Dungeons of Dredmor

Dungeons of Dredmor

Systems:

• Windows PC
• Mac OSX
• GNU/Linux
• Releases:
  • Original Release: 2011
  • Realms of the Diggle Gods: 2011
  • You Have to Name the Expansion Pack: 2012
  • Conquest of the Wizardlands: 2012

Publisher:

• Gaslamp Games

Developer:

• Gaslamp Games

ESRB Rating:

• Not available

Dungeons of Dredmor is an intentionally humorous roguelike role-playing game. Players control stalwart adventurers as they descend into the depths of the Dungeons of Dredmor to destroy the titular evil lich, Lord Dredmor.

General Comments

The art style is, for the most part, cartoon-like. Enemies come in several types: Animal, Construct, Demon, Other, Undead, and Vegetable. At the start of a new game, players select seven "skill lines" to use. These skill lines are a linear series of abilities that the character can choose to obtain when they gain a level. These skill lines include weapon skills like Swords and Maces, magical skills like Viking Wizardry and Necronomeconomics, crafting skills like Smithing and Alchemy, and rogue skills like Burglary and Assassination. Enemies attempt to taunt the player, and white text will float above the enemy's head (if applicable) when they do.

Alcohol

Alcohol is exceptionally prevalent in this game, as it is the primary method of regaining mana, the resource used to cast spells. In addition to restoring mana over time, the various alcohols also gives a mix of benefits and detriments to the player character, and consuming too much alcohol in a short period of time can hinder your character’s performance.

In addition, there is a status ailment called "Alcohol Poisoning" that can be obtained in a few ways: first, by drinking "Aqua Vitae", described as simultaneously the base of all alchemy and 100% pure alcohol. Secondly, certain enemies can give it to you, most notably the undead type enemy "Samedi" and "The Baron." These enemies, and ones that look like them, can forcibly intoxicate the player character.

In the deeper floors of the dungeon, there are enemies called Thirsty Diggles that are implied to be alcoholics. They will steal and consume an alcohol item when they attack the player character.

It is also implied from the piles of empty bottles lying about in any Wizardlands the player visits that these wizards, though absent from their demesnes, are alcoholics.

One of the Djinn enemy family is the “Djinn Fizz” is meant to be a pun for gin.

Animal Abuse

While almost all of the animals in this game are hostile, there are a few (mostly summoned or mind controlled animals) that are friendly and will willingly die for you. In addition, the Veganism skill line turns all animals passive, and punishes you for attacking or killing them.

Animal Death

While almost all of the animals in this game are hostile, there are a few (mostly summoned or mind controlled animals) that are friendly and will willingly die for you. In addition, the Veganism skill line turns all animals passive, and punishes you for attacking or killing them.

Aquatic Violence

Some enemies, such as the eely, lava eely, and the fish paladin family are enemies that resemble giant eels that cannot leave the water/lava and large vaguely humanoid fish in armor, respectively.

It is possible to drown. However, it is very difficult to do unless one attempts to. Some of the few ways to cause drowning are: Use the first skill in the dagger skill line to swap places with a flying enemy over water or to use Vampirism’s last skill, Transylvation, which turns you into an enemy known as a “batty” and fly out over water when the buff wears off.

Blood

Killing or attacking animal enemies, or when the player character is attacked, results in blood spatters on the floor. Attacking other types of enemies results in spatters of other fluids. The player character’s portrait at the bottom of the screen gets increasingly bloodied the lower health the player is.

Some debuff and skill icons also feature blood. Notably, the Vampirism, Blood Magic, Assassination, Big Game Hunter, and Flesh Smithing skill lines contain a lot of blood in their icons.

Body Horror

An achievement, gained by eating the item “The Root of T’Char,” references body horror. The central concept of the Fleshsmithing skill line is to use body-horror to the player character's advantage.

Bones

Especially on the second floor of the dungeon, but infrequently throughout, the player will find the skeletal remains of previous “adventurers”. The wight family of enemy consists of floating skulls wreathed in ethereal flame. The titular character, Lord Dredmor, is a skeletal lich.

Bones adorn the architecture of several floors of the dungeon and associated spaces, such as the second and fifteenth floors as well as Diggle Hell. Note that the fifteenth floor is only available if the player has the "Realm of the Diggle Gods" expansion and has enabled said realms and that Diggle Hell is only able to be entered by having the "Conquest of the Wizardlands" expansion, finding a Wizard Key to the Pocket Dimension, and entering an invalid code into the console therein. The portal to Diggle Hell is visually distinct from portals that take you to Wizardlands, as portals to Diggle Hell are red and other ones are black with white stars.

Some weapons, armors, and wands resemble bones

In the seventh floor, there are sometimes “amateur butchery” rooms with a seemingly human skeleton with the flavor text: “Just another side of “beef,”" and a host of various meat products, mostly ground meat and offal, strewn about the room.

Brainwashing

Not explicit. Through item descriptions, one could view actions taken by the Bolt Council to be tantamount to brainwashing, and the denizens of the dungeon are unwaveringly loyal to Lord Dredmor, so it is possible he employed techniques like this.

The Veganism skill lets you temporarily turn an animal class enemy into an ally “because they love you so much.”

Cannibalism

It is possible to cause something akin to cannibalism: the item “The Little Red Cookbook” can cause any enemy to drop meat when attacked. This includes enemies that resemble humanoids, like the Zomby enemies or the Poorly Cloned Heroes and Heroines.

In the frozen floor, floor 7, there are sometimes “amateur butchery” rooms with a seemingly human skeleton with the flavor text: “Just another side of “beef,”" and a host of various meat products, mostly ground meat and offal, strewn about the room.

Darkness

How far the player character can see in the dungeon is driven by their sight radius stat. This stat can be adjusted upwards and downwards by items, skills, buffs, and debuffs. There are a number of enemies that can reduce the Player Character's vision range to only cover the tile that they are standing in for a short time.

Dead Bodies

Enemy corpses remain until they disappear or are caused to disappear through use of player skills.

Zomby enemies are described as former adventurers. Other cadaverous undead exist, including the titular Lord Dredmor.

Skeletal remains of other adventurers can be found.

Skeletal remains of former adventurers can be found throughout the dungeon.

In the frozen floor, floor 7, there are sometimes “amateur butchery” rooms with a seemingly human skeleton with the flavor text: “Just another side of “beef” and a host of various meat products, mostly ground meat and offal, strewn about the room.

Death of Family/Friends

One of the enemy taunts is “killing me won’t bring back your honey,” implying either that a character that the player character’s significant other is dead or that that enemy is making an incorrect assumption.

Disease

One damage type in the game is "putrefaction", which includes disease and rot.

There are “Sickly Diggle” enemies that can give the character the “Diggle Plague” debuff.

The "Curse of the Werediggle" skill line also gives the player to infect enemies with “Diggle Flu.”

The Fleshsmithing skill line contains the spell “Miasmatic Putrefaction" which turns an enemy corpse into a cloud of toxic gas.

Several diseases are referenced but cannot actually be contracted: The item Diggle Eggs warn the player to watch out for salmonella and several rusty items warn of tetanus, which, again, cannot actually be caught in game.

Several enemies focus around diseases, toxic damage, and the like.

An enemy taunt is “thou hast a terrible disease.”

Drowning

It is possible to drown. However, it is very difficult to do unless one attempts to. Some of the few ways to cause drowning are: Use the first skill in the dagger skill line to swap places with a flying enemy over water or to use Vampirism’s last skill, Transylvation, which turns you into an enemy known as a “batty” and fly out over water when the buff wears off.

Electrocution

Voltaic Damage is a fairly common damage type, and there are a few spells and traps that deal this type of damage.

Existential Despair

A relatively rare damage type is "Existentialism" damage; it's most common source is the magic skill line "Emomancy"

Explosions

There are multiple types of explosions, from traps, spells, and thrown explosive devices. Explosions will be most common from player characters with Promethean Magic and Tinkering.

Eye Horror/Eye Trauma

The "Footy" enemy, is a giant hopping creature with a giant eye. This eye falls out when they die. The "Carrot" enemy family also attacks with their extendable eyestalks.

The staff Griorarvolr's flavor text warns "Be careful with this staff - you could shoot your eye out."

The "Evil Magic Potato" family of enemies are described as "eye covered" and these eyes are damaged when the enemy dies.

Fire

Conflagratory damage deals fire damage and it is used in a number of spells and items create fire. Most notably, the "Promethean Magic" skill line is focused around giving fire to people (and enemies) as often as possible. The "Church of Demonology" skill line also features fire heavily.

Some enemies appear to be composed of fire, most notably the “Sparky” family.

Forced Implantation

There are spells and traps that conjure "Thaumites" which are magical insects that burrow within a target, cause damage, potentially kill, and then re-emerge to enter a new host.

The Fungal Arts tree focuses on implanting mushroom spores in targets, and some enemies cast similar effects upon the player character.

There are several bolts whose purpose is to burrow into the target to cause additional damage.

Ghosts

A number of enemies appear as ghosts.

Gore

Some food items are fairly gory, namely “Offal” and the “Cube of Flesh.” Some other item descriptions also contain elements of gore.

Guns

Guns proper do not exist, however, crossbows fill a similar role. In addition a "bullet belt" item exists.

Insects

The game contains a trap that releases Thaumites, which appear as a purplish cloud of what appear to be insects.

Jump Scares

While not intended, jump scare style events can happen if your ability to see traps is low enough and you randomly walk into several explosive traps or open a door to a monster zoo.

It’s not much of a “scare” really, but given that few items make notable sounds when you pick them up, the “Shield of Caketown” is a bit of a surprise. The game will yell “THIS… IS…CAKETOWN” when picked up.

Mind Control

You can mind control a number of enemies using a plethora of skills. Veganism allows you to control animals, Psionics allows you to command most enemies, Banksterism lets you bribe a monster to help you, and so on.

Several other skills summon monsters to help you, and they are always friendly and devoted.

Murder

It is implied that diggles are sapient and sentient, and every enemy can verbally taunt you. They are trying to kill you, and you are trying to kill them. Murder abounds.

Mutilation

Some enemy death animations seem mutilation-like in nature.

Nudity

A family of demon enemy, the “Thrusty” appears similar to a short nude human male. It is possible to see something dangling between their legs when they die.

Offensive Language

The enemy taunts can be particularly inventive, including “thou art a troll-whoring sheep-buggerer” and “you are a pus-filled abscess.” The purpose is to insult and offend the player character, though the language itself is kept fairly "clean."

Racism

While not overt, a backstory of racism between various non-human factions is implied throughout several item descriptions.

There is a demon type enemy called the “Lucky” and its variations which given its description, could be seen as a racist stereotype of the Irish.

There is a demon type enemy called the “Witchy” and its variations which is described as a “tribal shaman” and is obviously meant to resemble a witch doctor; this could be seen as an offensive caricature.

Rats/Rodents

There is a family of enemies known as “battys” which appear as cartoonish bats. The player character can become a batty with the Vampirism skill line.

Reptiles

There are a family of enemies that resemble small dragons.

Self Harm

It is possible for the player character to inflict harm upon themselves. This can happen with spell effects that linger on tiles, such as is common with Promethean Magic, and the Necronomeconomics skill line revolves around harming the player character to cause otherwise disproportionally damaging effects.

Sexual Assault

The demon type enemy family known as the “Thrusties” seem to be built around this concept. Their they attack by crossing their arms behind their head and pelvic thrusting at the player character. The achievement for “getting killed at the “hands” of a thrusty” is called “My Humps”, which could itself be problematic.

Sexual Harassment

The demon type enemy family known as the “Thrusties” seem to be built around this concept. Their they attack by crossing their arms behind their head and pelvic thrusting at the player character. The achievement for “getting killed at the “hands” of a thrusty” is called “My Humps”, which could itself be problematic.

One of the random enemy comments is “thou art a troll-whoring sheep-buggerer.”

The description of the undead class enemy “Mercredi” describes him as “the Hump Baron”, though it is possible that this is actually a reference to the fact that he represents Wednesday, the middle of the week.

Snakes

Egyptian Magic includes a buff spell that focuses around snakes, and some of its icons depict snakes.

Stalking

Some enemies that are permanently invisible can evoke a feeling of being stalked.

Substance Abuse

If the player character's build relies on magic, a truly staggering amount of alcohol will be consumed. It is also implied in any Wizardlands the player visits that these wizards (though absent from their demesne), are alcoholics from the piles of empty bottles lying about.

Suicide

It is possible for the player character to kill themselves in a number of ways. More often than not, these situations will be accidental rather than the intended result of the player, however.

Supernatural Evil

There are a number of demonic enemies, and the "Church of Demonology" skill line focuses on them as well. One of its skill icon includes a picture of a demonized player character. The skill enables the player to transform into a demon enemy, and on occasion forces this transformation upon the player.

Undead/Zombies

There are a number of undead enemies, including the titular character, Lord Dredmor. They are all, however, rendered very cartoonishly.

Verbal Abuse

Throughout the game all enemies will taunt the player and the Player Character.

Vomiting

The attack animation of the mummy enemy family can resemble vomiting.

Weapons

The game includes a plethora of weapons, and a skill line focused around using each one.

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