The Dungeon (`pedit5`)

The Dungeon, perhaps better known by its file name pedit5, is the first computer role-playing game and the progenitor of the dungeon crawl genre. It was developed over a four to six week period in the Fall and Winter of 1975 by Reginald "Rusty" Rutherford III for the PLATO system at UIUC. The file name refers to the fifth slot owned by the Population and Energy Group.

The game takes place in a dungeon. The player character is a combination of a fighter, a mage, and a cleric, as they appear in the first edition of Dungeons & Dragons. The goal of the game is to amass 20,000 experience points and then safely exit the dungeon. Experience points can be earned by finding treasure and slaying monsters.

You can watch my world record speedrun of The Dungeon below.

Creating a Character

At the beginning of the game, you are given a random character with four attributes, each with a value between 3 and 18:

Strength modifies the damage and accuracy of your attacks.
Intelligence modifies the damage and accuracy of your spells.
Constitution modifies your hits (health). You gain between 1 and 8 health at each level (plus 1 at the first level), modified based on your constitution.
Dexterity decides who will strike first in combat.

Specific details about each attribute are in the game's manual.

It is possible to randomize stats again by pressing BACK and then LAB.

The most important thing to know is that values between 7 and 15 for strength and intelligence and between 7 and 14 for constitution are the "default" values and don't modify gameplay. When I was randomizing my characters, I looked for 7+ strength, 7+ intelligence, 6+ constitution, 12+ dexterity, and 6+ health.

Leveling Up

As you gain experience points, your character gains the following bonuses:

At 0 experience (level one), gain one mage spell slot.
At 1,500 experience, gain one cleric spell slot.
At 2,000 experience, reach level two.
At 2,500 experience, gain one mage spell slot.
At 3,000 experience, gain one cleric spell slot.
At 4,000 experience, reach level three.
At 5,000 experience, gain one mage spell slot and one advanced mage spell slot.
At 6,000 experience, gain one advanced cleric spell slot.
At 8,000 experience, reach level four.
At 10,000 experience, gain one mage spell slot and one advanced mage spell slot.
At 12,000 experience, gain one advanced cleric spell slot.
At 16,000 experience, reach level five.

Rewards for experience points are not applied until you exit the dungeon, so it is a good idea to do so often. If you choose to create a temporary character at the beginning of the game, you can press BACK after leaving the dungeon to immediately re-enter with the same character.

Treasure

The following treasure can be found in the dungeon:

Gold coins grant one experience point each.
Silver coins grant one-tenth of an experience point each (they always appear in multiples of ten).
Gems grant between 100 and 600 experience points each.
Jewelry pieces grant between 1,000 and 6,000 experience points each.
A magic sword +1 grants 500 experience points and increases the damage of your attacks by one.
A magic sword +2 grants 1,000 experience points and increases the damage of your attacks by two.

Navigating the Dungeon

The dungeon is composed of rooms and corridors separated by doors. Some doors are hidden and only have a small chance of revealing themselves as you pass. Some rooms contain treasure, monsters, or both. The format of the maze is the same every time, but the locations of monsters and treasure are randomized for each character. Additionally, there is a chance that a monster will appear after each time that you make a certain number of moves - even in corridors and rooms that you have already explored. In order to pass through a door, you must break it down. It is possible to break down hidden doors that you cannot see.

The following map of the dungeon is a slightly modified version of one created by Nathan Mahney (the original version was missing some secret doors).

I have numbered the rooms and categorized them into the following routes:

Rooms 1-11.
Rooms 12-17.
Rooms 18-26.
Rooms 27-37.
Rooms 38-44.
Rooms 45-53.
Rooms 54-64.
Rooms 65-70.
Rooms 71-87.
Rooms 88-102.
Rooms 103-112.
Rooms 113-131.
Rooms 132-142.

The rooms are numbered in the order that I would recommend exploring them. It is unlikely that it would take you more than about 70 rooms of exploring to win the game. The routes are designed to make a loop where possible so that they can be exited safely. Additionally, several are designed such that it is easy to continue from one to another (in case you have no reason to return to the exit yet).

Spells

The basic mage spells are:

Sleep is guaranteed to put any non-undead monster below level 4 to sleep, allowing you to kill it.
Charm has a chance to charm any human or goblin, allowing you to kill it.
Magic missile has a chance to deal damage to an monster, and deals double damage to undead monsters.

The advanced mage spells are:

Speed doubles the number of actions that you can make before monsters have a chance of appearing and guarantees that you strike first in combat. It wears off after some time.
Blastbolt deals damage to a monster, and deals double damage to undead monsters. It cannot miss, but it has a chance to deal only half of the regular damage. It uses up all of your remaining spell slots of every type.

The basic cleric spells are:

Cure wounds heals you.
Protection from evil reduces the chance of being struck by a monster. It wears off after some time.
Pray increases the chance of striking a monster. It wears off after the next combat.

The advanced cleric spells are:

Serious cure heals you more than cure wounds.
Hold person has a chance to hold any human or goblin, allowing you to kill it. It is more likely to succeed than charm.
Dispel myth has a chance to dispel any mythical monster that isn't a dragon, ending the combat.

Specific details about each spell are in the game's manual. The spells that aren't listed here (and are listed with an asterisk in the game's manual) aren't implemented.

If you have them, I recommend casting speed and protection from evil upon entering the dungeon, as the former doubles the duration of the latter.

Combat

When you encounter a monster, you have the following options:

Fight the monster. Upon selecting this option, the entire combat will be simulated instantaneously. In practice, you are almost guaranteed to lose a combat without spells, regardless of your level.
Run from the monster. This is only possible in corridors.
Cast a spell on the monster. This uses up one spell slot of the corresponding type. Exiting the dungeon restores all of your spell slots.

Monsters are grouped into the following categories:

Humans.
Goblins: kobolds, goblins, orcs, hobgoblins, gnolls, and ogres.
Animals: giant rats, lizards, ants, weasels, scorpions, and hogs.
Undead monsters: skeletons, zombies, ghouls, wights, wraiths, and vampires.
Mythical monsters: stirges, harpies, gargoyles, Medusas, wyverns, and dragons.

Specific details about each monster are in the game's manual.

I used the following combat strategy, which is a modified version of the one published by the CRPG addict:

If the monster is at or below level 4 and not undead, cast sleep if you have it.
Otherwise, if the monster is a human or a goblin, cast hold if you have it.
Otherwise, if the monster is a human or a goblin, cast charm if you have it.
Otherwise, if the monster is mythical and not a dragon, cast dispel myth if you have it.
Otherwise, if the monster is undead and you have only one spell slot remaining, cast blastbolt if you have it.
Otherwise, if the monster is undead, cast magic missile if you have it.
Otherwise, cast speed if you have it and it isn't active, cast cure wounds if you have it and have taken damage, cast protection from evil if you have it and it isn't active, cast pray if you have it and it isn't active, then fight.

It is not possible to win against a significant portion of the possible monsters on a fresh character.