NetHack is a single-player, open-source computer role-play game originally based on Dungeons and Dragons. The links between NetHack and D&D are deep, so it is not feasible to list them all. Over its long history, it has incorporated influences from almost all popular mythology and accumulated a vast depth of game play. Large areas are completely different from Dungeons and Dragons, e. g. the workings of magic have been completely revised. But still, much will be immediately familiar to a player of DnD.
The rogue-like genre of computer games was heavily influenced by NetHack. Like most rogue-likes, NetHack deserves its reputation of being hard. However, there are solutions to almost all difficulties. In practise, instead of solving riddles and following in-game hints and allusions, players read "spoilers" like the ones collected below.
NetHack and its variants can be played both on your local computer (with various graphical interfaces) and by logging into a remote server (ascii only). Some 12.000 games are started per month on nethack.alt.org.
See also[]
- NethackWiki - the NetHack wiki and number one reference
- Collected spoilers - precise, technical documentation for advanced players
- RGRN - usenet news group dedicated to NetHack
- Dudley's dungeon and Dudley's (new, improved) dungeon - two webcomics set in NetHack
- The official web site of "vanilla" NetHack
- Sporkhack and UnNetHack - the variants currently most actively in development
- SLASH'EM - another prominent variant
- Vulture's - graphical user interfaces
- Public servers for NetHack, SporkHack, UnNetHack, SLASH'EM