If Tales of Maj'Eyal is the Lord of the Rings of traditional roguelikes, Dungeonmans is probably the Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I have been on an absolute tear running through a ton of different roguelikes lately. Dungeonmans probably isn't my all-time favourite or the one I spent the most time on, but my adventures in running a school of ultra-manliness certainly makes it one of the most memorable.

Normally excessive reference humour kills a little piece of my soul, but Dungeonmans' sense of humour really works for me. Yes, there are lots of silly dumb references, but a lot of the comedy of Dungeonmans comes from a more universal absurdity—kind of like how Discworld balances straight satirical parody with more situational comedy. You play as Fightermens and Southern Gentlemens and Psychomensers and fight enemies like the dreaded Trigar—which is three tigers standing on top of each other and had me absolutely rolling. Skills are also in on the joke—armor is divided into light, medium and Real. There's a motley crew that runs your school, like the librarian who hates his job and warns your uncivilized Dungeonmans not to eat the books (with good reason—one trait prevents you from reading scrolls because they look so delicious you can't stop yourself from eating them).

Another thing helping Dungeonmans is that it's both a parody of its genre but also a pretty good entry on its own (think Shawn of the Dead or Princess Bride and the like). Combat is very skill heavy a la ToME, but with shallower trees that reward spreading out and trying new combos. There's some really creative ones too—one skill tree involves Ire, a resource that drains in real time and throws a fun wrench into my casual roguelike tea-times. The school also provides a roguelite layer that boosts stats, tracks IDed stuff and offers random bonus skills. I know some people will sneer at the thought of anything carrying over in a traditional roguelike, but it's not exactly like the school makes the endgame easier. I tend to think of roguelikes as a lot of going through the motions broken up with nail-biting decisions and the leg up from the school just lets you skim through the stuff you've already cleared and get back to the high level play faster.

Unfortunately Dungeonmans can be a little buggy, but I have to compliment the developer for adding QOL, fixing bugs and developing fun new features even seven years on. It doesn't have the greatest UI—extra hotbars block other elements, for example, which can be quite annoying in a skill heavy build, but it's also fairly easy to use for a roguelike. Lastly Dungeonmans doesn't have a particularly compelling level algorithim, generating samey dungeons with a lot of random empty space. Again, it's very similar to ToME, which has the same problem making interesting layouts, but at least in ToME you can mush autoexplore to speed through the more tedious dungeon designs. I know autoexplore is a controversal feature for roguelike makers, but a similar feature would make Dungeonmans almost perfect.

Still, even as is I'm a big fan. What really does it for me is the excessive hubris. Nearly every conversation with an NPC involves your character remarking about how they're going to live forever and crush the game in one go—"Well you know what they say, 14th time's the charm!" I cheerfully responded to the gravedigger. The most dangerous enemy in roguelikes is hubris, so I love how Dungeonmans doubles down on the inevitable cockiness that 99% of the time will get you killed.

If Tales of Maj'Eyal is the Lord of the Rings of traditional roguelikes, Dungeonmans is probably the Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I have been on an absolute tear running through a ton of different roguelikes lately. Dungeonmans probably isn't my all-time favourite or the one I spent the most time on, but my adventures in running a school of ultra-manliness certainly makes it one of the most memorable. Normally excessive reference humour kills a little piece of my soul, but Dungeonmans' sense of humour really works for me. Yes, there are lots of silly dumb references, but a lot of the comedy of Dungeonmans comes from a more universal absurdity—kind of like how Discworld balances straight satirical parody with more situational comedy. You play as Fightermens and Southern Gentlemens and Psychomensers and fight enemies like the dreaded Trigar—which is three tigers standing on top of each other and had me absolutely rolling. Skills are also in on the joke—armor is divided into light, medium and Real. There's a motley crew that runs your school, like the librarian who hates his job and warns your uncivilized Dungeonmans not to eat the books (with good reason—one trait prevents you from reading scrolls because they look so delicious you can't stop yourself from eating them). Another thing helping Dungeonmans is that it's both a parody of its genre but also a pretty good entry on its own (think Shawn of the Dead or Princess Bride and the like). Combat is very skill heavy a la ToME, but with shallower trees that reward spreading out and trying new combos. There's some really creative ones too—one skill tree involves Ire, a resource that drains in real time and throws a fun wrench into my casual roguelike tea-times. The school also provides a roguelite layer that boosts stats, tracks IDed stuff and offers random bonus skills. I know some people will sneer at the thought of anything carrying over in a traditional roguelike, but it's not exactly like the school makes the endgame easier. I tend to think of roguelikes as a lot of going through the motions broken up with nail-biting decisions and the leg up from the school just lets you skim through the stuff you've already cleared and get back to the high level play faster. Unfortunately Dungeonmans can be a little buggy, but I have to compliment the developer for adding QOL, fixing bugs and developing fun new features even seven years on. It doesn't have the greatest UI—extra hotbars block other elements, for example, which can be quite annoying in a skill heavy build, but it's also fairly easy to use for a roguelike. Lastly Dungeonmans doesn't have a particularly compelling level algorithim, generating samey dungeons with a lot of random empty space. Again, it's very similar to ToME, which has the same problem making interesting layouts, but at least in ToME you can mush autoexplore to speed through the more tedious dungeon designs. I know autoexplore is a controversal feature for roguelike makers, but a similar feature would make Dungeonmans almost perfect. Still, even as is I'm a big fan. What really does it for me is the excessive hubris. Nearly every conversation with an NPC involves your character remarking about how they're going to live forever and crush the game in one go—"Well you know what they say, 14th time's the charm!" I cheerfully responded to the gravedigger. The most dangerous enemy in roguelikes is hubris, so I love how Dungeonmans doubles down on the inevitable cockiness that 99% of the time will get you killed.