Ancient Domains Of Mystery

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Ancient Domains of Mystery
ADOM Title Screen
Developed by	Thomas Biskup
Latest release	1.1.1 / 2002
OS	AmigaOS, BeOS, DOS, Linux, Mac OS X, OS/2, Windows
Genre	Roguelike
License	Postcardware
Website	www.adom.de

Ancient Domains of Mystery, or ADOM, is a roguelike game by Thomas Biskup first released in 1994. The player's aim is to stop the forces of Chaos that invade the world of Ancardia.

Like most roguelikes, ADOM uses ASCII graphics to represent the game world. It features a wilderness map that connects different types of dungeons. The dungeons are randomly generated on first entering and — with the exception of the Infinite Dungeon — do not change when re-entered during play.

Story

ADOM takes place in the fictional world of Ancardia, in the mountainous Drakalor Chain. For 6,000 years, it has known relative peace, but recently reports have spread of the appearance of dangerous dungeons and frightening monsters. Khelavaster, a wise sage, discovers an ancient prophecy regarding the Coming of Chaos and propagates it to the peoples of the world. It speaks of a champion who will defend the world from the forces of Chaos in the Drakalor Chain. Hearing of this prophecy, many would-be heroes set out. The player assumes control of one such adventurer.

Gameplay

ADOM presents an initial choice of one (male or female) player character from ten races and twenty character classes, the combination of which strongly affects gameplay. Among other traits, character development includes experience levels, statistics, and skills. Version 1.1.0 introduced a talent system.

During adventures, a player is likely to explore many areas and complete multiple quests. Which quests are available may depend on character experience level or alignment (lawful, neutral, or chaotic). Alignment also affects NPC and deity interaction with the character.

ADOM offers multiple ways of winning, which vary in difficulty. Its quest-centric, plot-driven structure owes as much to adventure games like Zork as to the hack-and-slash of sibling games like Angband.

Death of player characters is meant to be permanent. The game exits after saving, effectively limiting savefiles to one per character, and the savefile is erased when a character dies.

Significant features

• Vulnerability of high-level characters to specific monsters
• Deity relation system with religious championship
• Character improvement of items
• 'Monster Memory' that records the player's knowledge about creatures in the game

Development

Core development on the game has slowed since the release of version 1.1.1 in 2002. Beta-quality ports to Mac OS X of this version appeared in 2006. Plans for future versions have not been announced, yet a next-generation successor to ADOM, called JADE, is in development.

Although ADOM is available free of charge, unlike most roguelikes its source code is unavailable. Biskup chose to reserve it for himself in order to retain some mystery about game operation and to curtail the spread of unsanctioned variants. Despite this stance, he is open to licensing the source to capable developers to form a commercial venture. Players meanwhile have deduced underlying mechanics through careful experimentation.

References

External links

• Official Site
• The ADOM Guidebook, with detailed plot
• rec.games.roguelike.adom at Google Groups
• Ancient Domains of Mystery guide at StrategyWiki
• Interview with Thomas Biskup at RPG Vault