The Systems of FrogComPosBand
After my win in ToME 2.3.4 I tried a few different roguelikes. I bounced off Brogue, as it was too distantly related to the style of game I knew so well. I ended up playing and eventually winning Tales of Maj’Eyal with a Dwarven Bulwark, even though the systems there were still fairly distinct from Angband.
I bought Caves of Qud, which is an amazing game, albeit very far removed from Angband. It pulls off its far far future setting much better than any other game I've ever played. Still haven't won that one, though.
Which brings me back to FrogComPosBand. I was looking for a game I could play during my commute with my dinky, graphic-card-less laptop. I searched around for what the new hotness in roguelikes was at the time and found this guy.
FrogComPosBand is what happens when decades of work on different variants of the same game get mashed together. One of the big ‘selling’ points of this game over other variants is it's kitchen sink approach to game design. It contains the vague Tolkien theming of Angband, the Amber references of Zangband, the Cthulhu monsters along with dozens of other sources of influence from other videogames like Doom to much farther out references to books and anime.
It also has dozens and dozens of different classes to play. From your standard fighter to mages of many different stripes to rogues. But there's also real oddballs like the mirror master and magic eater classes. Playable monster races are also well represented by orcs, skeletons, mummies with special curse mechanics, vampires, and liches. Again there are odder choices like boits and kutars along with half-titans and klackons.
But my favorite addition to the player pantheon are the monsters that have no distinct class, the ones that radically transform how you play the game. For comparison, your standard warrior can equip things you would expect: swords, shields, magic rings and the like. But you can also play as a hydra which starts with two heads and able to equip a helmet on each one. As you level up you gain more heads, more attacks, and more head equipment slots. Or you could play a jelly which starts with only four equipment slots but is able to equip any type of item in them without restrictions.
Or you could be a straight-up dragon with a powerful breath weapon and claw and tail attacks. They can equip tons of rings, but have limited slots for other equipment. Dragons come in many different elemental flavors as you might imagine but are also able to specialize in one of several areas. They can choose to augment their breath weapon, making it even more devastating. They can specialize in melee attacks, giving them an even greater edge in up-close combat. They can also become masters of different forms of magic, from teleportation to summoning.
But my favorite monster race is the lowly filthy rag. Unable to equip anything and unable to attack aside from a basic punch, you gain power by absorbing other sets of armor, gradually getting better armor class, resistances and other core attributes. It starts out weak but can be overwhelming if you survive into the endgame.
And that's not even the only monster type with that mechanic! There are death swords that do the same for melee weapons. And the tricky ring monsters that ensnare wearers and absorb the essences of other jewelry.
And all that is just the tip of the iceberg in character creation!