History VideoGame / RagnarokRoguelike

* BalefulPolymorph: Can possibly happen to anything that gets hit by a polymorph ray, including yourself. Averted if it transforms them into a powerful monster which instantly tears you to pieces instead.

* {{Hammerspace}}: While you can only carry a certain amount of items in your backpack, no provision is made for volume, only weight, allowing you to carry around items that could not possibly fit, especially items that can stack to take up a single slot. Taken UpToEleven [[SuperStrength with a high enough strength value]], which allows you to somehow carry hundreds of corpses, or a bunch of anvils around. Though ''why'' you would want to do this…

* VendorTrash: Certain potions and scrolls avert this by appearing to be worthless, but are valuable for use in alchemical mixtures or rewriting into more useful scrolls. Statues and rocks play this straight and serve little purpose other than to be sold for a decent chunk of gold.

* AcquiredPoisonImmunity: You can become immune to poison by eating certain monsters, albeit at the risk of death and other debuffs. It also applies to [[CannibalismSuperPower several other immunities as well]], though there are other less dangerous methods of gaining resistances .

* ArtifactOfDeath: Several evil artifacts that can only be gained by being greedy of the [[MakeAWish wand of wishing]]. As with ''VideoGame/NetHack'', wielding a dead cockatrice as a weapon comes fairly close to this.

* AutoRevive: What happens after drinking the aptly named [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin potion of second life]], if you create one as a master alchemist. You can only make it once however.
* AwesomeButImpractical: Mimming, Gungnir and Mjollnir are designed for the gods to use, not you. You ''can'' use them if your strength and experience level are high enough, but by the time you both have the weapons in question and the necessary might to wield them, you'll probably have Hela's Scythe, which is more powerful than any of them in your hands.

* BagOfHolding: Red bags, which allow you to store 127 items within. Thankfully items are weightless while inside the bag, and they're also protected from damage.

* BareFistedMonk: Averted generally as using your fists is one of the weaker weapons in the game. Using gauntlets with a high bonus multiplier works much better, and if you can find crystal gloves it's one of the strongest weapons in the game.

* BearsAreBadNews: At least at the start of the game where they're a frequent cause of death for new characters.

* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: If you have sufficient luck, then with the exception of most unique items you can wish for powerful items with no ill effects. If you're excessively greedy however then you will get an evil facsimile, or a cursed item instead.

* BlobMonster: Red ooze, which eats your weapon if you try attacking it. Then your gauntlets. [[EatenAlive Then you]].

* BodyHorror: In addition to having eyes and limbs grown or ripped off, players can be turned into monsters such as a corpse through polymorphing. Then there's what [[ChestBurster gorms do to you]]...

* {{Cap}}: Mostly averted. Only luck and constitution have a hard cap of 100 and 1500 respectively. Most other values are limited only by how much memory the game uses to store them, though levelling up becomes progressively more difficult.

* TheComputerIsACheatingBastard: Jormungandr doesn't have any ranged attacks, but will auto-kill you if you attack him from any distance. Same with the other evil gods at Vigrid, but a case could be made that they don't normally notice you - Jormungandr ''does'' [[BorderPatrol notice you if you enter the ocean around the world]].

* ConvectionShmonvection: Played straight with regular lava, but averted with fire giants which cause anything that gets near to burst into flames.

* CruelAndUnusualDeath: Several of the ways you can die are extremely painful. And unusual. From having your chest [[ChestBurster torn open by a parasitic species]], being devoured by [[BlobMonster red ooze]], ripped apart by a rockstorm, having the flesh torn off your body by a gale, having your heart pierced by a sapient plant, having your mind crushed by a telepathic species...

* DangerousForbiddenTechnique: Wielding a dead cockatrice when you're not petrification resistant certainly comes close. If your gauntlets are destroyed or stolen, or if you temporarily lose control of your character then it will end badly.

* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment: With a few in-game messages. Most apparent with drowning where the game helpfully tells you after drowning that you've died.

* DesignItYourselfEquipment: If you get your hands on the [[MakeAWish wand of wishing]] then you can ask for almost any piece of gear in the game, providing you've got sufficiently high luck for the bonus multiplier you want.
* DestroyableItems: Any item in the game can be destroyed including quest items, though some are protected against forms of damage. This also applies to critical parts of the map such as stairs.

** The developers programmed in some very specific conditions for chameleons, monsters which pretend to be other items. Players can eat items directly off the ground without putting them in the inventory. If a chameleon is pretending to be a piece of food, they can be eaten in this way without revealing their true form, and the player will receive a message that the item tasted unusual. If you genocide chameleons while already on a level with one pretending to be an item, instead of it turning into a chameleon the item will fade away, giving you a unique message.

** Turning enemies to stone is a powerful ability but prevents you from getting any loot. To offset this slightly, the resulting statue sells for a decent amount of gold, if you can carry it back to a shop.
** Blasting enemies with the wand of annihilation also prevents you from getting any loot, and unlike petrification you don't even get a statue to sell.

* DungeonBypass: Many ways, including digging through the ground, teleporting straight reading scrolls of travelling whilst confused, or dimension hopping.

* EarlyGameHell: The initial levels of the game can be pretty unforgiving. You start with only a few supplies, and even if you come across useful items you are limited in being able to identify them, meaning you either can't use these items until you are able to identify what they are, or have to use them blindly and hope they're useful. You've very vulnerable to dying from traps since you have low HP and few means of detecting or mitigating the threat. As you start to get more powerful and collect more items, the game becomes a lot easier because you gain more control over situations instead of being at the mercy of RNG.

* EverythingsBetterWithSamurai: Several items of Japanese origin show up including Katanas and Shuriken, which are some of the best weapons in the game. Averted with the closest thing the game has to a Samurai, swordsmen, which are very dangerous opponents.

* {{Expy}}: Gorms are very obvious {{Franchise/Alien}} expies: They are extremely fast, have acid blood and they can implant you with an embryo which will a short time later explode out of your chest with lethal consequences.

* FakeDifficulty: As with most Roguelikes, Ragnarok definitely has its fair share of this. More details can be found under the various entries elsewhere on the page. Probably the worst instance of this in the game is regarding traps, which can only be detected with a blessed scroll of cartography, a ring of protection (which can give up to a 100% chance to detect nearby traps), or by stepping on one and hoping you get lucky and it doesn't trigger. Several traps are more annoying than anything else as they do little damage, but monster traps, lava traps, and water traps are highly lethal -- and with water traps it doesn't have to be yourself that triggers them either. You'll probably die several times early on to lava traps in the forest, when you have no way of detecting them.

* GenderBender: One of the side-effect of polymorphing or encountering weird fumes.
* GenocideBackfire: What can happen if you read a scroll of extinction while confused. [[TooDumbToLive Or if you decide to wipe out your own species if reading it normally]].
* GetBackHereBoss: Scyld is an interesting variant, as he teleports you away instead. [[OhCrap Usually to one of the most dangerous locations in the game]].

* {{Hammerspace}}: While you can only carry a certain amount of items in your backback, no provision is made for volume, only weight, allowing you to carry around items that could not possibly fit, especially items that can stack to take up a single slot. Taken UpToEleven [[SuperStrength with a high enough strength value]], which allows you to somehow carry hundreds of corpses, or a bunch of anvils around. Though ''why'' you would want to do this...

* HealingFactor: Trolls regenerate hitpoints very quickly. The player can also gain this with a very high constitution, or by wearing several rings of regeneration. Draugr can also regenerate after being killed unless you quickly destroy the body.
* HellGate: The official stairway to Niflheim is just beyond the River Gioll, guarded by horrifying river monsters and the mystical Harbard. [[spoiler: [[DungeonBypass Or you can just dig straight down through the bottom of the dungeon.]]]]

* HumanSacrifice: Three adventurers in Vidur's hall are trapped and waiting to be sacrificed; you can free them, or complete the sacrifices. [[spoiler: Sacrificing all three causes Vidur to give up Gungnir without a fight. Letting any of them live angers him.]]

* IFoughtTheLawAndTheLawWon: Commiting evil acts such as genocide or stealing from a shopkeeper causes rangers to spawn. If they catch up to you then they'll knock you out and steal items from you, and if you fight them hand-to-hand it will spawn an increasing number of them.

* ImprovisedWeapon: Almost every item in the game can be wielded as a weapon, from clay lumps and [[GrievousHarmWithABody corpses]] to anvils. Not that this practice is recommended...

* KarlMarxHatesYourGuts: Items always sell for half their cost, and their price is fixed across all shops. The exception to this is with unidentified items, which you can potentially make a one-time profit on if you buy it, and sell it back after identifying it. If you're a sage or a blacksmith then you can also buy cheap items and craft them into more expensive ones.

* LethalLavaLand: The Wasteland. If you're not quick enough or you can't terraform then eventually the entire area is flooded with lava.

* LevelUpFillUp: Partially averted. You gain some HP upon levelling but the proportion compared to your maximum is kept the same.
* LifeEnergy: Vampires, wraiths, and spirits can kill you by stealing yours. Players can also improve their Hitpoints by stealing it from others by using black gems.

* TheLittleShopThatWasntThereYesterday: A variant. One of the possible effects of reading a scroll of wonder is that it creates a new shop out of thin air. It does avert other aspects of the trope however; once created, it'll stick around for the rest of the game.
* LogicalWeakness: Played straight with some monsters like cold-based creatures which are vulnerable to fire. Averted with others which do not have any particular weakness to their opposing element.

** You can't wish for a Potion of Switch Dimension, which allows you to travel almost anywhere by magic (though not necessarily reliably). [[spoiler: But a breleor's corpse is at least as useful.]]

** While the Dimension Travel power will have a degree of randomness, nothing stops you from using it over and over until you get to your desired destination. If you combine this with the aforementioned scroll of time stop you can freeze time, attempt to go for your destination, then immediately return to the crossroads if unsuccessful. Which also means that with the power you more or less get a scroll of transport, because you can repeatedly select an underground area until you manage to travel to the bazaar.
** When human, you can only consume potions of speed safely up until a speed of 60. However nothing stops you from doing this and ''then'' using an amulet of quickness to get your speed up to 70 (temporarily) -- if you do this the other way around, you'll die when the potion of speed pushes you up to 70.

* LudicrousGibs: Read a scroll of recall in the wrong place, and watch as you get torn into chunks and teleported throughout the universe. Being ripped apart by a cloud of rocks or a gale probably counts too. And try terraforming a square a monster is standing on into a mountain...

* MadeOfExplodium: What can happen if you randomly mix potions. Rather bizarrely this can occur if you mix two of the same types of potion, leading to odd scenarios where adding two vials of water together can cause an explosion strong enough to kill you.
* MagicPants: Averted. If you polymorph while wearing armour and rings then you can get crushed by your armour, or lose fingers.

** HavingABlast: Wands of annihilation destroy anything in the path.

* MindOverMatter: Psionics, which allow you to mentally crush enemies with your mind. [[TooDumbToLive Just don't try using your own abilities on yourself]].

* NoBodyLeftBehind: Several monsters, particularly undead do not leave any body behind when they die. The player can also suffer such a fate under certain circumstances.

* TheNudifier: A cursed scroll of pure evil will destroy all your possessions. Kiss that armour goodbye! [[BanditMook Nymphs]] can also steal items you're wearing.

* PointOfNoReturn: Once you cross Bifrost there's no going back.

* QuicksandSucks: If you don't escape from it in time then you'll be sucked under and drown. It's also impossible to free yourself without a grappling hook, or by using magical means.

* RandomlyGeneratedLoot: Along with the [[RandomlyGeneratedLevels levels]], most loot is randomly generated. The exception is the village shop which always has a grappling hook and pick axe to sell. [[BazaarOfTheBizarre The bazaar's]] stock is also random, but the chances are very high you can find a given unique item there, providing the game hasn't already created one.

** Scrolls of extinction. If you genocide a certain monster then it won't make the corpse disappear, but it will stop you from polymorphing into one, unless you bring the race back to life.
** Archmages do this to items, making them a popular target for scrolls of extinction. If you can nullify their ability to do this however, then fighting them is very profitable.
* RingOfPower: All rings save for delusion which pretends to be one of these instead.

* SaveGameLimits: Averted for the most part. Ragnarok allows you to save every 200 turns and you can use as many slots as you want.
* SaveScumming: Unlike various other roguelikes, Ragnarok doesn't erase your saved games upon dying making this process even easier.
* SaveTheWorldClimax: The FinalBattle of Ragnarok decides on whether the world is saved or destroyed.

* SealedRoomInTheMiddleOfNowhere: Phase traps will teleport you into these. Unlike other games however, the only way you're getting out is if you figure out a way yourself.

* {{Sidequest}}: Technically all the main quests can be considered sidequests, as they're not required for victory, and the good gods can still win Ragnarok without you doing anything. It's just very unlikely...

* StatDeath: Can occur if a vampire drains your level to zero, or if your ''maximum'' hitpoints get reduced to zero [[note]]Technically your maximum HP can't be reduced to zero because the game will crash, however the ring of draining can reduce your max HP to 1, and the 1HP of damage it inflicts on you will then kill you. In any case, the spirit of this holds true[[/note]].

** You, unless you've learned the ability to swim. Even then, if you're carrying too much then you'll drown. And you'll always drown in quicksand if you can't escape in time. This is also played straight for most monsters.
** Inverted with aquatic monsters. If you force them onto land then they'll suffocate.
* SuperSpeed: If you polymorph into certain monsters, you can move much faster than a normal human. As a human you can also consume potions of speed to temporarily speed yourself up, however if you reach an excessive speed you'll die.

* SuperWeight: You start off low down, barely able to fend off the local wildlife, but the chances are by the end of the game you'll be one of the most powerful beings in the universe, save for the gods.

* TimedMission: From the very start of the game, time is gradually ticking away towards the final battle of the gods... The time limit is reasonably lenient, given that you do not need to complete every single goal for the gods to win.
* ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks: Any item can be thrown as a weapon, including items such as [[GrievousHarmWithABody bodies]], food rations, or [[AnvilOnHead anvils]], though unless it's designed as a throwing weapon then it won't be particularly effective. Conventional weaponry can make for a decent throwing weapon if you have a high enough strength or it's a powerful weapon.
* ThrowTheBookAtThem: Well not books, but scrolls. Not likely to do much, but it could possibly save you if you're in a really bad situation. You can also throw pretty much any item in the game as well, in addition to wielding it as a weapon.

** You, potentially. Go on, feel free to genocide your race, walk off the edge of the universe, drink that potion of venom, blast yourself with the wand of death...
** A literal example if you read enough scrolls of extinction while confused. [[spoiler: You specify "idiots" and are wiped out]].

* UnexplainedRecovery: Mostly explained away by the potion of second life, but rather amazingly this even works after being struck down by the gods for unethical behaviour, walking off the edge of the universe, having faded from existence, or even after having genocided your own species.
* UnusableEnemyEquipment: Played with. Several monsters will drop the weapons they used upon death allowing you to take them for yourself, whereas certain others won't drop any weapons or equipment if they die (or if they do it's random loot).

* UselessUsefulSpell: Magic, by and large, is pretty pointless. A couple of effects can be handy, but MP regenerates slowly, and in almost every case it would be quicker and easier to hit your opponent with a sword. Magical attacks have no scaling, meanwhile your physical damage limit is practically unlimited in comparison. Wands are useful early on in the game, but short of some specific effects that target enemy weaknesses or are particularly useful they mostly become obsolete. Why blast an enemy with a wand for 20 fire damage that only has a finite number of charges, when you can hit them with your InfinityPlusOneSword as much as you want.
* UselessUsefulNonCombatAbilities: Writing utterly averts this by being one of the most powerful skills in the game. There are several other skills that play this one straight however.

* VideogameCrueltyPotential: You can kill and even genocide friendly beings for no reason whatsoever.
* VideogameCrueltyPunishment: Commit too many evil acts and eventually the gods will strike you down for it. You really have to be trying for this one though.

* WeBuyAnything: Literally anything you pick up can be sold except for gold itself, though shopkeepers only have a certain amount of gold in which to pay you with. Averted for [[BazaarOfTheBizarre the bazaar]] which won't buy any items off you.

* WorldOfChaos: [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Chaos]]. Every turn approximately 1/3rd of the level randomly changes, making it very difficult to navigate.

* DiscOneNuke: Potentially possible if you get extremely lucky and find powerful items on an early level.

** When human, you can only consume potions of speed safely up until a speed of 60. However nothing stops you from doing this and ''then'' using an amulet of quickness to get your speed up to 70 (temporarily).
* LordBritishPostulate: You cannot kill the gods, either the good ones or the evil ones; even coming ''near'' the evil ones will get you annihilated. This doesn't apply to Hela or Vidur, though; just to the gods and giants who will fight at Vigrid. (It does apply to Jormungandr on the ocean, but that's because he's the BorderPatrol.]]
* LuckBasedMission: Oh so much. Prepare to sacrifice your first born to the Random Number God if you want to win.

* DisabilityImmunity: Blind players are [[NoEyeInMagic immune to the gaze of anssks]], and deaf players cannot be [[EnthrallingSiren stunned by enchantresses]].

* DistractedByTheSexy: Nymphs seduce players and steal items before teleporting away. Male characters can also be [[EnthrallingSiren lulled into a trance by an enchantress' song]] unless they've been deafened or wear a silver mantle.

* EnthrallingSiren: Enchantresses can lull male characters into a trance, allowing other nearby monsters to [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown wail on you repeatedly]].

* StatDeath: Can occur if a vampire drains your level to zero, or if your ''maximum'' hitpoints get reduced to zero [[note]]Technically your maximum HP can't be reduced to zero because the game will crash, however the ring can reduce your max HP to 1, and the 1HP of damage it inflicts on you will then kill you. In any case, the spirit of this holds true[[/note]].

* LoopholeAbuse: You can't wish for a Potion of Switch Dimension, which allows you to travel almost anywhere by magic (though not necessarily reliably). [[spoiler: But a breleor's corpse is at least as useful.]]

* MagicWand: Lots of different types, and the primary offensive weapon of magical classes.

* StandardStatusEffects: Most of them appear in some form.

** Jormungandr will regenerate even if take his HP down to 1 with a memory editor and then kill him. There is no way to achieve this normally.
** The develops programmed in some very specific conditions for chameleons, monsters which pretend to be other items. Players can eat items directly off the ground without putting them in the inventory. If a chameleon is pretending to be a piece of food, they can be eaten in this way without revealing their true form, and the player will receive a message that the item tasted unusual. If you genocide chameleons while already on a level with one pretending to be an item, instead of it turning into a chameleon the item will fade away, giving you a unique message.

* StatDeath: Can occur if a vampire drains your level to zero, or if your ''maximum'' hitpoints get reduced to zero.

* SuperStrength: There's no limit to the amount of strength you can gain, though it becomes much harder to raise it once you hit 18, though the [[AmplifierArtifact amulet of might]] will raise it by 15 when worn. Very high values can allow a player to do very large amounts of damage, as well as carry staggering amounts of weight.

* FakeDifficulty: As with most Roguelikes, Ragnarok definitely has its fair share of this. More details can be found under the various entries elsewhere on the page.

* FinalDeath: You can play this one straight if you wish and it's in the spirit of the game, but it won't force you to by deleting saved games upon death.

* ShopliftAndDie: A very likely result if you steal early on in the game and are unable to escape, though later on shopkeepers become an easy target if you feel like taking their considerable gold. The ones in the bazaar however are some of the hardest opponents in the game and require a powerful character if you want to slay them.

* DevelopersForesight: Try picking up a dead cockatrice. You die. But if you're wearing gauntlets, you can! And if you wield the corpse as a weapon, it will turn anything else to stone!

* ClothesMakeTheSuperman: Played with. While you can gain many abilities by wearing various amulets, armour, and [[RingOfPower rings]], it's almost always possible to gain the effects without wearing anything ''(including the armouring)'', albeit harder.

* EarnYourHappyEnding: The result of winning the game and saving the world. [[AWinnerIsYou Just don't expect too much]].
* EasilyAngeredShopkeeper: Granted, it's pretty understandable that they'll attack you if you try hurting them, but if you manage to steal a cursed item with a cost of a single gold piece, they'll hunt you to the death.

''Ragnarok'' (also known as ''Valhalla'', not related to the earlier 8 bit game ''VideoGame/{{Valhalla}}'') is a freeware {{Roguelike}} DOS game heavily based around Myth/NorseMythology, and is notable for being one of the first Roguelikes to use graphical tiles rather than text-based graphics. Like ''VideoGame/NetHack'', it has an item-heavy focus, though luck still plays an important role, especially early on in the game. How much luck comes into things will also depend partly on your playing style.

* TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything: Try picking up a dead cockatrice. You die. But if you're wearing gauntlets, you can! And if you wield the corpse as a weapon, it will turn anything else to stone!

* LostForever: There's nothing stopping you from doing something stupid with one of the quest artifacts and thus being unable to deliver it to its rightful owner during Ragnarok. However, Balder is the easiest to lose. If you want to save him, you need to trap Thokk's soul in the appropriate ring, [[spoiler: and then take that ring off, never let it absorb another soul, and keep it safe until it's time to deliver it to Hela.]]

The game can be downloaded [[http://www.download-central.ws/DOS/Games/R/Ragnarok/ here]], though you may also need to download an MS-DOS emulator such as {{Dosbox}} to get it to run.

* CombinatorialExplosion: What can happen if you randomly mix potions. Rather bizarrely this can occur if you mix two of the same types of potion, leading to odd scenarios where adding [[MadeOfExplodium two vials of water together]] can cause an explosion strong enough to kill you.

''Ragnarok'' (also known as ''Valhalla'', not related to the earlier 8 bit game ''VideoGame/{{Valhalla}}) is a freeware {{Roguelike}} DOS game heavily based around Myth/NorseMythology, and is notable for being one of the first Roguelikes to use graphical tiles rather than text-based graphics. Like ''VideoGame/NetHack'', it has an item-heavy focus, though luck still plays an important role, especially early on in the game. How much luck comes into things will also depend partly on your playing style.

''Ragnarok'' (also known as ''Valhalla'') is a freeware {{Roguelike}} DOS game heavily based around Myth/NorseMythology, and is notable for being one of the first Roguelikes to use graphical tiles rather than text-based graphics. Like ''VideoGame/NetHack'', it has an item-heavy focus, though luck still plays an important role, especially early on in the game. How much luck comes into things will also depend partly on your playing style.

@@You finish reading the Ragnarok TV Tropes page! You die. Press space to continue...@@

* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence:
** You if you help the gods win the battle of Ragnarok.
** You also do this ''literally'' whenever you use the power of dimension travel, as the Crossroads are stated to be located above the normal planes of existence.