Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup
Community-developed roguelike successor to Linley's Dungeon Crawl.
Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup (DCSS) is a free, open-source roguelike video game. It is the community-made follow-up to Linley's Dungeon Crawl, a roguelike from 1997 originally coded by Linley Henzell. John Harris has named it one of the "major roguelikes." The game is distributed under the GNU GPL-2.0-or-later license. Its name comes from the European folk tale "Stone Soup," where travelers convince townspeople to each contribute a little food to create a shared meal.
In DCSS, players create a character and lead it through a dungeon of persistent levels filled with monsters and items. The main goal is to retrieve the "Orb of Zot" from the Realm of Zot and escape alive. To enter that realm, the player must first collect at least three of the fifteen available "runes of Zot," which are found in diverse dungeon branches like the Spider Nest, Tomb, and Slime Pits. The game also offers shorter, "coffee-break" modes called sprints, available on online servers. These sprints introduce new play styles that don't fit the main game, such as starting with a specific set of equipment and facing a unique challenge within a limited area.
The game's design philosophy focuses on offering interesting strategic and tactical choices within a balanced system. It relies on random dungeon generation for replayability, aims to be accessible without deep mechanical knowledge, and provides a friendly interface that can automate tasks like exploration and item searching. The developers avoid encouraging repetitive, thoughtless actions or presenting choices where one option is always better. Most levels are randomly generated, while levels containing objective items are chosen from several manually designed layouts that include random elements, authored in a Crawl-specific language using Lua scripting. Randomly generated levels can also include manually designed fragments called "vaults" and portals to special mini-levels like volcanoes or wizards' laboratories.
Characters start with a species and a background. Advancement comes from experience points earned by defeating monsters, which increase both an experience level and a set of skills (melee, ranged, magic). The player decides which skills to improve. Species choice affects skill aptitudes—how much experience is needed to raise a skill—and adds unique abilities.
Quick Facts
- Title
- Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup
- Developer
- DCSS Devteam
- Platform
- Web browser, Cross-platform
- Released
- September 19, 2006
- Latest Release Version
- property · preferred · reference · edit · P348
- Genre
- Roguelike
Facts from the source article.
Lore & Background
Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup is a roguelike game where the player creates a character and guides it through a dungeon, mostly consisting of persistent levels, full of monsters and items, with the goal of retrieving the 'Orb of Zot' and escaping alive. To enter the Realm of Zot, the player must first obtain at least three 'runes of Zot' of the 15 available, located at the ends of diverse dungeon branches such as the Spider Nest, Tomb, and Slime Pits. There are also shorter, coffee-break-style modes called 'sprints', accessible through online servers.
The game has an explicit design philosophy intended to provide interesting strategic and tactical choices within a balanced game; to offer replayability based on random dungeon generation; to make the game accessible and enjoyable without deep knowledge of its internal mechanics; and to present a friendly user interface that can optionally automate several tasks. Most levels are randomly generated, while levels containing objective items are randomly chosen between several manually-designed layouts, which usually contain random elements authored in a Crawl-specific language incorporating Lua scripting. Characters are initially defined by their species and background, with 27 species and 26 backgrounds available as of version 0.33. The game also offers a pantheon of 26 gods as of 0.33, whose favor is earned in different ways and rewarded with widely different benefits.
Reader's Guide
Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup holds significance as a major roguelike that evolved from Linley's Dungeon Crawl, a game originally programmed by Linley Henzell in 1995 and first released to the public in 1997. Stone Soup was first among roguelikes in ASCII Dreams' Roguelike of the Year in 2008, in a poll of 371 roguelike players, and later polled second in 2009 and 2010, and third in 2011. Its development involved contacting every past contributor to relicense the code under the GNU GPL-2.0-or-later. The game's design philosophy emphasizes balanced strategic choices, random dungeon generation for replayability, and a user-friendly interface that can automate tasks. The skill system, inherited from Linley's Dungeon Crawl, uses an experience pool system that John Harris called 'probably the best skill system yet seen in any roguelike.' The game's legacy includes its influence on roguelike design, particularly in its approach to deity mechanics, skill advancement, and dungeon generation. The name 'Stone Soup' refers to the European folk story in which hungry strangers convince townspeople to share food to make a meal everyone enjoys.
Did You Know?
- The game is released under the GNU GPL-2.0-or-later, after contacting every past contributor to relicense.
- As of version 0.33, the game offers 27 species and 26 backgrounds.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup?
DCSS is a free, open-source roguelike in which you guide a character through a multi-level dungeon teeming with monsters and loot. It grew out of the community's efforts to continue Linley's Dungeon Crawl, a 1997 roguelike originally written by Linley Henzell.
Where does the name 'Stone Soup' come from?
The title references the European folk tale in which travelers get townsfolk to each add a small ingredient to a pot, together creating a full meal. The game's name mirrors that spirit of many contributors pooling their work into one shared project.
Is Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup free, and under what license?
Yes, the game is distributed under the GNU GPL-2.0-or-later license, meaning anyone can download, play, modify, and redistribute it at no cost.
What do you actually do in Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup?
You create a character, then descend through a series of persistent dungeon levels, fighting monsters, collecting items, and trying to survive as deep as you can. Each run is unique because the dungeon layout, monsters, and items are procedurally generated.
Why is Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup considered significant in the roguelike scene?
John Harris has classified it among the 'major roguelikes,' placing it alongside the genre's most influential titles. Its long-running community development model also made it a landmark example of open-source game collaboration.
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