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linley henzell's dungeon crawl is a harsh game - but a fair game! it was inspired by nethack, whose ever-expanding list of features means players need to balance stacks of data on the game and its developers' in-jokes in order to play well. linley henzell wanted to create something leaner and more balanced, something that wouldn't sag under its own weight. and crawl is that game. it's logical, consistent, and straightforward - but the game is so tight that there's little room for error. subsequently the game can be daunting to new players - it can be hard to find a foothold. once one's got a basic handle on how to play, though, the rest is fairly straightforward. it's in this interest that i provide the following
this is a visual guide to crawl, the story of the life and death of a single adventurer in the dungeons of crawl, illustrated with screen captures. it's just a quick tour of the upper dungeon, but it should hopefully be enough to make the game more bearable for novice players. one thing this tutorial does not cover is conventional magic - players interested in playing magic-users should read this additionally. this game was played with the windows version of tile crawl, a beautiful and useful graphical reskinning of the game, which is also available for linux and - courtesy friend and comrade alice lee - for osx. keep in mind that the following is written with players of the graphical tile version in mind, but most of the strategy should be applicable to any version of the game. click here to start reading, or choose a page from the index below. |
| page 1 | fable the centaur hunter |
| page 2 | a hobgoblin gives chase |
| page 3 | more monsters do battle |
| page 4 | a giant bat is slain and butchered |
| page 5 | scrolls of magic are read |
| page 6 | an enchanted robe is donned |
| page 7 | sickness and healing |
| page 8 | a shield and a snake |
| page 9 | more scrolls are revealed |
| page 10 | appearances deceive |
| page 11 | dancing with the worm |
| page 12 | a party of gnolls intimidate |
| page 13 | a wand is fortuitously discovered |
| page 14 | curses and cures |
| page 15 | more scrolls still are read |
| page 16 | poisoned needles make light work |
| page 17 | a centaur is lured |
| page 18 | identities revealed |
| page 19 | the nature of a zombie |
| page 20 | the ecumenical temple |
| page 21 | sacrifices to okawaru |
| page 22 | a ghost town |
| page 23 | the warmaster lends strength |
| page 24 | a jelly gives pause |
| page 25 | fate at last catches up |