Released in 1995, Mordor: The Depths of Dejenol is a Role-Playing Game for the PC created by David Allen. The game is a clone of the early MUD game Avatar, released in 1979. Referred to as "Mordor" for short, this game does not take place in Tolkien's 'verse, but uses a similar fantasy setting as its backdrop. The storyline is that a great evil has appeared in the mines underneath the city, and brave adventurers from across the world have come to Dejenol to destroy its cause forever.
Of course, nearly everyone who plays it will forget that there even was a storyline due to its addictive gameplay. The game's quick-paced and easy-to-use interface is learned very quickly, which makes it ideal for flexible playing in short bursts or for hours on end. It can best be described as a single-player MMORPG: players create characters formed from one of the 9 different races and can join one or more of the 12 guilds within the city. The player can create multiple characters and join them together as a combat party for safety in the dungeon, or team up with other players' characters, sharing the treasure between them (up to 4 characters at a time). Interestingly, the game acts as a shared world; if one player finds a piece of equipment in the dungeon and sells it to the store, another player will find it and be able to buy it.
The game is split between the city and the dungeon. The city contains the bank, the shop, the guild halls where one can level up, the morgue where the character can be raised from the dead if when killed, and the confinement center where the player can buy creatures to use as battle companions alongside any other player-created characters. The dungeon, the all-encompassing hostile world of Mordor, has 15 different floors of rapidly-increasing difficulty. Combat is automatic; as soon as the player enters a room full of hostile monsters, battle will initiate until one of the two parties is dead, although players can run away from combat. With little effort to no effort, a player can run through the dungeon and score up great treasure and experience, hence the game's addictive playing style. Fully exploring the dungeon requires an incredible investment of time due to the game's rapidly scaling difficulty.
An official shareware demo, allowing full access of the first three floors, can be downloaded online. The game is not compatible with modern versions of Windows, but is easily run on emulation via DOSBox.
This game provides examples of:
- Alt Itis: Because a player can form entire teams of different characters, and because characters can die permanently, early stages of the dungeon will be a frequent sight. Some long-time players have the entire first floor of the dungeon mapped out in their heads.
- Asmodeus: The "final boss" of the game, whose defeat is the nominal win condition (although you can continue playing after you defeat him, and he is not a unique enemy so he will continue to reappear even after he is first killed — indeed, you may encounter multiple Asmodeuses on a single trip through the dungeon). He has a unique character portrait and a unique attacking sound. The game's HelpLesson refers to him as the "Prince of Devils", and he is a Devil-type enemy within the game, even though in actual mythology he is usually called the Prince of Demons. To confuse things further, there is also an enemy called the Demon Prince in the game, but this is not Asmodeus (though some consider him to be even tougher than Asmodeus).
- Back Stab: This Critical Hit counterpart for Thieves, Ninjas and certain other Guilds allows them to hit for up to two or three times normal damage.
- Combos: Many guilds and weapons give the ability to strike more than once in a turn, if the character kills an enemy with each strike. If the struck enemy is not dead, the extra swings do not come into play.
- Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp": Although the game has the standard bestiary of fantasy monsters, a number of them go by unusual names. Slimes — one of the most ubiquitous fantasy monsters — are referred to as "Clean-Ups" in this game, though that one is at least given an in-universe explanation.note
- Critical Hit: The Warrior Guild and its splinter guilds teach this abundantly.
- Destroyable Items: Certain monsters and occasionally traps on treasure chests will spew out acid, destroying one of the character's items if they're powerful enough.
- Disconnected Side Area: There are no Stairs Down on level 8 or on level 14, so it's impossible to walk straight down to the bottom of the dungeon. Both 8 and 14 have teleporters leading to a fixed location on levels 9 and 15 (the lowest level), respectively, and matching ones on the lower levels which will send adventurers back again.
- Dump Stat: As in most RPGs, Charisma is the least useful stat. The game's official tutorial even advises you to take Charisma as a dump stat!
- Dungeon Crawler: Released in 1995, the game is an archetypal early PC dungeon crawler.
- Excuse Plot: A demon has appeared in the mines below the city, and now you're found among many adventurers who want the glory and treasure found below.
- Joke Character: A number of the playable races are subpar, to say the least:
- Morlochs. Short lifespans (one of only two races that live under 200 years), the poorest max constitution of any race in the game (limiting potential HP gains), and the only race that can't be Neutral-aligned, preventing them from joining important Neutral-only guilds like Thief and Healer.
- Ogres. Basically the poor man's Giant - not as big, not as strong, and lacking access to the useful Seeker guild, with Scavenger (one of the worst guilds in the game) subbed instead.
- Trolls. Unable to access any spellcasting guild, and can't be a Warrior, Paladin, or even Seeker, meaning their only decent fighting guild is Ninja. A Neutral Troll - who can't become a Ninja - might be the most useless combination of race and alignment in the game.
- Master of None: There are number of skills required to survive in the dungeon, and mastery of these skills requires gaining levels in specific guilds (this game's version of the character class in D&D). There are a number of guilds to choose from, some of which offer mastery in one particular skill ("specialist"), and others which offer above-average training in multiple skills ("generalist"). As a rule, the potential skill gain given up in whatever specialist skill is being sacrificed is never worth what you gain in the other skills as compensation. It's much better to join and level in multiple specialist guilds than to stick with one generalist guild that offer all of the same skills at once.note Generalist guilds are usually recommended only if a character's race or alignment constrains them from joining the optimal guild.
- Monster Allies: Each character in a team can buy and have up to four monster companions, who each use their respective attacks and abilities. The Mage class can charm monsters and sell them to Confinement, or keep them as companions.
- Ninja Looting: Since treasure stays around after the player signs out, the next person can go out and find abandoned treasure if the respawn cycle hasn't made it disappear yet.
- Permadeath: Old age. All races have a maximum age cap. As the player nears this age through such things as age-progressing traps and healing, the chance of dying forever increases.
- One Stat to Rule Them All: Dexterity. The ability to disarm traps and avoid thieving attacks by monsters are both entirely dependent on dexterity, which also has a number of other useful benefits such as boosting attack and defense.
- Pit Trap: A constant danger in the dungeon, they become increasingly more powerful in each descending floor. Many can kill a character if in bad shape already.
- Please Select New City Name: The dungeon is located beneath the city of Marlith, which was known in ancient times as Rohin, but which historians refer to as Dejenol, which translates to "the City of the Mines" (as the dungeon was once a network of mines). It seems the residents in-game have basically given up and only ever refer to it as "the City".
- Random Encounters: Although the dungeon layout is pre-mapped and static, every single encounter therein is completely random and unpredictable. Nearly every room will have something living (or undead!) in it.
- Respawning Enemies: Certain monsters, such as the Aboleth on Floor 1, have their own "lair." They can only be found in this lair and will reappear there some time after death.
- Resurrection Sickness: Every resurrection increases one's age. A bad revival increases the age by decades. The game includes age penalties.
- Sand Is Water: Not only can the characters start drowning in quicksand, they can accidentally drop items in and lose them forever.
- Take Your Time: The enemy below the city threatens the world's existence, but never actually poses a threat. The game will continue indefinitely and nothing will ever happen.
- Wide-Open Sandbox: The entire basis of the game. There is no time limit, no real objectives other than to explore farther and farther in the dungeon, becoming more powerful than anyone known.
