So in the wake of the crowdfunding campaign, I've been thinking about what has kept ADOM fresh for me after all these years.
I think I have my answer: the early game sets the tone. There are several choices to be made with real and immediate importance--Keethrax or Yriggs, join the thieves' guild or not*, spend time hunting for Kranach or try to rescue the puppy, risk the SMC... eat Keethrax and probably gain a corruption, or return his body to Guth'Alak. When I start a new character, the choices I make in the early game make me feel like I'm telling a unique story, like the character is participating in the world in a meaningful way. The investment gained by these choices sustains me for a long time, at least until Dwarftown.
But after Dwarftown, ADOM sometimes becomes a bit of a slog. It's still fun, don't get me wrong. But after that point nearly all the quests should be done if you can, and there's an ideal order in which to do them. The important choices I made fade into the past, and what sustains my interest are the unusual events and surviving risky situations. It becomes more like other roguelikes.
So I've got one simple request for Thomas--with all the new quests he's going to be adding (yay!), it would be great if some of them were mutually exclusive, and if more of them had consequences on future interactions in the game. It would be even better if the choice between them relates to the personality of the character, and not just on what makes the most sense for the class.
For example, a quest to the monkey jungle to defeat the ape king might yield lost magical knowledge (a unique spell) and an artifact weapon--but accepting the quest means that I can't travel to the Pleasure City of Graff with equally interesting rewards but a very different experience. The choice between the two can then be based at least partly on the character's narrative and acquired personality.
When I tell my friends about ADOM, I tell them it's the only roguelike RPG. And the root of this is not the wonderful world, not the race/class system, not the skills and talents. It is an RPG because I get to make choices with real consequences to the story that plays out in the game.
Thanks for listening!
Ben
*The weakest part of this narrative is the thieves' guild, because joining it is incredibly useful to everyone, and has no real consequences. It would be more interesting if shopkeepers throughout the valley raised their prices due to a lack of trust, for example, or even if the sheriff refused to give any more quests to a joiner.