer, mindcrafter, barbarian, druid, necromancer, elementalist, and beastfighter. In addition, each race and class starts with a unique set of skills to aid gameplay. The latest update to ADOM added a system of 'Talents'- abilities gained every three levels that any type of character can pick from, for example, increased skill with certain kinds of weapons, or increased speed.
For example, a
High Elven Wizard would annihilate their enemies by slinging
Spell s at them from afar, while a
Troll ish
Barbarian would have great difficulty learning spells and would be better off smashing everything in
Mêlée Combat .
During adventures, a player is likely to explore many different
Dungeon s and complete multiple
Quest s. Which quests the player chooses will likely depend on their character and on whether they are lawful, neutral, or chaotic (ADOM only has one-dimensional
Alignment ). The alignment of a player also affects which benefits (or curses) their god may bestow upon them, and how they are treated by
NPC s. ADOM has a quest-centric, plot driven structure that owes as much to old adventure games such as
Zork (indeed, there are even
Grue references to be found) as it does to the "purer" hack-and-slash of sister games such as
Angband .
ADOM was written by Thomas Biskup, is currently at version 1.1.1 and can be downloaded from the official site. Although ADOM is
Freeware (technically
Postcardware ), unlike most roguelikes, its
Source Code is not available. However, some of the game's underlying equations and mechanics have been deduced via careful experimentation by players.
Biskup did not release the source because:
# He wants to keep a level of mystery regarding exactly what the game does.
# He does not want lots of unsanctioned variants spread around, like with
Angband .
# He plans to someday release a commercial version of ADOM.
is
Thomas Biskup's new
Roguelike Game project. According to present knowledge, it is being developed with the
Java Programming Language , will be
Open Source , and will feature a larger and richer game world than its indirect predecessor, ADOM. More information is available on the official ADOM
Website .
