Roguelike with a "world"?

[Zambaku]

I've spent many weeks playing Dwarf Fortress and I've begun to develop a taste for world exploration, so now I was hoping for some tips on roguelikes with not just dungeons to explore, but also a world with cities, dungeons and things like that, preferably with sidequests available from npc's. =)

[Rabiat]

You've tried ADOM, right? It has a world map with cities, dungeons, NPCs and side quests. The map is static, but it should keep you busy for a while.

[getter77]

On a similar/greater scale, I'd recommend Elona.  Perhaps S.C.O.U.R.G.E as well as they continue to get things rolling...

[jim]

The most world-having roguelike I've played so far is Legerdemain. It's entirely about storytelling and world-development. One of the cool aspects of this game is that the world is revealed by bite-sized degrees, through the perceptions of a (half-mad? hallucinating?) amnesiac as he climbs out from a labyrinthine prison and into the sickened world above. Legerdemain has its problems (I kinda got stuck mid-game and gave up on it), but as far as immersion into an actual world goes, it can't be beaten. I should also add that the storytelling aspect is fricken top-notch for a video game.

[getter77]

There's also the older ones Ragnarok/Valhalla..and off the beaten path in modern times there is Transcendence.

[jim]

Yes! Transcendence. I forgot that totally. Definitely worth a look. Transc is one of those loveit-hateit experiences for me. I love the style of the game a great deal. It's like a hybrid between roguelikes and Star Control, which alone ought to be cause for everyone dropping their loved ones mid-embrace and downloading it immediately. Then there's the mods, the customization of ships, the magic powers... there are many reasons to love this game. But am I the only one who finds that 90% of the experience turns into squinting at the radar while I fire long-range guns at enemy bases, then plinking away at the goons they send after me, then waiting for the goons to return to their base after ten seconds, then resuming long-range kabooming again and again and again?

[Vanguard]

Jim's experiences with Legerdemain and Transcendence match mine almost exactly.

Ragnarok is an old favorite of mine.  It's good if you want to explore a world with a lot of variety, but it doesn't have any real npc interaction outside of shops.  The main quest is basically a series of side quests that can be done in any order before moving on to the final area.

[dopefish7590]

Another roguelike with a world is TOME... It's kindof a blend of ADOM and Angband... I really had fun with it, and it's defiantly worth checking out.

http://www.t-o-m-e.net/main.php

[Vanguard]

Tome is my favorite *band, but it's still a *band, so I don't know if it's the best fit for this thread.

Like, it does have a world to explore, but npc interactions are pretty meaningless, and more often than not your great "hero" will be slaughtering townspeople because they were in his way with no consequences.

[mariodonick]

Well ... Not actually a whole world to explore, but if you like NPCs and (non-random) quests, LambdaRogue might be interesting for you LambdaRogue 1.5 (to be released in some days) has also (again) a wilderness with 2 seperate dungeons.