Angband variants table

List of ~150 Angband variants and their descriptions.
Yellow means that this variant was ‘recently’ updated.
Green means that variant is up-to-date with Vanilla.

Angband
Vanilla or V
Modern original Angband.
AlexAngband Based on 3.0.0 (2003). Uses Lua to add new spellbooks. It also includes some realism changes, allows different characters to interact more (e.g. by sharing the same house), and has a whole host of minor tweaks.
All character information is stored in a savefile-independent way, allowing different characters share items, monsters info, etc.
An Adventurer’s Guild, where items can be sold and bought by other characters
“Storm levels”, which are levels engulfed in elemental storms and contain powerful artifacts.
The addition of a belt slot, from which you can use an item in half a turn; also, other “realism” changes making it take longer to use an item from the pack than one worn or wielded
Different modes of two-handed fighting
Angband for PSP Angband 3.0.6 for PlayStation Portable
Angband64
JAngband
Based on 2.8.3 (1998-2001). Included a number of innovations including, vampiric weapons, enchant armour/weapon scrolls that work on Amulets of the Magi and Rings of Slaying, new ego armour, and a few new artifacts. Also introduced dual-handed weapon wield and enlarged the dungeon a lot. Expanded trap selection and allowed traps on door and multiple traps. Stairs don’t always go to the next logical level. There’s wilderness around the town, corpse effects, and a new town. Magic has been revamped. Multi-level vaults.
Angband65

Angband/64 reborn. Based on 3.1.1 (2009).

AngbandTK

Based on Angband 2.9.2 (1998-2001). The major difference from Angband is graphical improvements.

AngbandOS

Web front end C# fork of Cthangband. It is not far off from Vanilla.

Animeband Based on 2.9.3 (2003-2007). In Japanese (with English versions). An Anime-themed adventure. Play a Hententmon Chi Warrior, a Sky Dragon Sentai, an Android Cosplayer, a Moogle Ninja, or many other combinations in a world of Japanese-inspired fantasy. Will the Kimono Rulue save you … or will the fiery rage of Tien-Shin Akuma or the slave-dragons of Lina Inverse finally be your doom?
Anquestria ‘A My Little Pony’ variant. Player races: Earth Pony, Pegasus, Unicorn, Dragonling, Diamond Dog, Griffon, Alicorn.
BAngband

Based on: PC Angband 1.4.1 (1995).

  • Adds two new character classes, Monk and Dragon. Monks use “karate books”. There is also a new shop in town and a new artifact was added.
  • Timed invisibility as a spell for Mages, Priests and Monks. Resist Death as a spell,
  • Extra +todam, resist fear/XP loss/blindness, extra blows/round with heavy weapons, all for Warriors.
  • Faster spell learning, extra +tohit, resist XP loss/pickpocket attack, extra blows/round with light weapons, all for Rogues.
  • Paladins are immune to poison.
  • Mages replaced with Wizards (leaving Rangers as the 1/2 magical 1/2 fighter class) who gain spells quickly, but cannot wield weapons.
  • Abilities Added: Dodging (toggle with ]), Two-Handed fighting, Magicity (innate magical abilities of each race and class that modify spell effectiveness).
  • Spell lists somewhat modified.
Bakabakaband

Baka means “stupid” in Japanese. Bakabakaband is Hengband’s variant for purpose of Deskull’s personal sandbox of *band and *NASTY* hobby, developed in the following directions.

  • Abolish “permanent death” and resurrection by stupid reasons;
  • Stupid monsters and items that have no regard for game balance;
  • Palodys of Stupid Internet Memes on Japanese Websites;
  • Enhanced elements of crossover fanfiction since Zangband (author likes Zelazny, Moorcock, Warhammer and so on, but he hates only Tolkien’s religious worldview);
  • Extreme and experimental new systems.

Authors may add an English version soon, but for the time being it will be in Japanese only.

Abandon All Honest, Ye Who Enter Here.

BEAngband
Bleeding Edge Angband
Angband 2.9.0 patches (which some claim as a variant or vice versa).
CAngband
Conviction Angband
Based on OAngband. Strawberry, with O as a base and somewhat less crude hacks.
– Font fixes for X11.
– Theme-style stat boosts every five levels.
– A tentative tweak for more reliable trap detection.
– most race/class combos will eventually get perfect searching and perception
CatHAngband
Cat and the Hack Angband

Based on 2.9.1 (2003). An entertaining variant. It contains new races, modified combat, and allows slays and brands to be gained when using items other than weapons. It started in 1997 as “an attempt to balance out the classes a bit, make certain classes fit their idioms a bit better, and tweak the user interface to make life a little bit easier.

Chengband Based on Hengband (2012). Adds new classes (Time Lord, Blood Knight, Warlock), new items (Dragon Cloak, Ring of Spell Power), new artifacts, and just lots of new stuff.
Chocolate Angband Based on 2.8.2. Added NT-style: food, morale, roguelike messages and free market economy (buying things increases their prices; selling things decreases; expensive things are more likely to be sold in the shops).
Removed preserve mode; removed autoscum; item destruction caused by elemental attacks and spells is affected by damage done, so resists help in protecting your inventory; added the telnet #define to config.h which redraws the screen at various points that tend to leave screen droppings on telnet connections.
ComPosband Composite Poschengband, Kangband and other *bands.
Conglomoband Based on PernAngband 5.1.0 (2002). Added Draconians in place of Dragonriders; removed Maia; added Chaos Lords from Amber.
Craftband

Based on 3.1.0 (2009). Allows players to craft their own magic items. Crafting materials are extracted from existing items, with higher quality items producing better materials. Combining materials according to recipes allows you to create new items. The quality of the created item depends on the qualities of the materials. After creating the item, you are given a number of “quality points” to use to customize the item by adding sustains, resists, slays, brands, etc.

Different classes will receive different crafting bonuses, in the form of extra quality points. Warriors will receive weapon and armour crafting bonuses, Rangers get launcher/ammo bonuses, etc. Craftband also introduces a new Artisan class. The Artisan class has medium combat abilities and no spells, but gets large bonuses to all crafted items. He makes up for his combat deficiencies by using better quality items than other characters at his depth.

Cryptband The goal of the game is to kill Count Orlok who lives on level 20 of the Crypt. It’s a quick game which encourages players to dive and take risks. 

  • Characters gain XP by going down stairs to the next level rather than by killing monsters
  • There are no up staircases
  • There are no stats (STR, CON, DEX, etc…) and therefore no need to improve stats
  • Players can only return to town once per level, and only by finding a portal
  • Maximum HP does not increase when gaining levels
  • HP does not regenerate in the dungeon. Don’t fight monsters when you don’t have to!
CthAngband
Cthulhu Angband
Cthangband based on Z 2.1.0e and Lovecraftian horrors (Cthulhu, Nyarlathotep…); include new races, classes, magic systems, and a wilderness with multiple towns and dungeons.
CyAngband
Cyberpunk Angband
Based on 2.9.3. An attempt to convert Angband from its fantasy basis to a science-fiction/cyberpunk basis.
D’angband

Japanese variant based on Hengband 1.7.2. Published as alpha version in 2013. Inspired by Nethack.

The player’s goal is to get the Amulet on the 50th floor of the Great Labyrinth of Destiny and join the throne of the gods, but there will be more challenges after that…

It also attempts to unify player/monster mechanics; monsters have levels and experience like the player, can have race/class/personality, can equip items. Other series of systems and flavors such as Nethack have also been incorporated to some extent.

Also it has become possible to select a mixed race by selecting two races. Added new races: “Chaotic Royals”, “Avari”, “Urk”, “Olog”, “Jural Alien”, and “Ewok”.

D11Angband

Based on Angband 2.9.3 (1999-2002).

  • Changed races/classes (Drow, Drider/Warrior, Mage, Warrior-Mage, Shamane).
  • Added training of attributes (stats). 
  • Added Quick spells (spell memorizing) activatable by Shift-1 to Shift-9.
  • Added a backpack (as one artifact with activation type BACKPACK). Now you are able to store some items of your inventory to this backpack.
DaJAngband Its purpose is to add a little flavour and character to Vanilla Angband. This is done mostly through redoing the monster list and adding a few new classes and races. Other changes are mainly to complement the changes in the monster list and new classes.
Dangband
Dan’s Angband
Set in Reagan’s America (specifically Modesto, California), but thanks to powerful magic, the dungeon contains remnants of the far distant past, things otherwise yet in our future, and even creatures and objects that originate in other universes.
Diabloband Based on 2.9.2. Revamp to Diablo. Rename classes to Barbarian, Sorceress, Druid, Assasin, Amazon and Paladin. Added Necromancer class; removed spellcasting and spell books – now it’s skills to learn with skillpoints. Characters need twice as much XP to advance, classes do not differ in XP penalty. Added mana and health bars.
Added percentile resistances for acid, electricity, fire, cold and poison. Max from items is 75% and max from items + temporary resistance (bonus of 33%) is 90%. Items that granted immunity now grant a +100% bonus, resistance from most items is 25% per item, rings of element (Flames, Ice, etc) and single-element dragon scale mail (Black, Red, etc) give 40%, items that provide resistance to more than one element give 20% to each. Cold now slows the target, player can resist the effects with cold resistance, monsters immune to cold are not affected.
Added auras, shapeshifts, charge-up skills and finishing moves for assassins, two-handed weapons, Gambling Den which generates unknown, random items whenever entered. Items are always psuedo-id’d; cannot equip unidentified items.
Stuff from Sangband, Randomband, Ey.
Discband
Discworld Angband
Based upon Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels, and as such is intended to be an amusing, rather than serious, game. “In this game you can wield Dwarf Battle Bread, wear Obsidian Boots, cast spells from spellbooks named the Bumper Fun Grimoir, and adventure alongside Gaspode, Detritus and Ridcully against the likes of Lord Hong and Old Man Trouble. Death isn’t around as a monster but he has misplaced his scythe, his sword, his horse and his two assistants…
DragonLance MAngband Multiplayer. MAngband variant based at PernMangband 3.2.1.6. Mostly balance changes.
DrAngband
Dragon Angband
Dragon Angband; adds the “dragon” race.
Dungeon City Variant based on DnD 3.5th edition. D&Dification, deTOLKIENification, deEMACSification. Races got correct stat mods from DnD. Added drow race.
DvEband Based on 2.8.3e (1999).
– Stair can take you 2 levels up or down (LM)
– Chest tend to give better items depending on your class (LM)
– XP gained by opening a chest depends on the pval of the chest
– Added Leon’s famous W&R Stacking (LM)
– Added weapon skills (swords, axes, daggers & rapiers & cutlasses, Polearms, hafted weapons, slings, bows, crossbows)
– Confused monsters don’t breed
– Added the wall of fire spell for mages
Easyband

Based on GSN2Band (2001). Easyband is aimed for a beginner player. The game is *very* easy at start, because of more HP, slaying weapon, few XP, but at higher level (35+) the game isn’t much more different from standard Vanilla. At these level every character is enough powerful independently from class and race. A more challenge will be in Ironmode… New races: Snip S:-10:3:-5:5:0:7 and 
PowPlayer S:7:5:5:5:5:-15.

eband Show energy rather than speed on ‘C’ page
Merge unidentified wands and staves
Stack identical objects even when not identified
Rest with ‘|’ to wait until either mana or hp are max
Remove aggravation from randarts
Add permanent light to artifacts that otherwise would not be splendid
Pseudo-ID property: Splendid: obvious bonuses when wielded
Failed destruction of artifact identifies it
ebering-sil Based on sil. Various interface fixes and balance changes, earthquakes tweaks and the quiver user interface for throwing.
ElliPosChengband Based at Poschengband 6.1.0.
Entroband This variant is intended to be difficult, yet rewarding for characters of all levels. I hope to get rid of some of the chaff and cruft from hengband, and still maintain a disordered and uncertain experience.
EricAngband Based on 2.8.3.
– Some of the sillier breaths have been altered.
– Breath attacks are conical.
– Experience gained from a particular monster type decreases as more monsters of that type are killed.
– Weapons and armour may be given altered damage dice/base ac.
– Several room variations have been added.
– QlzBorg is included.
– Scrolling patch.
EyAngband Based on Angband 2.9.3 (2003). Adds a great many new play elements – races, classes, monsters, objects, and quests – but also jazzes up the game with a better interface, different sources of thematic inspiration, and hundreds of smaller but well-thought-out improvements.
FAangband

FirstAgeAngband
(rewrite @ 4.x)

First Age Angband refocuses on Tolkien’s most developed work: The Silmarillion, great saga of the First Age of Middle-Earth. You adventure in the vast continent of Beleriand, journeying through towns, wildernesses, and multiple dungeons all linked together in your quest to reach Angband, home of Morgoth.

Races include Easterlings, Grey Elves, Longbeards, Druadan, and Adan; objects, monsters, artifacts, and pretty much everything else has likewise been changed for greater thematic unity and therefore a more immersive game.

FAngband

A variant based on PC Angband 1.3.1 (1993), made by David G. Kahane.  Added things like targetting code, monster fear, quick messages, a quiver slot and delayed level feelings.

FayAngband Based on EyAngband. It is designed with three major goals: 1. FayAngband should not reward slow playing. Instead, it should reward good tactics, and taking calculated risks. 2. Make the gameplay faster. Remove unnecessary tedium. 3. Characters should be different from each other. All character classes should have a distinct personality, and all stats should be important for all classes.
FFVIIband Based on 2.8.3 (1999)
Flavorband Based on PernAngband 5.0.1 (2001). It twisted Pern with the addition of the ‘Punk’ race modifier, and added several nips, tucks and bugfixes in its short life. Never really reached the ranks of ‘fully fledged variant’.
Frazband Based on ZAngband 2.6.2 (2006), some of new stuff:
– New magic system.
– Lots of new monsters, removed monsters and modified monsters.
– Sauron and Morgoth are now the main quests.
– Difficulty system.
– Birth option to be able to reload badly progressing games.
– Improved monster AI.
– Many new types of monster behaviour.
– Modifications to the artifact list.
– Fighter-type characters get more hitpoints.
– Melee skill now boosts AC.
– Levels have a chance of becoming ‘babewynified’.
– Some monsters can now ‘obfuscate’.
– ‘Accelerated development’ option added.
– Added safeguard against getting quests to kill friendlies.
– Townsfolk will now no longer flee into the dungeon.
Friendband Pre-Alpha. Based at Unangband. Ideas is to make Unangband easier and faster to play; to simplify the game as much as possible while still offering the core experience of Unangband.
– player does not get hungry
– player always has light, range changes based on terrain
– 3 always-active movements controls: arrows/numpad, hjkl and wsad
– all item interactions go through the inventory: open inventory, choose item and choose action for item
– press space to target enemy, press again to shoot
– press o to open chests and M in towns to view the world map
– the sidebar gives information about the surrounds and current room, including travel directions
– touch the thinnest north/east/south/west map edge to travel in that direction
– no race and class choice
– player auto-levels
– items display all known stats averages for the current player level
– no character screen
– main menu with campaign mode and single dungeon mode
– press ? for controls, the game is playable with only 7 buttons excluding movement
FrogComposband A variant of PosChengband and Composband with more stuff, more humour and fewer bugs; it features a huge amount of varied options/birth options to customise the game.
FuryBand Based on ToME 2; has assimilated many mods, such as Theme, T-Plus, and Dale, while adding its own assortment of classes, skills, monsters, objects, and so on. Nowadays, it also contains Zop’s Furyband, which is mod that attempts to balance these many sources, add yet more items, and otherwise fix erroneous values.
GeorgePits Japanese variant based at Hengband 1.7.2 (2012).  Changes behaviour of “always generate unusual rooms” option. Instead of generating vaults, it will generate pits/nets.
Gerband Gerband is a ToME module (2005-2006), and the later Gerband Enhanced a FuryBand module.
GilAngband
Gileba Angband
Incorporates some things from EyAngband and includes Monster Lite patch by Andrew White. Changes in this variant that are not application of a patch are relatively minor: tweaking of default options, reordering monsters in edit files and removal of unused flags and object types.
Goingband Based on 2.8.3 (1999). Added monster speech, which was stolen from both Kamband and Zangband; added circular rooms from Ying-Yangband, and more!
GSNband Based on 2.2.8 (1998-2000)
GSN2band Based on 2.9.1 (2000)
Gumband
Gods Upsetting the Multiverse Angband
Gumband replaces many of the Amber elements of Zangband with those of Michael Moorcock’s Eternal Champion books. It also increases damage from magical effects, tinkers with the dungeon generation, adds monster vulnerabilities, and rebalances the classes, races, and various other game elements. Gumband has three quest monsters one must defeat in order to win. These are Arioch, Xiombarg, and Mabelrode the Faceless, powerful Lords of Chaos collectively known as the Sword Rulers.
GWAngband Based on 2.8.3 (1996-1999). The intent of this variant was to have a more realistic approach to mage combat, especially late in the game.
Halls of Mist Everyone has heard stories about the Halls of Mist. In the stories people usually see horrible visions in the blue mist and lose their mind. (They say carrying a bright torch would help.) The exquisitely decorated walls, the deserted shrines of foreign goddesses… It’s a scary, haunted place.
Your archenemy, The Thin White Duke, is down there, gathering power. He is an immortal human occultist from the Realm of Skultgard (“skull garden”).
You have only recently learned that the vast dungeon complex actually extends far beyond the borders of Thornwild, your world, to all other realms of existence. You believe the Duke is now negotiating pacts with both the demons of Aether and the dragons of Chaos. Unless you stop him, the combined army of darkness will soon smash Thornwild.
Hellband All of Middle Earth has been replaced with Dante’s Inferno. Instead of battling down the Pits of Angband to fight Morgoth, you battle down the Circles of Hell to fight Lucifer. Hellband uses a ‘realm’ based magic system similar to the one used in Zangband, but also includes many new features of its own.

Hengband

Hengband for OS X

Hengband is a highly original variant originally based on the Japanese version of Zangband. It is available in both Japanese and English and offers not just rich gameplay in a vastly different world, but some of the most impressive interface developments in any *band.

Gensouband

(originally: Hengband Touhou Katte Ver)

Japanese variant based on Hengband.

“Katteban” (勝手版) in Japanese roguelike community refers to Hengband modifications that aren’t explicitly described to be a ‘variant’.

It is based on the Japanese indie bullet hell shmup series Touhou Project. The world map now represents Gensoukyou (setting of the said series), several of traditional Heng features got replaced by more setting appropriate ones, eg playing as Yuyuko requiring a lot of food.

It’s a minor flavor detail, but instead of being ‘killed’ monsters and player now get ‘defeated’.

Instead of good/evil, monsters are now divided into ‘lawful’ and ‘chaotic’.

Instead of Oberon at level 99 and Serpent at level 100, now you have to defeat Yukari Yakumo (Touhou Project character) at level 50 and Oberon at level 100; Serpent is now a postgame boss at level 127 in a postgame dungeon.

Player resistances also got changed; nexus is now unresistable, but is strictly an endgame element; equipment can grant water/time resistance; “holy” is a new resistable element.

Difficulty levels are present. Easy significantly reduces the difficulty, but the game ends when you defeat Yukari (and you cannot go below level 50); Normal is easier than usual, you become *WINNER* upon defeating Yukari, but you can progress further and defeat Oberon/Serpent; Hard is regular difficulty; Lunatic is nightmare mode.

‘Extra’ difficulty is a separate gameplay mode similar to ironman – you start at dungeon level 1, you have to go down to level 100 and can’t go back. Every 10th level is a copy of a quest level with better rewards than usual. You can find ‘spellcard’ items in this mode which allow you to use the special abilities of the Touhou Project characters.

Perhaps the most notable feature is the ability to play as one of the characters from the Touhou Project instead of picking race/class; each of them has their own stats modifiers, magic/melee proficiency and unique abilities. Game difficulty in this mode varies a lot – some of characters are super strong, some are a challenge even for expert players. Difficulty generally corresponds to the said character’s strength in the setting.

Also, for any Touhou fans that might be here: No, this game doesn’t have content from the PC-98 games. There are references to the supplementary manga works, though.

iband Based on Sangband. Changes in resists, skills, stats. No half-races. No source code/binaries accessible.
Ingband
IronMan Angband
Based on 2.8.3 (1999).
New start-up screen
Limited character re-rolling; now have a choice of one from ten rolls.
All characters start as a new character class: Citizen
Moved character class selection to buildings in town
New character class: Druid
Removed monster health bar
Added trapped doors
Made each building in town a different guild
All stores are locked (the owners have left town!)
“Create stairs” only creates down staircases
“Teleport level” only teleports downwards
Cannot use up-staircases unless current hp <= 1/4 max hp
Added random starting items
Ironband Ironband is an ironman-only variant aiming at fixing some of the things that normally make Ironman annoying; it’s classless, the dungeon is 50 levels deep and the final boss is The Witch King of Angmar. It’s forked from NPP.
IsoAngband
aka Iso-Angband
A try to add a graphical, isometric display frontend to Angband.

See also: Yanotavar

IsoFunband
aka Iso-Funband
Isometric display frontend to Angband (2001-2010). Tiles are in turquoise color.
– Less OOD monsters on early levels.
– Room shapes slightly adjusted to work better with the iso view.
– Third page for shops and home.
– Entering home will restore max HP.
– Raised default no. of monsters per level from 14 to 20.
– Lowered HP of some of the early monsters.
– Hobbits now also have a 30% chance to drop mushrooms.
– Added ego lights,
-> of Brightness, +1 light rad
-> of Sight, see invisible
-> of Bright Sight, +1 light rad, see invisible, up to +5 to hit.
– Light sources have 10% chance to become ego lights.
– Lightable features, doors, stairs.
Iso-PernAngband Isometric display frontend for PernAngband.
IsoUnangband
aka Iso-UnAngband
Isometric display frontend for Unangband.
Jackalband
Formerly coffeeband
New variant. Adjustments to stat/class/race bonuses, Rework Blows, Change Weapon Weights.
Jackband
Jack-of-all-trades Angband
Classes: Adventurer (no stat modifiers, no skills yet until I figure out what the numbers mean, really fast pseudo-ID, -50% XP to gain a level), Warrior, Mage, and Priest.
JLE patched Angband
 Jonathan Ellis’ Angband
Patch which alters the distributions and types of monsters, items, artifacts, as well as adding new ones; has been integrated into Vanilla since version 3.0.0.
Kobold race. 60 new monsters, 20 new artifacts, a dozen new types of ego-item and a few new standard items.
Shoot down Pit Fiends and Elder Vampires with Silver Arrows from the Short Bow of Amras or Bolts of Venom from the Heavy Crossbow of Umbar, or protect yourself from enemies with the Jewelled Crown of Numenor or the Shield of Deflection of Gil-galad – or hack them to death with weapons of Fury, or blades of Gondolin. Wear a Crown of Serenity to keep your mind clear of all noises, confusions and distractions, or a Shield of Preservation to protect your body, soul and equipment. Use the power of the Palantir of Westernesse to see all your enemies and map all areas, but also beware, for those monsters which you detect will be alerted to your presence. Hide from the flocks of Crebain crows, used by the forces of evil as spies: and never wake up those evil insects, the Neekerbreekers…
Kamband Wacky roguelike with a touch of a post-apocalyptic flavor. Adds a lot of new races/classes including the Death Mold, the Leprechaun, Mimics, Mutant race and more.
KAngband Fantasy/Sci-fi. Adds user-definable quests. New town-level with many new buildings and a wilderness: Fighters-Hall, Order of Paladins, Rangers-Tavern, Tower of Sorcery; Library, Castle, Inn, Arena and Gambling House.
Other changes are: a new race – Kobold, class – Illusionist, terrain features.
Kokarage Angband variant is in Japanese (2004-2006). Based at Hengband.
Langband Rewritten in Common Lisp.
MAngband
Multiplayer Angband
Realtime multiplayer variant of Angband. MAngband uses a realtime structure to allow multiple users to play simultaneously on a server. To win the game you must build up a character, selected from any one of 11 races and 6 classes, to be powerful enough to defeat Morgoth, Lord of Darkness, who lives in the dungeon 5000 feet below the surface of the town. As you work towards this near-impossible goal, you will chart unexplored dungeon passageways, do battle with legendary creatures, and find lost artifacts. And of course throughout your journeys you will encounter many other adventurers — whether they be friend or foe is up to you to decide! Details
Minimal Based on NPPAngband v.0.5.3 and Angband 3.1.0.
Dungeon is now 50 levels and level smaller; heavy stair scumming discouraged.
Chaos attacks only have a 1 in 3 chance of making you hallucinate
Max damage of elemental breaths is down to 1200
If you are very poisoned, you lose multiple HP per turn
If your stats are badly drained, you may resist further draining
When a monster melees you, nearby sleeping monsters who have LOS to you are likely to wake up
Shops other than the black market do not carry egos or jewelery
No artifact heals more than 300 HP or provides temp elemental resists
Cursed weapons/armors are not found. However, some ‘good’ weapons can have negative to-hit
Only four classes and five races
Warriors never innately resist fear
Priests suffer the pointy penalty if they use bows or crossbows (slings are OK)
Rogues do not get special combat boosts or set traps. However, their stealth improves with level, and they can wear any gloves
Elves get SI
There are now only 3 town and 3 dungeon books per class, with just 6 spells each
Casting spells only gets you 1 XP
Teleport Other is a bolt not a beam
OOD is less damaging and more expensive
High Dex gives a Speed bonus
Extra shots aren’t as quick as they used to be
MJBand
Michael Barnes’ Angband
  • A new class: The Elementalist.
  • Useless equipment is getting a use (Rings of Brutality,  Geekness, etc)
  • Added a degree of combat-based stat loss (electric shock to drain your DEX)
  • Creatures which can ‘point at you and curse’ now get a chance to curse your equipment.
  • Random amount of the weapon’s plus to damage is added before brands/slays are calculated, and the remainder afterwards.
Multiband
Multiclass Angband
  • Adds classes (Monk, Berserker, Archer, Illusionist (from Kangband), Trickster, Death Priest, Crusader, Undead Slayer, Shifter, Runecaster, Sorceror.
  • Added Yeek, Maia, Dark Elf, Wood Elf, Kobold, Nibelung; Elf -> Grey-Elf, Fey. New race : Caveman.
    Shadow race (can avoid death by entering astral mode (unless already astral or on the surface), but loses all stuff.
  • Added easy mode, nightmare mode, astral, hide all character info mode.
  • Added multiclassing. Can become a new class when all current classes are level 25 or more. XP is divided between all classes usually.
NAngband Unreleased. Previously known as Elasticband (based on 3.0.2).
Neoband Aquilan race 2:1:-1:0:-4:2 RES_COLD | FEATHER.
Classes:
Pyromancer -3:2:0:0:-1:0
Avatar 0:-1:2:-2:-1:1
Sapper 1:1:-3:3:-2:-4
Reaper 4:-1:-1:3:3:-3
Assassin 1:1:-3:2:-1:2
NewAngband Based on PernAngband. NewAngband offers a multi-class system, a random ego item generation system, abilities to learn from each different classes, elites and boss monsters, and more… NewAngband is made to be a hard Angband variant; you can resurrect though, but without any items.
NewArtAngband Adds the possibility to make new Artifacts and possibility to enchant ordinary items to Ego ones. New artifacts can have activations. New scrolls: Create Ego Item, Create Minor Artifact and Create Artifact. The usefulness of Create Artifact spell/prayer/scroll depends on player experience.
NPPAngband
No Pet Peeves Angband
NPPAngband is an attempt to take the most popular ideas from the many Angband variants, as well as many of the popular patches, and bring them into the “vanilla” Angband environment, and rebalance the game to account for these changes. The end goal is to make variant that has an Angband flavor but incorporates many of the ideas and features made popular by other variants. It is an attempt to answer the hypothetical question: What would Angband look like if it was more aggressive about taking more ideas from the variants? In addition, I am trying to make something more challenging than Angband v3.0.x.
NTAngband
Non-Tolkienian Angband
New features added on to Pern 5.0.1 (now ToME). Goal: to provide ideas that are rejected and despised by rational variant maintainers a forum to grow and thrive within. Basically, the seamy underside of Angband. Eg:
Diagonal movements take more energy
Breeders breed less while poisoned
Random Options and Random Birth options.
The artifact kit
Made food more realistic, it takes longer to eat a ration of food than
Diablo mutation. If it hits, drink a potion of New Life *immediately*
SILLY flag to dungeons so that silly events don’t happen in serious dungeons.
Morale. Don’t let it get too low; if random bad things happen, drink lots of alcohol and eat a balanced diet.
Parasitic worm (Enterobius vermicularis) monster.
Mycoparasitologist class (work with parasite eggs).
Sigaldry realm
NuAngband – Crossbows are more powerful but take time to reload.
– New element Law
– Globe of Invulnerability is back, but not as powerful as it used to be. It now drains your mana when yu take damage.
– Many monsters have been changed. The entire monster list has been reorganized.
– LUA is not fully supported. I don’t know enough LUA to put the new ‘mage weapon’ code in the LUA copy of the do_cmd_activate() function. All other new spells are included.
Oangband
Opinion Angband
Was created to address some perceived problems with Angband, eg warriors are better off wielding large weapons instead of small ones – the base damage dice are what count, not the number of attacks. Offers individual and distinct classes and specializations, intelligent and diverse monsters, and subtle and interesting objects. Depth of play is tremendous, with well-balanced ways to kill monsters that work from the moment you walk into the dungeon, to that dread day you face Morgoth, wielder of the Udun-Fire.
OangbandTK Oangband with the graphical improvements (1999-2001).
OmnibandTk Four Tk versions of Angband, KAngband, OAngband, and ZAngband under the name “OmnibandTk”. The new version also introduces an isometric view and an improved sound-system.
Oposband Yet another Poschengband / Angband / Hengband variant with various changes. Blue Mages & Imitators are back!
PAngband
Programmable Angband
(Python)
PAngband is controlled by user-created Python scripts.
PCAngband The executable version of Angband for the PC (1993).
PernAngband ZAngband variant which add elements of McCaffrey’s Pern series. Later on it’s author replaced the Pern material with Arda material to make Troubles of Middle Earth (see: ToME).
PernMAngband Multiplayer. Fork of MAngband with ToME features. After some time become TomeNET. Had a lot of new features.
Ponyband

My Little Pony universe. Based at FAangband 1.2.6.
Portralis Formerly known as NewAngband, Portralis is a variant of PernAngband. It is closer to a real RPG than just hack and slash dungeon crawling. There is a story with multiple dialogues, different characters you can speak to, multiple quests which can have many solutions and many outcomes. Portralis takes a non-linear, open approach to the world, in that at the beginning of the game, you can choose to embark in the main quest if you want, but you can also just wander in the wild, explore random dungeons, visit various towns, each with their own quests and characters… and more!
Posband “a rogue-like designed to give the player the opportunity to play as a number of “monster races”, each capable of evolving as they levelled up, thus gaining new powers and skills. The equipment capabilities each race had was also determined by monster (let’s face it, a Quythulg is unlikely to dual-wield maces of disruption, and a spider has plenty of feet to fit footwear onto), which has added a myriad of balancing issues, all designed to add extra flavour to an already interesting game.” // It might be worth mentioning the possessor class can possess any corpse – especially given that that’s where the variant name comes from.
PosChengband

PosChengband attempts a merger Chengband with ideas from Posband and RePosBand. However, many of the features, races and classes of Chengband have been extensively modified and quite a few of the new Chengband classes have been redesigned from scratch. New races:

  • Jellies: reduced number of equipment slots, but each slot can hold any type of object whatsoever giving the ultimate in equipment flexibility. Jellies play like warriors and their main powers are “division” and immunity to cuts/stuns. Jellies are illiterate and cannot read scrolls.
  • Xorn begin life as an Umber Hulk which are capable of confusing their foes with a glance. Eventually, they evolve into a 4 armed Xorn, and yes, they can quadruple wield!
  • Dragons come in 14 different subraces and are great fun.
  • Hounds progress through several tiers of advancement; at each stage, they pick a random choice from a set of available hound types.
  • Liches
  • Angels
  • Spiders
PrfnoffAngband
Prfnoff’s Angband
New features in Angband a2.9.1 include the Wood-Elf race from CatHAngband, “Turin mode” for players who want to play the hard way, and various bugfixes.
PrfnoffZangband
Prfnoff’s ZAngband
Based at ZAngband 2.3.5. New Ironman option to always generate “arena” levels. New startup option that controls terrain streamer generation. New Ironman option to always generate very unusual rooms. New “munchkin” startup options. And more!
PseudoElliPosChengband Based on elliposchengband 6.1.0. A mod of a mod of a mod of a mod of a mod of a mod of a mod of a clone of Moria.
PsiAngband
Psionic Angband
PsiAngband centres around the new class of the Psionicist. Psionicists do not use spells. Instead, they wield special items known as foci that allow them to use incredible mental powers. There are also psionic monsters to battle them.
PziAngband Based on: Angband 2.8.3, PsiAngband and ZAngband 2.1.0e.
PWMAngband
PowerWyrm MAngband
Multiplayer. Based on MAngband, TomeNET and latest V. New races, classes, objects, monsters; enhanced tileset support; advanced multiplayer customization. Details
QAngband Testing ground variant of PC Angband 1.4; contained features not presented in PC Angband (1993).
QuAngband Quangband adds random quests to Angband.  In a quest, you must hunt down and kill a number of monsters of a given type.  If you succeed, you are given a reward. Spellcasters have been weakened in combat, and have had their spells improved.
Questband Entroband 1.7.1 with some minor changes (Half-trolls rework; option ‘Always generate very unusual rooms’ – will add vaults to a level).
Quenta Not released. Based at Angband 3.0.5; text-mode only.
Generalized dungeons (‘areas’ which link to each other in a many-to-many fashion).
Fractal patterns (natural looking terrains, monster AI, treasure drops, etc).
Large dungeon sizes (fractals).
Generalized Bindings (pluggable, just like Terminals are pluggable depending on architecture).
Quickband The aim of Quickband is to descend to the 12th level of the dungeon and slay the evil wizard Saruman. Quickband is intended to be much quicker to complete than regular Angband. In fact you should be able to play a full game in just a few hours.
RandomBand Based on Zangband 2.6.2 (2005). RandomBand will have random monsters generated each new game.
Rangband
Realistic Angband
Add some more realism to the game. Creatures ought to leave at least some trace of their existence upon death, and of course couldn’t stop with just. Some of new stuff:
the creature corpses.
creature corpses
edible corpses
corpse effects
weight limits
correction of silly monster breaths
more confusing hallucination
hacking meat off corpses
player ghosts
cured meat
windable crossbows
bulky objects
broken-potion effects
RePosband Reposband is an Angband variant that attempts to recreate Posband in the latest version of V. Enjoy playing as a monster!

If you’re not familiar with Pos, the basic idea (putting aside possessors for a moment) is that you start as a wimpy member of some monster race, complete with its (wimpy) powers and unusual equipment slots, and by gaining levels you change into tougher members of that species.

RobertAngband Based on 2.8.3 (1999). Adam Bolt’s tileset support, Greg Wooledge’s random artifact generation, Easy Patch 1.1 by Tim Baker, improved Monster AI by Keldon Jones; DOS enhancement support.
Rocketband This exciting variant gives you what you’ve always wanted: a rocket launcher. Get in there, shoot things up, and have fun! Rockets destroy walls; rockets don’t blow up immediately after firing.
Sangband

Instead of advancing skills as you gain levels, in this variant you apply your experience to various skills, like Swordmanship, Magic Using, Weaponsmithing, etc. Also, there is no longer a player class; “class” is determined by the types of skills you choose to develop.

Will you take the Oath of Iron to learn the most powerful warrior arts? Will you stand staunch for the Light – or choose the way of blood and necromancy? A Shadow Paladin, a Magic Engineer, a Loresmith, a Skirmisher – all can topple the Dark Lord from his dark throne.

Also… A clean, unpretentious interface enhances your experience; powerful options let you configure the game as you please. There are six different display modes ranging from pure ASCII to 32×32 graphics, plus sound, music, mouse support, and abundant on-line help.

SBFband A version of Zangband (2.2.3d) changed to use elements from the works of David Eddings (1999).
sCthAngband Based on CthAngband, inspired on Lovecrafts’ Dreamlands. New character development replacing the traditional class-and-level system with a skill system.
Sil Sil is based on NPPAngband 0.4.1; First Age lore: the player has the same task as Beren in the Silmarillion – to steal a Silmaril from Morgoth’s crown.
– Recreating the world Tolkien.
– Balanced combat system, without instant escapes.
– Extensive manual distributed with the game.
– A rich space of possible character builds to explore.
– A clean and accessible control system.
– Sil is designed to be dangerous and challenging, but it is also a much shorter game than most Angband variants.
Sil-Q Continues the development of Sil which hasn’t been updated for a while.
SillyBand
Silly Angband
Based on 2.8.3. Crap hounds (breath crap for 1/2 hp; crap reduces Charisma). Added scrolls of taxes, wands of money creation, munchkin race, power puff girls.
SBband
SlimeBreathBand
Japanese Hengband variant. Several new features including bounty hunting system and corpses.
Smutiband Speaking monsters, funny items, Elvis is a Morgoth.
STAngband Based on ZAngband2.6.2. Varied player races, different classes, tweaked graphics, the Technician class, class abilities, mystical magic system, 2 new statistics and several other special tweaks. Magic system got more realms.
Starband

Sci-fi. Pre-alpha. Based on Steamband 0.4.1f. Classes: Officer, Aesthete, Engineer, Medium, Adventurer, Gentleman/Lady, Rogue, Naturalist. Races based at human national variations and exotic races.

The Imperial Battlefleet maintains a supremacy in interstellar warfare so unrivalled that all human worlds must remain under her protection or risk succumbing to the unnumbered calamities that may befall an abandoned world… Worlds have become destroyed, corrupted or worse once exposed to the alien forces beyond the interstellar void. Some quickly, others slowly – terrestrial means of defense are available to the populations who endeavour to survive without Battlefleet protection.

Steamband Steamband is a Steampunk / Victorian / Pulp variant of Angband. Some of the most detailed and consistent themes in any roguelike, backed by intense work on the game balance and pacing problems plaguing other projects, combines to serve up a refreshing, fun alternative to the Tolkien/D&D focus of most variants.
TeamAngband Based on 2.8.3 (2000). Allowed the player to control multiple characters.
Tangaria Multiplayer variant powered by PWMAngband. New features:

  • 40+ new races and 20 new classes
  • storyline continuing Tolkien universe
  • custom hand-made locations
  • hundreds of new terrain features
  • new monsters types (angels, mutants, djinns, fey, unicorns, ents etc)
  • experience penalty removed; races rebalanced
  • NPC system (with lore dialogues)
  • new dungeons and terrain dungeon’s design
  • detection and magic mapping rebalance
  • customized dungeons brackets system
  • rebalanced food system
  • strict fair-play (prevents cheating)
  • new items, traps, stores etc
TAngband
Terminal Angband
Based on 2.8.3 (1999). Experimental Angband variant focusing on the use of multiple ‘terminals’ with varying content in a single window.
Tanguband
Japanese Hengband variant.
Main feature that it can be played in coffeebreak style – max dlvl is 25. If you are average player, you can win in about 5 hours; and if you are an advanced player, you can win within 2 hours.
TFork
ToME2 fork
Rewrote almost all spells; stats are gained randomly on level up; Perception and Searching have been made useful; Runecraft fix; Thaumaturgy buff, and more.
TGCAngband Based on 3.5.1. Ideas: to increase the variety of buffs that apply to spellcasting classes and to make classes more differentiated, more complex aggro. Ready: classes rebalance, spell speed.
The Iron Hells “seeks to add an attractive, graphical interface with a full 3D environment, icons, sound and music”.
TinyAngband

TinyAngband a *band variant where you can win in a short time. Go down to level 27 and kill Morgoth, Lord of Darkness as quickly as possible. TinyAngband is based on XAngband. Notable features:
Morgoth is on the 27th floor and Sauron guards the 26th floor. Autoroller is simplified. Valar (similar to chaos patrons) reward you at every level up. If you are a veteran player, you can win in two or three hours.

TKKband
They Killed Kenny Angband

Not released. Based on Kamband. A South Park themed variant.

TOband
Tactics Ogre Angband
Based on Hengband (2004-2005). In Japanese. Its aim is to incorporate elements of CRPG game, Tactics Ogre.
ToME
Tales (Troubles) of Middle Earth

Originally named PernAngband. Based on ZAngband 2.2.9a. The game is set in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Arda, although other influences include H. P. Lovecraft and Roger Zelazny’s Amber universe (these are inherited from Chthangband and ZAngband).

  • Skillpoints-based character progression
  • Special levels/quests
  • Multiple dungeons and towns with a large wilderness
  • New schools of magic-based spell system
  • More races (even evil sentient fungus: the Deathmold), subraces and classes
  • Leveling artifacts and monsters
  • New monsters and items
  • Support for modules (partial variants based entirely on scripts)
ToME-SX
Sexy Edition

Based on ToME 2.3.5.
ToME-ah
Anonymous Hero’s ToME
New breath to ToME project.
TomeNET Multiplayer. Originally named as PernMAngband. Based on MAngband & ToME, plus Cthulu and Zangband monsters. Skill-based, several game modes, event system (eg. Dungeon Keeper), parties and guilds system, new races, classes, objects, monsters; day/night changes, four seasons, weather, sound effects, dynamic background music and much more. Details
Touhou Angband Based on 3.0.9. New Races, items, and artifacts; eg. most yeeks/novices -> fairies, orcs/dark elves -> youkai, ogres -> oni.
Unangband
Unnamed Angband
Don’t let the name fool you: The Unnamed Angband has no shortage of distinct flavour that sets it apart from any other variant. You adventure in Tolkien’s world, through towns and wilderness and multiple dungeons, journeying from Bree towards greater and greater danger.

This variant roughly doubles the monster list, expands the class-based system of Angband with numerous possible specialties that let you fashion a unique character, offers a positively absurd variety of terrain (cages that trap you, floor chests that can store objects, burnable woods, chasms, bloodstains), and includes a bunch of major interface improvements, including better presentation of graphics and an experimental isometric view.

Utumno
(download mirror)
Isometric 3D tile Angband variant (1998).
WoWband
War of Wrath
Based on PernAngband 5.1.1. First Age setting.
Weird Based on 2.9.1. Need info.
XAngband Zangband variant of somewhat relaxed difficulty:
Zelazny races and uniques replaced by traditional Angband or new Japanese ones.
Ego Shop that deals in high quality items.
Named ego items (one extra ability or resistance added).
Device using class – Artificer
Possession based class – Snatcher
Staff of wishing
New to 1.3.1:
Many help files updated.
Bugfixes
XBand Based on ZAngband 2.7.2.
1. The soul-gem system. You build your own magical rings and amulets by binding the souls of defeated monsters to jewelry.
2. The races. You play the part of an nasty monster. You might be an Orc, or a Troll. You aren’t fighting to save the world. You are fighting because it’s fun.
3. The auto-ID system. As your characters advance, they gain the ability to evaluate items at a glance. Some classes, like rogues, are very good at this. This helps speed things up in the later parts of the game.
4. The randart system. Every artifact is randomly generated. As you descend deeper into the dungeon, you will find artifacts of greater and greater power.
Xygos You remove a Cloak of Stealth (+3).
You put on a Space Suit.

Variant of Angband aiming towards conversion from V’s fantasy milieu to an eclectic sci-fi / futuristic / post-apocalyptic theme.

Yakband Play a yak! Or rather don’t, because this doesn’t seem to have made it to alpha.
Yanotavar Yanotavar is “Yet Another Angband Variant”, focusing on graphical display extensions, with slight changes to the gameplay in order to compliment to the new display. Features Extended SDL based display routines for Angband.
Yin-YAngband Based on 2.8.3. Adds mutant race and mana batteries, among other features.
Zaiband Based on 3.0.6 primarily to:

  • reimplement 4GAI
  • do other AI repairs, including gradually restricting it to player-available information.
  • prevent exploitative newbie deaths
  • remove the “there is no way I should have survived that” experience.
Zangband based on the works of Zelazny’s Chronicles of Amber (hence the Z), but also includes a great many other traditions, especially Germanic legend and lore. New items, monsters, races, classes, vaults, and a healthy degree of silliness.
Zceband Based on ZAngband 2.1.1c. New “Fiend” race, the possibility of larger maps, crushing ceilings, “Doom monsters”, and updated damage outputs. Big influence from Id Software’s Doom, as there is an “Id” monster, and vanilla Doom monster names and weapon names.
Z+Angband Further development of ZAngband variant, with random wilderness, quests of multiple types, a flexible spell system, and some of the features that have become popular in more recent variants.

Initially table were mainly based at Roguebasin, oook, The Angband Variant Repository; later on more sources were used including direct messages from variant’s devs (thanks!).

I’ve tried to put links to variant’s github’s repos, if they exist. If not – it’s got a link to AngbandPlus repo.

In the description I’ve tried to put at least something; at the same time, if there was too many info – I’ve put only stuff which is IMHO the most interesting. This is a draft version; a lot of stuff will be updated in time.

Not a variant’s but connected to Angband:

Borgband The Borg is an automatic Angband player. It plays Angband by “virtually” looking the display and pressing keys just as if it were a real person sitting in front of the computer. It can analyze the current situation of the game and tries to make intelligent decisions. There are various implementations of the Borg for different Angband versions and with slightly different capabilities.
JavaMAngband Multiplayer Java client for MAngband

 

Q&A:

Whats the differences between modern variants — Hengband, Chengband, OposBand, Composband, FrogComPosBand, etc?

Hengband is the oldest of these, though it has been updated somewhat recently. Chengband was a variant of Hengband with minor changes.

Poschengband introduced huge changes in content, balance, itemization, and probably everything else (developed by Chris).

Gwarl (angband.live creator) made a variant of Poschengband called Composband that added some new races/classes, lots of new quests and revamped the towns.

Frogcomposband is a variant of Composband that has seen a lot of new content and many updates. It is still being regularly updated and is probably the “main” poslike variant right now.

Oposband is a variant of Frogcomposband by EpicMan (who kindly answered to this particular Q&A). It has a number of miscellaneous changes and random ideas.


Please write your comment below: suggestions, additions, proposals. I suppose there are a lot of errors and mistakes, please report it 🙂 Also I’ll be glad to add new variants!

To report typo, error or make suggestion: select text and press Ctrl+Enter.

2 Responses to Angband variants table

  1. Marc Johnston says:

    Can I get my variant added to your list .. AngbandOS … angbandos.skarstech.com?

    Thanks
    Marc

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