Line #57 VideoGame/Incursion


1	Not to be [[JustForFun/IThoughtThatWas confused]] with [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incursion That]] [=PnP=] Incursion.
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3	''Incursion: Halls of the Goblin King'' is a freeware (and newly open source) RogueLike attempting to resemble a solo adventure in ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', third edition. Incursion is still developed by Julian Mensch for about ten years. With mechanics strongly based on pen & paper and some unique design goals, Incursion offers a quite different experience than most roguelikes nowadays.
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5	While most roguelike gameplay focuses on [[TrialAndErrorGameplay learning to beat many quirks and pitfalls]], Incursion focuses more on player character design, diversity of choices your character can make in regards of development, anti-grinding philosophy not very different from ''[[VideoGame/DungeonCrawl Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup]]'' and resource management.
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7	''Incursion'' is notable in several ways; in most roguelikes, resting has little downside, but in this game, it takes eight hours, is often very dangerous, and causes new monsters to generate on your level, eight hours worth. While treasure is randomly generated, an entire levels treasure is generated when you first enter it, and newly created monsters have little treasure; this obviates the strategy of camping in a particular level range to get an item you want as a random drop by just waiting for monsters to gen and killing them. Hit points are normally non-regenerating, which forces player to save resources and choose dungeon encounters carefully.
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9	What's most interesting, however, are the degree to which skills and feats are essential; they are purposefully more powerful than most magic items, and choosing and using them effectively is vital. Thus, advancing your character isn't just a matter of leveling up plus some lucky magic finds, but is more a matter of consciously and strategically planning the route your character takes.
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11	It's widely agreed that the game has a [[NintendoHard steep learning curve]] even for a roguelike, but is still honest (as opposed to early versions which would pit you on the very first level with enemies who you couldn't [[KillerGameMaster see]], not to mention attack). Most of the difficulty stems from the need to read various [[AllThereInTheManual in-game manuals]], item and monster descriptions and knowing how to [[MinMaxing build your character]]. So, difficulty in ''Incursion'' is more ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'' than ''VideoGame/NetHack''.
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13	Tabletop knowledge won't help you very much, since mechanics have been somewhat [[PragmaticAdaptation altered to be more fit for a roguelike]].
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15	Since it's a [=PnP=]-like adventure adventure, ''Incursion'' places much more weight on the depth and believability of its fantasy world rather than your usual roguelike rescue-the-world plot. There are very few things expected from the player to do (just kill that goblin), and the game is a mix of WideOpenSandbox and typical dungeon crawler. Very well written in-game descriptions help. In other words, use your imagination.
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17	''Incursion: Return of the Forsaken'' - the complete game - was stuck in DevelopmentHell for several years before the developer released the last playable version of ''Incursion'' into open source. Get it [[https://bitbucket.org/rmtew/incursion-roguelike/downloads here]].
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19	Helpful information regarding how to play ''Incursion'' has been generally scarce. For the benefit of those who want to better understand its mechanics, refer to these and perhaps also other resources:
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21	-[[http://incursion.wikidot.com/ Incursion's WikiDot Wiki]]. Includes various explanations and advice.
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23	-[[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1X-wo_qSmMUtMdobXAHU5otg2I0kD8coeGVxu5EDwy8E/edit?usp=sharing Being Nearly Everything: An Incursion Game Guide Focused on Druids]]. Druids are this game's most powerful and versatile class. The guide's author (Endarire) field tested a LOT of the game's mechanics primarily for Druids, but included information and advice for other classes too!
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25	-[[https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/incursion Google Groups Incursion Discussion]]. Talk with other Incursion fans (and sometimes also Richard Tew, one of the game's maintainers) here!
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27	----
28	!!This game provides examples of:
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30	* [[CardCarryingVillain Card-Carrying Villain]]: The Multitude are the only guys who are evil and who don't try to whitewash it.
31	* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment
32	** "The human paladin is thrown from his mount. The human paladin is thrown from his mount.
33	** "The oak door opens. The door opens."
34	** "Appraising the human cleric, you conclude that he is actually a human cleric!"
35	* DontFearTheReaper: Mara, the goddess of death, is one of the many good-aligned gods. She's also about resolving your issues before death, and is very happy to resurrect her followers. Also, she's a goddess of romantic love.
36	* EldritchAbomination: Kysul not only is a kind god, he's bent on saving Theyra from destruction. He's still on the [[BlueAndOrangeMorality multi-hued]] side of morals - he hates demons/devils and celestials alike.
37	* EverythingTryingToKillYou: Played straight when you're evil. When you're good, you can quell many enemies, ask them to join your band, to give you an item, to cast a spell at you, even to take watches with you for a rest.
38	* ExcusePlot: A band of goblins gathers in a war party at the bottom of some cavern in the middle of nowhere. Perform regicide. Overlaps with SavingTheWorld.
39	* TheFairFolk: Maeve. All mundane elves are effectively slaves to her. Even those with good standing with her can be screwed up anytime. It's for good reasons she's nicknamed the 'Crazy Fairy Deity,' like how she sometimes makes your summons and Animal Companions attack you, or summons foes to hurt you, or outright steals your worn equipment, and that's if your character DOES worship her!
40	* GentlemanAdventurer: You can be one, if you choose such personality. As of version 0.6.9Y19, there's no mechanical effect for such.
41	* GlassCannon: Mages die from getting poked with a toothpick from behind, rogues are lousy in fair combat until they gain a few levels, archer-oriented classes have problems when somebody shoots back at them, yet all three of these are some of the best damage dealers once you get going. Druids are debatably better though and generally far less squishy.
42	* InUniverseGameClock: Buggy one. Moving, fighting etc. take time, but using healing kits, crafting or something like that gives you a message 'an hour passes', but time refused to change.
43	* LightningBruiser: Rogues when they find some decent equipment and grab many levels, bumping their sneak attack damage and defense to ninja levels. Also shapeshifting druids.
44	* LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards: More like linear warriors and wizards, quadratic priests, geometric rogues and druids. (ESPECIALLY Druids as outlined [[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1X-wo_qSmMUtMdobXAHU5otg2I0kD8coeGVxu5EDwy8E/edit?usp=sharing) here]]. Doing everything without meat shields breaks the class equilibrium, though Druids can do that too via their Animal Companions which scale with Druid level (and Ranger level) and can be summoned once per day.
45	* LizardFolk: They're big, strong, lethargic and think in [[BlueAndOrangeMorality alien ways]] compared to humans. They worship nature and benevolent [[EldritchAbomination eldritch abominations]] and aren't bent very much on individualism. They also have unconscious hive mind, are fond of saving all life from extinction ([[TrueNeutral themselves first]]) and are perceived as ruthless by mammalian species. On the other hand, they think of us as extremely decadent and wasteful and have no strong emotional motivations like greed, ambition or compassion.
46	* LuckStat: More of it generates better equipment, affects some spells, saving throws of halflings and critical hit survivability.
47	* OneSizeFitsAll: Aversion with weapons - there are tiny, small, human-sized, large.. Everyone can also change size via spell for example, further complicating matters.
48	* OneWordTitle
49	* OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame: Justified to some extent - dwarves HAD to be over-the-top traditionalists and homogenous to survive harder times when monsters were everywhere. Their conservatism is going to [[CantCatchUp bite]] [[MedievalStasis them]] in the ass if they won't change, though.
50	* OurElvesAreDIfferent: Ordinary elves are a mix of FairFolk, Tolkienesque elves and ServantRace - humans who got warped by magic and by signing pacts with the fae. Their society ultimately answers to Maeve, queen of the fairies. Since few of them actually like being her puppets, life in elven cities somewhat resembles [[Literature/NineteenEightyFour big brother state]]. Gray elves (or grey elves, depending on spelling) are even more extreme as their fairy nature is continuously manifest, unlike normal elves who must consciously activate it and who can only be manifest for a short time. On the other hand, drow were originally rebels who got sick of their [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen queen]] and escaped underground. Too bad they had to take [[AlwaysChaoticEvil extreme]] measures to escape her wrath.
51	* PurelyAestheticGender: Played straight, though the dev notes that in future version, they'll be some difference, at least for drow.
52	* RegeneratingHealth: Averted. You regain health only by resting, potions, necromancy, prayers or one specific feat.
53	* ReligionOfEvil: The Multitude are basically a horde of trigger-happy ghosts who get nauseated from good done by their worshippers. Zurvash puts more philosophy for those worshiping him - he would classify under TrueNeutral if not for his sheer selfishness and no regard for consequences of his actions.
54	* SacrificedBasicSkillForAwesomeTraining: Alienists are mages with many cool things that make mages more durable - fatigue regeneration for infinite metamagic, critical hit immunity, overpowered summons.. And they get penalty to Spot, Listen and Searching, some of the most useful skills in the game, depending on your build.
55	* ServantRace: Elves. Drow can also be this, since they migrated from one swamp to another.
56	* SetAMookToKillAMook: Show yourself to group of evil guys. Say hello, then let them follow you to that good aligned dragon.
57	* SpaceCompression: Aversion - creatures of size class Huge and larger occupy more than one tile. Still played straight with human-sized and smaller, infinite number of them can occupy the same tile.
58	* SpoonyBard: [[LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards A warrior]], of all people, can be a better party leader than a bard, provided he chooses the right feats (of which he has many anyway) and has high charisma. The same for rogue. Both of them don't suck in combat if built and played correctly.
59	* SquishyWizard: Problem with playing wizard are sneaking monsters and often inability to spot things you want to blast to oblivion.
60	* SuicidalOverconfidence: Averted. Having high intimidation skill allows you to strike fear to enemies as you critically hit and kill their buddies.
61	* UselessUsefulNonCombatAbilities: Averted. You're on your own. Craft can reproduce your favorite weapon if it gets destroyed. Healing is almost essential. Quelling enemies with Diplomacy can give you more experience than killing them.
62	* UselessUsefulStealth: Backstabbing rogues are one of the most powerful classes in the game. Notable fact that monsters frequently utilize stealth against you. "From the shadows, a kobold! The kobold throws a set at bolas, brutalizing you. You die."
63	* WeakButSkilled: Rogues, who know every widely used skill in the game sans Concentration and maybe Swimming. They also get so many skill points that they can be more learned than mages, more philosophical than priests, and better performers than bards, at the same time, though they lack class-based spells and are often about as squishy as comparably-prepared mages.
64	* WellIntentionedExtremist: Immotian is the definition of purity in Theyran pantheon, also the god with the most influence.
65	%%* VeteranUnit: "Using your knowledge about cosmology, you conclude that the thiefling is really a elite thiefling bandit!"%%Not the trope.

Context VideoGame / Incursion