Forays into Norrendrin

A streamlined roguelike with deeply tactical combat · no classes, no experience points, only shrines

Date of birth2012 0.5.0 on 28 January 2012 (work began October 2011); this build 0.8.4, 6 November 2015

CreatorDerrick Creamer with Tommy Ettinger

LanguageC# ~49,000 lines

PlatformWindows, Linux, Mac .NET/Mono, console or OpenTK window

Lineage

No parent: Forays into Norrendrin is an original game in its own C# code, not a variant of any other roguelike. RogueBasin names ADOM, DoomRL, Angband and Brogue as influences. Development began in October 2011; 0.5.0 came out on 28 January 2012 and 0.8.4, the last release, on 6 November 2015. Work stopped in 2016. It has no known descendants.

Credits

Derrick Creamer	Design and code, 2011–2016
Tommy Ettinger	(notostraca) the GitHub repo, the website, the console build fixes
L.C. Smith	(Soundlust) the logo
Community	Testers on IRC: “the people of #forays, #rgrd and -ot”, thanked in the help

From the game’s site, advanced_help.txt and the commit log.

Trivia

You go down “for reasons unknown”; the site’s tagline: a stone staircase in the mountain pass “where travelers vanish”. (forays.github.io)
The author paused the game now and then for the annual 7-Day Roguelike Challenge. (forays.github.io)
0.8.3 was the first release with both a real console build and a resizable fake-console window; its balance was “tweaked relentlessly”. (release notes)
0.8.4 added health and status bars for you and your enemies, and flavour text describing your surroundings. (changelog)
Plans for 0.9 (minibosses, leader monsters, more activated abilities) never shipped. (RogueBasin)
The help prints the stealth formula outright: skill × distance × 10 − turns seen × 5. (advanced_help.txt)

What's unique

No classes, no XP: you grow only at shrines (Combat, Defense, Magic, Spirit, Stealth); a full set on a floor pair gives a feat.
Fixed kit: everyone carries the same five weapons and three armors and swaps them with 1–5 and 8–0; each weapon has its own trick (the mace knocks back, the dagger always hits in darkness).
Light and noise: your torch shows traps but gives you away; plate armour clanks; every noise has a published range.
One rest per level and one-way stairs: no grinding, no going back.
Terrain that reacts: oil burns, water freezes, brush catches fire, fungus explodes.

Code dive

Language: C#, about 49,000 lines in 24 files under Forays/ at upstream 3ed1559. Actor.cs alone is 16,000 lines: the player, every monster’s AI and all feats and spells.
Data in code: monsters, items and tiles are C# enums and Define(…) calls, not data files; the help text is five plain .txt files.
Two frontends: System.Console (ConsoleForays) or an OpenTK/OpenGL window drawing font sheets, 88×28 cells since 2015.
This port: the console build on .NET WebAssembly in a Web Worker; keys arrive through a SharedArrayBuffer so the game loop stays unchanged. Saves in IndexedDB, extra windows, an Enter command menu, an item cursor, > walks to the stairs. Upstream save/load was broken and is fixed here. Source: memmaker/forays, upstream Forays/ForaysIntoNorrendrin.

Stats

Thing	Count	Notable ones
Levels	20 + 1	then the final level, where cultists try to summon the demon king Kersai; 9 level types (cave, hive, mine, fortress, sewer, garden, crypt, hellish …)
Monsters	71	plus summons, phantoms and demons: Impossible Nightmare, Corpsetower Behemoth, Machine of War, Spellmuddle Pixie, Marble Horror, Forasect
Skills	5	Combat, Defense, Magic, Spirit, Stealth
Feats	20	Neck Snap, Whirlwind Style, Boiling Blood, Corner Climb, Danger Sense
Spells	20	Mercurial Sphere, Flying Leap, Grease, Amnesia, Collapse, Doom
Consumables	40	10 potions, 13 scrolls, 10 orbs, 7 wands, plus bandages, flint and steel, blast fungus
Gear	5 + 3	weapons and armors, 5 enchantments, 9 magic trinkets (Pendant of Life, Lens of Scrying)
Traps	15	scalding oil, fling, stone rain, phantom, sliding wall

Manual

The game’s own help (the five ForaysHelp/*.txt files, also under ?) and the upstream README: manual. Also the version history (no changelog ships with the game: RogueBasin dates, the GitHub release notes and the commit log) and the licence (MIT, plus OpenTK’s licences).

Getting started

Open the game, name your hero and go: there is no class to pick. Tutorial tips pop up the first time you meet each thing.
Look with Tab, explore with x; > walks to the stairs you have seen (a one-way trip).
Switch weapons with 1–5 (the bow for range, s shoots) and armor with 8–0; t hides your torch to sneak.
Use shrines when you find them; feats are on the character screen c. r rests, once per level.
The Enter key lists every command; read the game’s help page for keys and saving.

Help

We found no walkthrough or strategy guide: the dungeon is random, and players talked on IRC (#forays on QuakeNet). Rules of thumb from the game’s own help:

You need not kill everything; sneaking past (torch off, leather armour, two or more squares away) is often better.
Save your one rest per level for when you need it; rest also repairs equipment.
Find every shrine: a full set on each pair of depths guarantees a feat.
Read the advanced help (stealth formula, noise ranges) and the feat, spell and item lists.
More: RogueBasin and the game’s site.

Cheats

The source has a debug menu on ~ (“Activate which cheat?”: spawn monster, heal to full, become invulnerable, see the entire level, generate new level …), but it sits behind if(false) in Actor.cs, so no build, including this one, can reach it. No wizard mode, no cheat options.

Save scumming: Export save / Import save on the game page.