The Tavern

This is meant as a counterpart to the other thread.

I love:
- the huge degree of luck of the draw. It's really cool when you find a really sweet weapon or item because it is rare
- the near-infinite replayability, with an always-different dungeon, and literally thousands of possible character builds.
- the interface and its useful features like autotravel, level annotations, exclusions, etc.

I just want to add - I think DCSS is the best. computer. game. ever. But that's just my nerdy self.

I love that you can play as quickly or as slowly as you want. Want to just cruise through casually and see how far you get? No problem. Want to micromanage and get every last advantage out of every last turn? Same deal. Games can last for months or minutes.

The rapidity with which a game can be started - within moments you're plunged into combat and excitement (read: death).

The literary flavor text on items.

The price.

What I love about Crawl? The gods! In NetHack all the roles have their distinctive "personalities" if you want that sets them apart from the others. In Crawl, that job is taken by the gods. Each one is more than just a random Lawful/Neutral/Chaotic abstraction that accepts sacrifices and sometimes sends you Trollbane to fuck with you. They have personalities, stories and their own quirks. Hell I stopped playing Crawl for a while and started again recently only because I loved Ashenzari's character.

Thoughtful, tactical encounters.
Incredible range of races with very significant distinctions.
Constant, obsessive polishing and refinement of gameplay.
Also, Xom just sent me a demon army when I really, really needed it.

Vaults!
Uniques!
Artifacts!

And best of all: permadeath and really f**king dangerous situations, the thrill of the moment is awesome!