Ascmearc
Ascmearc is a turn-based roguelike played on a grid, in the spirit of the classic ASCII game ADOM. Everything on screen is a glyph: creatures, terrain, and the menus too. The glyphs are drawn on the GPU with colored light, real shadows, and gently animated terrain.
This wiki explains how the game works: the rules you play by and the facts of its world. It is written for players, and it describes the game as it is today, which is an early build.
In this build you can walk and explore, travel the overworld, and watch the days, the moon, and the weather change. You hear what you cannot see. You talk to the people you meet. You pick up and carry objects, wear them, and wield them.
Creatures go about their business, notice you, and fight each other and you. Blows and arrows are rolled against your Defence. They hurt, they kill, and death is final. Spells work the same way, whether a creature casts them or you do; they cost mana (see Magic). How well you fight depends on your stats, your weapon, and your armour.
The numbers here are exact. The game keeps many numbers to itself and tells you in words instead: a creature looks “badly wounded”, you “feel more skilled”, boots make you “move faster”. The wiki gives the real numbers, generated from the game’s data so they cannot drift. That includes your bonus to hit and where it comes from, the stat modifiers, speeds, how loud things are, what a rank gives, and every creature’s stats, attacks, and senses (Creatures in numbers).
- Play in your browser: https://ascmearc.com/ (needs a browser with WebGPU)
- Download for Windows, macOS, and Linux: https://github.com/jannef/ascmearc/releases
- Build a version from source:
cargo install --git https://github.com/jannef/ascmearc --tag v0.18.0 --locked --no-default-features ascmearc(details in the README) - Source and issues: https://github.com/jannef/ascmearc
Where to start
- New to the game? Read Your first run. How do I…? links the answers to the questions players ask most.
- Choosing a build? Your character, Classes, and Talents are where to start.
- Looking something up? The sidebar is in the order you meet things in play, from making a character to the reference at the end, How the world works.
Starting a run
The game opens on the main menu. New run starts a new character in the Ascmearc, the world you play in. (See Saving for the characters you keep.) You make your character one step at a time: your race, your gender, and your class. A summary then shows your age and birth sign and the stats you will start with (see Your character). You set out with your starting kit:
The Ascmearc: Through Beorggeat into the Ascmearc, where the ash falls and no road leads home.
| Scenario | Starts at | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| The Ascmearc | 08:00, 11 Darkening, Year 1444 | Come down through Beorggeat into the Ascmearc; the market town of Cēaptūn lies a short way east along the road. |
Tables in this wiki that list names, times, or numbers are generated from the game’s own data, so they match the version of the game this wiki was published with.
The Ascmearc, “the ash march”, is the first world. You come down into it through Beorggeat, a pass in the mountains on its western edge. Snow closes the pass behind you, so there is no way back. The road runs east to Cēaptūn, a market town an easy morning’s walk away (see The Ascmearc).
Apart from the land and its places, this wiki does not describe levels or walk you through them. The game’s world is still being built.
See also: Your first run, How do I…?, and What’s in the game.