Roguelikes

[Nori]

Hmm, no one ever seems to mention ToME te4.org in these posts. It is a very fun roguelike game that has a cool skill system, a lot of classes and is in general a very polished content rich game. Love it and spend most of my roguelike time with it. Though I really love DoomRL and would like to try DF again (it is so dang complex).

[CaptainQuirk]

Can totally vouch for ADOM. I have been playing that game for many, many years and still never managed to beat it, lol.

Also DoomRL is fantastic and there's a graphical version of it now which I think is pretty classy and well done. The only thing I wish they would do is give you more random levels in between the Red Stairs so that it's possible to get a bit better gear before facing the harder levels like The Wall.

[zabbo2]

Slash'EM. It's an expanded, more difficult version of Nethack.

I've put an incredible amount of time into and have not yet won it. But have had tons of fun with it. I think any new player would be turned off by the tile graphics, but if you can stick it out and learn all the arcane commands it has, you'll find one of the most complex, challenging (but fairly so) unique games ever made.

I enjoy the game because it is so difficult. I've always found most strategy games to be too easy...the harder a game the better IMHO, just as long the difficulty is fair or random, as opposed to arbitrary or uninteresting (such as for instance Mass Effect, where the highest difficulty only just adds a multiplier to hit points of enemies so they take longer to kill). Randomness is really rare in video games, and I don't think I've ever seen a game more random than a roguelike, with the exception of Dwarf Fortress (which I don't really consider a roguelike though I can see how you could argue that).

Oh also note that Nethack and Slash'EM both have graphical user interface mods available, called Vulture's Claw and Vulture's Eye respectively, that are pretty good. I prefer the tileset default in the original games, but for a new player, I could see someone liking these improved interfaces more: http://nethack.wikia.com/wiki/Vulture%27s

[Createx]

I'm a longtime player of Dungeons of Dredmor, and I love it.
The skill system is very complex and allows for lots of cool combinations as well as silly builds and themed runs. You have a selection of about 30 skills and have to choose 7, which you can then level up any way you want.
It has secret rooms, lots of weird potions, diggles, evil carrots, and and and...
It's a bit on the silly side, with tons of references, especially to Dwarf Fortress and other roguelikes.
The devs are also awesome, and working on Dwarf Fortress with an usable UI right now
The game also has tons of great free mods with Steam Workshop integration, and a very active and super friendly userbase.
The devs also like FTL a lot and I've seen some users from the forums over here as well.

[Kaerius]

I'll vouch for Dungeons of Dredmor as well, and also note that it has a very vibrant mod scene. You can easily double or triple your skill choices by modding, as well as adding lots of new equipment, rooms, monsters, etc.

Bias declaration: I have myself posted 4 mods for it on steam workshop, and a couple of additional ones that are forum posted only.

[Real]

Guys, I have a problem.

I have no numpad. DF Adventure Mode and Dungeon Crawl are sending out the call once again, but...Well, you understand my hesitance. These games are punishing enough.
Is there any way I can remedy this issue so that I won't be at a severe handicap?

Besides buying a numpad, obviously.

[boa13]

Don't these games allow you to play with th hjkl keys? I don't have a numpad, and I have managed to play correctly in Brogue (though I still make a few keystroke mistakes once in a while). It takes a bit of getting used to, but is quite playable once this is done.

[Drasha]

I played nethack with hjkl not sure about the other ones.

[kawatan]

Both Nethack and Crawl allow for vi keys (hjkl), but there's also the option I used to use, which is the arrow keys plus 1379. Not the most intuitive, but I could never be bothered to learn vi, so...

[Real]

For shame, I just now realized that there's a tileset version for DC that allows use of the mouse.
It's been a while.