Your favorite Variant

[Nero]

I am looking for a variant. Please tell me your favorite variant and why, I want a little more flavor, more races, classes, items, etc.

[EpicMan]

Hengband

-Lots of races, some of whom play quite differently (android, specter)
-Lots of classes, and a number of spell schools to further specialize
-optionally further specialize your character with a personality (defensive, offensive, combat-focused, etc)

-Multiple towns and dungeons
-Really fun quest levels
-Weapon and spell proficiencies - use a weapon or spell a lot and you will get better with it.

[Zikke]

I like FAangband because Nick has made the itemization and spell system very interesting and fun. And the First Age only thing is pretty neat for lore reasons, though I've never actually read the Silmarillion (but I just bought it on eBay and it's in the mail! So excited)

I also like PosBand because you can play monster races (including a "Q") and the different monsters can fight each other, which is fun. And it has a Soul race where you can possess the corpses of things you kill.

[Magnate]

I am looking for a variant. Please tell me your favorite variant and why, I want a little more flavor, more races, classes, items, etc.

Did you try a search? The search function isn't great, but there are so many old threads comparing the features of different variants that you really didn't need to post this.

[d_m]

I like Hellband and Steamband for their totally different takes on Angband (Dante's Inferno and Steampunk, respectively).

I still have a huge soft spot for the first variant I played, Cthangband (now Scthangband) just for adding in all the Cthulhu-mythos and being really strange/hard. Those variants have been dormant a long time though.

Despite it being kind of sprawling I do like ToME just for how huge and crazy it is. That said I don't envy the maintainers of it.

Finally I have been playing Un and FA a lot recently, and would definitely recommend those.

That said, I miss many of the newer V features (monster list, item list, lack of *identify*) in most variants--one of the benefits of playing Un, FA, Daj, or other "newer" variants is that they tend to have (or absorb) more of those features.

[Tatami]

Hellband will always have a place in my desolate black eart because I love the source material and it is very well excecuted by konjin_. The run through dis is easily one of the funnest experiences one can have in a roguelike.

I guess I should say Hengband though becuase after beating vanilla and hellband 6 months ago it is all I have been playing. Really enjoying the J-madness amid the accelarated chardeath.

[Taw]

Hellband is made of awesome thanks to, in part, the themed levels and huge number of uniques (I generally treat them with a "gotta catch 'em all" mentality) keeping things interesting. Gets pretty tough around mid-game, though.

I love TOME and Fury's sprawling quality; it's a lot more interesting to dive to level 70 in three different dungeons with different flavors than to scum level 70 three times in a single dungeon. (In the interest of full disclosure, the sheer brokenness of Fury in particular allows me to reach Moria with reasonable regularity, whereas in harder variants I generally die in the teens at best. Let me tell you, Jedi and SoulKnives are awesome.)

Steamband has a really interesting theme. And pants. Do any other *bands have pants? There's a neat skill system there, too.

As a huge Silmarillion person, I love FA in theory, and what I've seen of it is really nifty with some unusual takes on gameplay stuff, but at this point in time it's way too hard for me.

(ETA: I mean SoulKnives, not Mindblades. Mindblades is a skill, not a class.)

[buzzkill]

I am looking for a variant. Please tell me your favorite variant and why, I want a little more flavor, more races, classes, items, etc.

I'm pretty sure this is the given description of DaJ. It's like Vanilla, but different. Experience life as a golem for a change, a melee heavy character with no HP regeneration.

[Zikke]

That said, I miss many of the newer V features (monster list, item list, lack of *identify*) in most variants--one of the benefits of playing Un, FA, Daj, or other "newer" variants is that they tend to have (or absorb) more of those features.

I think this is the main reason that I keep going back to V. You get used to the really nice features in the new versions of V and then you don't have some or most of them in the variants.

[NotMorgoth]

Sangband, because I love the way it has a complex and flexible skill system without fixed 'character classes,' but keeps the simple V-style dungeon without wildernesses, multiple towns etc.

[Nero]

I've downloaded, Tinyband, quickangband, Unangband, Hengband, and several others. I tried to download steamband but it wouldn't let me.

[Nick]

You can alway try the Furytech mirror.

[will_asher]

Obviously, my favorite is DaJAngband, since it's mine, but I've given the pitch before. Just see the site in my sig for a description.

Anyway, besides DaJAngband, my favorite of the few others that I've tried is Steamband. It would seem unlikely that that was my favorite because I'm not very familiar with the steampunk theme stuff and it seems harder than vanilla which isn't something I'm looking for. But I really like the way Steam handles skills and melee weapon power, and though I'm not familiar with the theme, it seems to be well done in the game.

Most other variants I've tried turned me off quickly because of annoying wilderness (ToME, Un, Portralis..), confusing terrain (Un), and some with a level of silliness which isn't to my taste (Z and certain aspects of ToME).

[the Invisible Stalker]

Definitely O. It's just much less silly than other variants, or V for that matter. None of these angels or similar monsters which have no business being in a roguelike. Also, the O system of magic realms and classes seems very well thought out. And the combat system makes more sense than V's. To be honest, the only reason I play V is that selecting items from menus is broken in the Mac version of O.

My second choice would be Ironband. I like the 9 Ironband stats more than the traditional 6. And Ironband eliminates the "game of shopping" phenomenon.

[Nick]

To be honest, the only reason I play V is that selecting items from menus is broken in the Mac version of O.

Is this Oangband 1.1.0u? And if so, what is wrong with the menus? I have an update of it which just needs to be compiled IIRC, so can do some fixes easily.