USURPER
REBORN

A living world. A hundred floors down. One question at the bottom.

The town of Dorashire goes on without you: its people marry, raise children, grow old, and remember what you did to them. Death here is permanent, and a hundred floors below the streets, seven broken gods are waiting.

Get on Steam ▶ Play Now (Free, In Your Browser)

Play free in your browser. There's nothing to download or install.

Download for Windows / Linux / macOS · Play over SSH or telnet

Usurper was a 1993 BBS door game you played by dialing in with a modem. In Reborn's online game, death is permanent once your lives run out, and the dungeon gets harder from floor 25 down.

Warrior: stronger basic attacks and taunts

CLASSES

You start with 12 classes, and the game doesn't rank any of them above the others.

Races: Human, Elf, Half-Elf, Dwarf, Troll, Orc, Gnome, Gnoll, Hobbit, Mutant. Yes, Mutant. Trolls regenerate. Gnolls bite.

There are five prestige classes: Tidesworn, Wavecaller, Cyclebreaker, Abysswarden and Voidreaver. The endings you've reached decide which ones you can choose in New Game+.

Warrior: stronger basic attacks and taunts
Paladin: guards the party and hits undead and demons harder
Barbarian: Rage boosts attacks and lowers defense
Ranger: bows and ranged attacks
Assassin: Backstab and poison attacks
Magician: bonus damage from spells
Cleric: stronger healing from spells and abilities
Sage: control spells and protection
Bard: strengthens teammates with songs and inspiration
Jester: random lucky breaks in fights
Alchemist: stronger healing potions and thrown bombs
Mystic Shaman: totems and elemental weapon enchants

THE STORY

This is the setup. It doesn't spoil anything past the first hour.

~ The Golden Age ~

Seven gods once watched over the world. A god of war taught honor in battle, and a goddess of love blessed unions. A god of light kept truth. The legends call it a good time, but nobody alive saw it.

~ The Sundering ~

Then came the Sundering. Something went wrong, but accounts disagree on whether mortal pride caused it or one god betrayed the others. All seven gods were corrupted and sealed underground. The war god lost his mind. The love goddess began to fade, and the god of truth went quiet.

~ The Age of Avarice ~

Centuries later, the old gods are stories told to scare children. The dungeon that holds them is the Halls of Avarice. Adventurers go there for gold. Some who go deep start hearing voices from something very old. It calls them further down.

~ You ~

You start at level 1 with 2,000 gold. You pick a race and a class. You fight in the dungeon and make friends or enemies in town. You can take part in politics, and you can marry. A strong enough character can challenge the king for the throne. The gods talk to you before each fight. What you say changes that fight, and the choices you make across the whole game decide which ending you get.

THE SEVEN OLD GODS

Seven broken gods are trapped down in the dungeon. Each one stood for something once, and you decide what happens to them.

Floor 25

Maelketh

The Broken Blade
War & Conquest

You meet him first down on floor 25. He stood for honorable combat in the past, but now he fights without knowing why. What you say to him before the fight changes how it goes.

Floor 40

Veloura

The Withered Heart
Love & Passion

She's fading on floor 40. You can save her, but you'll have to prove something to her first.

Floor 55

Thorgrim

The Hollow Judge
Law & Order

The god of justice on floor 55 turned into a tyrant. His arguments are technically correct and completely mad. You can try to reason with him.

Floor 70

Noctura

The Shadow Weaver
Shadow & Secrets

She's on floor 70. You've been meeting her in disguise all game, and she arranged much of what happened to you.

Floor 85

Aurelion

The Fading Light
Light & Truth

He is down on floor 85. Lies told in the world above weaken him, and by the time you reach him he can barely speak.

Floor 95

Terravok

The Sleeping Mountain
Earth & Endurance

He is the oldest of the seven and has been asleep on floor 95 for a very long time. You can wake him, but whether you should is the question.

Floor 100

Manwe

The Weary Creator
Creation & Balance

Manwe made everything, but at the bottom on floor 100 he is tired of existing and does not want to fight. He asks you a question. You settle things by a fight, saving him, or an alliance. Everything you did on the way down decides your ending. I spent the most time writing this encounter.

THE WORLD

The town keeps going while you're away, and people remember what you've done to them.

Townspeople live on their own schedule

Townspeople have personalities, goals and memories. They shop, train, fall in love, start fights and go into the dungeon whether anyone's logged in or not.

Relatives hold a grudge

If you kill someone in town, their living relatives hold it against you, including their children and siblings. In New Game+, people start to recognize you from earlier cycles, and that recognition grows each time.

Townspeople marry and raise families

Townspeople marry, have children, grow old, and die of old age. Their children grow up into new townspeople. You can marry and have children too. How you raise them shapes the adults they become. If your character dies for good, your eldest adult child inherits half your gold.

Permanent death in online play

Online you have a small number of lives. Lose the last one and the character is deleted. The town news reports it. Your name goes into the Hall of the Fallen at the Temple. Your next character starts with an heirloom gift of gold that grows with the dead character's level.

The gods want to talk first

Seven god bosses wait on the way down. Each talks before the fight, and what you answer changes that fight. The one at the bottom of floor 100 doesn't want to fight. He asks you a question, but the ending comes from the choices you made on the way down.

The town chronicle updates live

The game keeps a running chronicle of marriages, murders, births and coups. Open “Live statistics” under More, further down the page, to watch it as it happens.

It's built on the 1993 original, with 12 classes, 10 races and 100 spells counting the prestige classes. You get throne politics, factions, PvP, a shared economy and a 100-floor dungeon that gets harder floor by floor from floor 25.

SCREENSHOTS

Combat
Main Street
The dungeon
Character status

You can get Usurper Reborn on Steam with a terminal and the fonts bundled in.

Get on Steam

PLAY

► Play in Browser

The browser option opens a full-page terminal in a new tab, with no installation needed.

Play Now

► SSH (Recommended)

We recommend SSH, which works from your terminal or a MUD client that speaks SSH.

ssh usurper@play.usurper-reborn.net -p 4000 click to copy

Password: play / then login or register in-game

► Telnet

Telnet is for MUD clients that don't do SSH. It's unencrypted but works fine.

telnet play.usurper-reborn.net 4000 click to copy

No password needed / login or register at the welcome screen

► Download

Standalone builds run on Windows, Linux, and macOS. You can play offline or connect to the online server.

Latest Release on GitHub

► Steam

You can get Usurper Reborn on Steam with a terminal and the fonts bundled in.

The game is free and open source, so you can play in your browser, over SSH or telnet, or from GitHub release builds. The Steam version is the same game, and buying it is an optional way to support development.

Get on Steam

► The Observatory

The Observatory is a live view of the realm: who rules, what is happening, where everyone is, and who is worth knowing.

Open Dashboard

Manwe, the god who made everything, waits on floor 100 with a question for you.

Your choices decide the ending. Townspeople and their relatives remember what you did to them.

Get on Steam ► Begin

or read the story first

MORE

LIVE STATISTICS

These statistics update every few minutes from the running online server. You can follow town events in the news feed, and deaths appear there too.

Loading world data...

WHY I MADE THIS

Notes from the developer

As a kid, I dialed into BBSes on a 14.4k modem. Usurper stuck with me over LORD and Trade Wars for its depth. In 2004, Jakob Dangarden released the Turbo Pascal source under the GPL, and that's what made this remake possible. I found it later and started Usurper Reborn in C# in 2024 to drop the 1990s hardware limits. It keeps the original dungeon, class system, team warfare and politics.

The living town simulation

The living town is the part I most wanted to get right. The server runs the world simulation around the clock, whether anyone is online or not. Town NPCs have birthdays and distinct opinions. They marry on their own and raise children who grow into new townsfolk. Regular residents eventually die of old age, but story characters do not age. If you take a break, the town shifts before your next login. People you used to know might be gone, and you will meet new faces.

New Game+ and the loop

Once you finish an ending, you can start New Game+ to play through the world again. The town NPCs slowly begin to recognize you across runs. Early on you only get a slight hint. By your third cycle, they ask why everything feels like it already happened. One ending breaks the loop instead. The five endings are not ranked by difficulty. They're five answers to the same problem. I don't think any of them is the right one.

Corrupted gods in the dungeon

Seven corrupted gods are sealed inside the dungeon as boss encounters. Each one speaks to you before battle begins. Your dialogue choices during these conversations alter their stat modifiers and combat abilities. At the bottom of floor 100, the final god does not want to fight. He is tired. He asks you a question, and the choices you made throughout the game decide the ending.

Text on purpose

People ask me a lot why it's a text game. I kept it text on purpose. That honors the original, and some scenes hit harder as text late at night than they would as a cutscene.

You play on a shared server where other players' actions change the same world. There are no ads, microtransactions or loot boxes, and the code is on GitHub under GPL v2 for you to read or fork.

You can play right now through a browser, SSH, telnet or a BBS.

The game is free and open source, so you can play in your browser, over SSH or telnet, or from GitHub release builds. The Steam version is the same game, and buying it is an optional way to support development.

COMPANIONS

You can recruit five companions who fight beside you in the dungeon. Each one has a personal quest line, and they can die for good.

Lyris

The Silent Arrow
She is a traveler with silver streaks in her hair who watches you like she knows something you do not. She speaks in riddles, and you can romance her.
She used to guard the Deepwood before corruption ruined the forest and changed its creatures into monsters. She was the only survivor. She headed underground to follow the corruption to its source and retrieve a mother-tree seed.
Damage Recruits: Level 15 Romance: Available
"There is something... familiar about you."

Aldric

The Unbroken Shield
Aldric is an old soldier covered in scars. He doesn't talk much about where they came from. You recruit him at level 10 as your earliest companion, and he serves as your tank.
He used to lead the King's Guard as captain until a demon slaughtered his entire squad. He was the only one who lived, and his quest forces him to confront that demon.
Tank Recruits: Level 10 Quest: Ghosts of the Guard
"I've failed people before. I won't fail you."

Mira

The Faded Light
Mira is a former priestess you recruit at level 20 to keep your party alive. Her faith shattered after her temple was destroyed, but she continues healing because she knows nothing else.
She spent her life healing in Veloura's temple. When Veloura became corrupted, the healers turned on each other and Mira escaped. Her quest builds toward a decision on whether healing people is still worth doing.
Healer Recruits: Level 20 Quest: The Meaning of Mercy
"I heal because I don't know what else to do. Is that enough?"

Vex

The Laughing Shadow
Vex is a thief and the last companion you can recruit. He joins at level 25 after helping you escape from prison. He deals damage, he's quick with his hands and always has something to say, and he jokes about everything including dying.
A wasting illness has been slowly killing him since birth. His quest One More Sunrise works through a list of things he wants done before dying. He dies 30 real days after you recruit him, and nothing in the game stops it.
Damage Recruits: Level 25 Quest: One More Sunrise
"Life's too short to take seriously. Trust me, I know."

Melodia

The Songweaver
Melodia runs the Music Shop and joins your party at level 20. Her songs heal and strengthen your party. She knows more about the Old Gods than she lets on, and you can romance her.
She once traveled with a famous adventuring party and wrote songs about them. They fell one by one in the dungeon, so she opened her shop. Her quest The Lost Opus is to recover a legendary musical score deep in the dungeon.
Support (Bard/Hybrid) Recruits: Level 20 Quest: The Lost Opus
"Every song needs an ending. Even mine."

FIVE ENDINGS

I didn't list the endings here on purpose.

There are five endings. You settle things with Manwe on floor 100 by fighting him, saving him or forming an alliance. You don't pick an ending from a menu. Your choices across the game decide it, including how good or evil you've been and which Old Gods you saved or destroyed. One secret ending only becomes available from cycle three onward.

Most endings unlock prestige classes for your next life. One ends the loop instead.

HISTORY

Usurper started as a BBS door game and became Usurper Reborn.

BBSes (1978-1999)

Before the web, people ran Bulletin Board Systems. A BBS was a computer you dialed into with a modem over the phone line. You heard the screech of the handshake when you connected. Inside were ANSI art screens and games. By 1992, there were over 25,000 BBSes in the US. A SysOp ran each one from a basement or a bedroom.

Door Games

Door games were outside programs a BBS launched for callers. They were all text and ran over a phone line. You had limited play time per day. Trade Wars 2002 and Legend of the Red Dragon had persistent worlds. What one caller did today changed what other players found tomorrow.

Usurper (1993)

Jakob Dangarden wrote Usurper in Turbo Pascal in 1993. Legend of the Red Dragon was the big door game then, but Usurper was more complex. It had races and classes with real differences. It had a 100 level dungeon, team warfare and a throne you could take. It was set in Dorashire with the Dungeons of Durunghins. Devoted players followed it through updates into the early 2000s.

Who Kept It Alive

Jakob Dangarden released Usurper under the GPL in 2004.

Rick Parrish of R&M Software ported the Pascal source to modern systems for 32 and 64 bit. He also wrote GameSrv, which is BBS server software.

Daniel Zingaro did a large part of the bug fixing on the Pascal source. Version 0.20e is the most stable release because of it.

Usurper Reborn (2024-Now)

I'm Jason Knight. I started Usurper Reborn in 2024 to see what Usurper could be without the limits of 1990s hardware. I wrote it in C# on .NET 8.0, and all the original gameplay is in it.

I added about 60 unique NPCs with companions and a world simulation that runs on the server 24/7 whether anyone is logged in. You get New Game+ where NPCs become aware of the loop. There are seven god encounters with branching dialogue and five endings. The game still runs as a door game on BBSes.

BBS LIST

BBSes that are running Usurper Reborn as a door game right now.

BBS Name Software Address
Shurato's Heavenly Sphere EleBBS shsbbs.net
The X-BIT BBS Synchronet x-bit.org :23 (telnet) / ssh -p 22222
The UNIX-BIT BBS Synchronet x-bit.org :1336 (telnet) / ssh -p 1337
Lunatics Unleashed Mystic lunaticsunleashed.ddns.net:2333
A-Net Online Synchronet bbs.a-net.online :1337 (telnet) / ssh -p 1338
Nite Eyes BBS Mystic bbs.lizardmaster.com
Looney Bin BBS - looneybinbbs.com:2023
UORealms - uorealms.com (web)

Running Usurper Reborn on your board? Let me know and I'll add you.

ROADMAP

The source code and issue tracker are public on GitHub. This roadmap shows what's shipped and what's planned:

Now: 1.3.13 is live

1.3.13 is out: a BBS door no longer crashes on Quit while its world sim is saving, and the next caller gets the world sim back sooner. The roadmap below says what comes next.

Next

Fixes as they come

Usurper Reborn is in maintenance: reported bugs are fixed in occasional releases. Report them on Discord or press ! in the game.

Ongoing

Recently shipped

1.3.12: Even towns

Shipped: new arrivals in town come as the sex the town has fewer of, so a town that drifted toward men evens out, and UORealms joins the BBS list, with 2 changes in all.

1.3.11: Fair starts and fixes

Shipped: Quick Start characters with the same stats as custom ones and a repair for saved ones, a Healer discount for members of the Faith, four town menus that fit in every language, floor bosses drawn by theme and fixes to the play page and the online server, with 29 changes in all.

1.3.10: Quests, story and the living world

Shipped: quest targets on named dungeon floors, bandits three times as often during a bandit contract or raid, Manwe's final answer weighing the ending, a fifth dungeon outpost on floor 85, working services in the Outskirts, a bank that pays its stated rate and portraits for all 17 classes, with 85 changes in all.

1.3.9: The Chronicle view

Shipped: the play page with its Chronicle view, a book page layout with monster pictures, floor scenes and a room map, single key menus on the web, the Observatory page of public world data and the classic Main Street back as the default, with 32 changes in all.

1.3.8: Allies and saves

Shipped: an order to tell an ally to wait in a cleared room, allies who remember a fallen teammate, single player loads that start clean, NPC opinions that hold across a load and an SSH relay that keeps the game's last lines, with 11 changes in all.

1.3.7: Class tuning

Shipped: the classes tuned from the measurements of every class at every depth and against every Old God (Power Hat, the Alchemist's late bombs, the Voidreaver's Constitution and Corruption Harvest), harder monsters on floors 76 to 100, and Manwe's Creator's Ward against gear enchantments, with 18 changes in all.

COMMUNITY

Players report bugs and suggest ideas on Discord. Come tell us how you died.

SPONSORS

The game is free and GPL licensed. These people help pay for the server. Thank you.

Loading sponsors...

CREDITS

Jakob Dangarden

Original Creator (1993)

Wrote Usurper in Turbo Pascal. JAS Software. Made the decision to GPL it in 2004 which is the only reason any of this is possible.

Rick Parrish

Preservation & Porting

Ported the original Pascal to modern systems. Created GameSrv. If you've played a door game in the last 15 years, Rick's software was probably involved.

Daniel Zingaro

Bug Fixing

Went through the 1993 Pascal source line by line fixing bugs nobody else had bothered to track down. v0.20e is the stable version because of his work.

Jason Knight

Usurper Reborn

That's me. Built the C# remake, wrote all the story content, the NPC system, the world sim, the god encounters. Still actively developing it.

xbit

ANSI Art

Race and class portrait art seen during character creation. Beautiful ANSI art from x-bit.org.

Sudden Death

ANSI Tools

Creator of rez2ans, the ANSI conversion tool used to bring portrait art into the game.

Cozmo

ANSI Knowledge

ANSI art knowledge and guidance from Lunatics Unleashed.

fastfinge

Code Contributions

Community contributor helping improve the codebase.

maxsond

Code Contributions

Community contributor helping improve the codebase.

evanofficial

Code Contributions

Accessibility improvements including persistent screen reader preferences.

LowLevelJavaCoder

Code Contributions

Community contributor helping improve the codebase across many systems.

Coosh

Code Contributions

Community contributor. Found and fixed an XP-formula desync regression by tracing his own soft-locked Lv.73 character to 12 duplicated copies of the same function across the codebase, then centralizing them into one canonical implementation.

TestingBytes

Code Contributions

Community contributor helping polish the game's menus.

Thanks to every SysOp who kept a board running, and every kid who dialed in to explore Durunghins.

Join us on Discord