Usurper Reborn - A Modern Remake of the 1993 BBS Classic

// WHY I MADE THIS

The short version.

I used to dial into BBSes on a 14.4k modem when I was a kid. Usurper was the game that stuck with me — not LORD, not Trade Wars, Usurper. Something about the depth of it. When Jakob Dangarden open-sourced the original Turbo Pascal code under the GPL back in 2004, I eventually stumbled on it and started thinking about what the game would be if you rebuilt it from scratch with modern tools. So I did.

The World Keeps Going

This was the thing I most wanted to get right. The NPCs aren't just standing around waiting for you to show up. They've got birthdays, personalities, opinions. They get married on their own, have kids, those kids grow up and become new NPCs. People die of old age. If you don't log in for a while, the town will look different when you come back — people you knew might be gone, and there'll be new faces you've never seen. It's a bit like checking in on a fish tank, except the fish have drama.

NG+ That Isn't Just Harder Numbers

When you beat the game, it loops. But the NPCs start to remember. First cycle it's subtle — "Have we met before?" By cycle three they're asking uncomfortable questions about why everything feels like it already happened. The five endings aren't ranked by difficulty. They're five different takes on the same problem, and honestly I don't think any of them are "the right one."

The Gods Talk To You

There are seven bosses sealed in the dungeon, but they're not really bosses. They're gods who used to mean something and got corrupted. Before you fight each one, they'll talk to you, and your dialogue choices actually change the combat — different stat modifiers, different abilities. The guy at the very bottom of floor 100 doesn't even want to fight. He's just tired and he has a question for you. What you tell him determines how the game ends.

Why Text

The original was a text game and this is a text game. I get asked about this a lot. Partly it's staying true to the source material, but honestly, some of the stuff in this game hits harder as words on a screen at 2am than it would as a cutscene. There's also a shared online server where other players' choices affect the same world, and you can play from literally anything with a terminal — browser, SSH client, telnet, even an actual BBS.

No microtransactions. No ads. No loot boxes. Just a game.
GPL v2 licensed. The source code is on GitHub if you want to look at it or fork it.

Server's up 24/7. Drop in whenever.

// WHAT'S IN IT

The stuff the original had, plus everything I kept wishing it had back in the day.

60+ NPCs

They've each got personality traits (like commitment, romanticism, aggression), goals, opinions, and memory of what you've done to them. They hold grudges. They remember stuff across NG+ cycles too, which gets weird.

NPC Lifecycle

This is the part people seem to notice first. The NPCs actually get married, have children, grow old, and die. Their kids grow up into new NPCs. The population turns over. You might log in one day and your favorite shopkeeper is just... gone, and their kid is running the place now.

News Feed

There's a live news system that tracks everything happening in town. Marriages, deaths, births, assassinations, plagues, coming-of-age ceremonies. It all just happens on its own.

Multiplayer

You can play offline by yourself or hop on the shared server. The server runs the world sim 24/7. There's PvP, chat, a shared economy, and a leaderboard. Your actions show up in other players' news feeds.

100-Floor Dungeon

Floors are generated deterministically, so the layout stays the same each visit and you actually learn the map. Seven god encounters. Six seals to find. Gets genuinely hard around floor 50+.

The RPG Stuff

11 classes, 10 races, 75 spells. Romance system, marriage, kids. Court politics and throne challenges. Factions you can join or betray. 4 recruitable companions with their own quest lines. A PvP arena. Pretty much everything the original had, plus a lot more on top.

// THE STORY

The setup. No spoilers past what you learn in the first hour.

~ The Golden Age ~

There used to be seven gods watching over the world. The god of war taught honor in battle. The goddess of love blessed unions. The god of light kept truth alive. Things were good, or at least the legends say they were. Nobody alive remembers it firsthand.

~ The Sundering ~

Then something went catastrophically wrong. Nobody agrees on what exactly happened — maybe mortals got too proud, maybe one of the gods betrayed the others. The result was the same either way: all seven gods were corrupted and imprisoned underground. The war god lost his mind. The love goddess started fading. The god of truth went quiet. One by one, they all broke.

~ The Age of Avarice ~

Centuries later, the old gods are just stories people tell to scare kids. The dungeon where they're sealed — the Halls of Avarice — became a place where adventurers go to get rich or die trying. Most of them are just there for gold and glory. But some of them, if they go deep enough, start hearing things. Voices in the dark, from something very old, calling them further down.

~ You ~

You show up with nothing. Pick a race, pick a class, figure the rest out as you go. Fight monsters in the dungeon, make friends or enemies in town, get involved in local politics, maybe fall in love. If you get strong enough you can challenge the king for his throne. If you go deep enough you'll find out what's actually down there. The gods at the bottom will talk to you before the fight, and what you say matters. The whole ending changes depending on those conversations.

// THE SEVEN OLD GODS

Seven gods sealed in the dungeon. Each one used to stand for something. Now they're broken. You decide what happens to them.

Floor 25

Maelketh

The Broken Blade

War & Conquest

First one you'll run into. Used to represent honorable combat. His mind's gone now, he just fights on loop. Doesn't even know why anymore. Depending on what you say to him beforehand, the fight plays out very differently.

Floor 40

Veloura

The Withered Heart

Love & Passion

She's fading. Not angry about it, just... going away. You can save her if you prove something to her, but I won't spoil what.

Floor 55

Thorgrim

The Hollow Judge

Law & Order

God of justice turned tyrant. His arguments are technically correct and completely deranged at the same time. You can try to reason with him if you want. Good luck.

Floor 70

Noctura

The Shadow Weaver

Shadow & Secrets

You've actually been running into her the whole game in various disguises. She orchestrated most of what happened to you. Won't say more than that.

Floor 85

Aurelion

The Fading Light

Light & Truth

Used to be the god of truth. He gets weaker every time someone lies in the realm above. By the time you reach him he can barely talk.

Floor 95

Terravok

The Sleeping Mountain

Earth & Endurance

He's been asleep. For a very long time. The oldest of all seven. Waking him up is an option, but "should you" is the actual question.

Floor 100

Manwe

The Weary Creator

Creation & Balance

He made everything. He's at the bottom of the whole dungeon and he doesn't want to fight. He's just tired of existing and he has one question for you. Your answer is the ending of the game. This is the encounter I spent the most time writing.

// CLASSES & RACES

INT

WIS

Barbarian

Berserker

Biggest numbers in the game. Most HP, most strength, most stamina. Basically just walks forward and hits things. INT stat is there technically.

Human

Middle of the road. No restrictions, no weaknesses, no standout strengths. Safe pick.

Hobbit

Harder to kill than you'd expect from something that short. Low STR though.

Elf

The caster race. Lower HP but better magic stats and good agility. Pick this if you're going Magician or Sage.

Half-Elf

A bit of human, a bit of elf. Good stamina. Nothing flashy.

Dwarf

Most HP, most STR, most DEF. The tank race. Short, stubborn, will outlast anything.

Troll

Huge. Can't be every class but the stats are hard to argue with. Dwarf-tier tankiness with even more raw strength.

Orc

Natural fighter. Not charming. Gets the job done.

Gnome

Small, clever, modest stats. They work better than they look on paper.

Gnoll

Smallest race. Makes up for it with determination and surprisingly decent STR.

Mutant

Weird one. The bonuses are random-ish so every mutant plays a little different. Pick this if you like surprises.

// COMPANIONS

Four recruitable NPCs with their own quest lines. They fight with you in the dungeon and they can permanently die, which matters more than you'd think.

Lyris

The Wandering Star

She knows things she shouldn't know. Talks in riddles sometimes, which is annoying until you realize she's usually right. Something about her isn't quite mortal.

Was a priestess of Aurelion before the gods got corrupted. She's been wandering since, looking for a way to fix things. She's the only companion you can romance and there's a reason for that, but it's a spoiler.

Hybrid (Magic/Healer) Recruits: Level 15 Romance: Available

"There is something... familiar about you."

Aldric

The Unbroken Shield

Old soldier. Covered in scars. Doesn't talk about what happened to his unit but he's clearly carrying it. Earliest companion you can recruit (level 10) and probably the most reliable one in combat.

Used to be captain of the King's Guard. Everyone under his command died in a demonic incursion. He made it out. He'll protect you because that's all he knows how to do anymore.

Tank Recruits: Level 10 Quest: Ghosts of the Guard

"I've failed people before. I won't fail you."

Mira

The Faded Light

Your healer. She's good at it. She doesn't believe in anything anymore but the muscle memory is still there. There's a quest line about whether she finds her faith again or not, and it goes to some dark places.

Healer at Veloura's temple her whole life. When the goddess got corrupted, the healers in the temple turned on each other. Mira escaped but she left everything she believed in behind.

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

Thief. Funny guy. Makes jokes about everything including dying. You eventually find out why he's like that and it's not a funny reason. Last companion you unlock (level 25) and he hits hard.

He was born with a wasting disease. He's been slowly dying his entire life. He deals with it by stealing things and laughing about everything. His quest line ("One More Sunrise") has a time limit and it's real.

Damage Recruits: Level 25 Quest: One More Sunrise

"Life's too short to take seriously. Trust me, I know."

// FIVE ENDINGS

Won't say much about these. They're better if you find them yourself.

The Usurper

Take the power. Become god. Get everything you wanted. Live with the consequences of "everything" lasting forever.

Power

The Savior

Fix the gods. Heal what was broken. Everyone calls you a hero and that sounds great until you realize what that obligation actually means long-term.

Compassion

The Defiant

Smash all of it. Walk away. No gods, no power, just a person.

Independence

The True Awakening

Requires NG+. You start to see the loop for what it is. This ending only makes sense if you've been through the cycle more than once.

Requires NG+

Dissolution

Cycle 3 or later. The secret one. Hardest to reach. Quietest. I'm not going to describe it here.

Cycle 3+

// HISTORY

How a 1993 BBS door game became this.

BBSes (1978–1999)

If you're under 35 you probably missed this entirely. Before the web, people ran Bulletin Board Systems out of their houses. You'd use your phone line to dial into someone else's computer with a modem. It made this awful screeching noise during the handshake and then you were in — ANSI art, message forums, file downloads, games. There were something like 25,000 BBSes in the US by 1992, each one run by a "SysOp" on a dedicated phone line in their spare bedroom.

Door Games

BBSes could run external programs called "door games." Totally text-based, running over a phone line at 2400–14400 baud, and you only got limited play time per day because other callers needed the line. The constraints were insane by modern standards, but that's exactly what made people creative. Trade Wars 2002, Legend of the Red Dragon, Usurper — these games had persistent worlds where what one caller did today affected what the next caller found tomorrow. Before the term "MMO" existed, these were it.

Usurper (1993)

Jakob Dangarden wrote it in Turbo Pascal. LORD was the big one at the time, but Usurper went way deeper — real class differences, 10 races, a 100-level dungeon, team warfare, throne politics, complex progression. Set in Dorashire, you explored the Dungeons of Durunghins and the whole point was to get powerful enough to take the throne. It was harder and darker than most door games. Not as popular as LORD but the people who played it really played it.

Who Kept It Alive

Jakob Dangarden open-sourced Usurper under the GPL in 2004. Can't overstate how important that was — without that, this remake literally could not exist.

Rick Parrish at R&M Software ported the Turbo Pascal source to run on modern systems. He also wrote GameSrv, which is the BBS server software that a lot of the surviving door game community still runs on. Huge amount of work.

Daniel Zingaro did a ton of bug fixing on the ancient Pascal code. Edge cases from 1993 that nobody had bothered to track down until he went through it methodically. Version 0.20e is stable because of him.

Usurper Reborn (2024–Now)

I (Jason Knight) started this project because I kept coming back to Usurper and thinking about what it could've been if the 90s hardware constraints weren't a factor. The original game had so much going on under the hood — race mechanics, class abilities, political systems — but the BBS environment limited how far any of it could go. I wanted to see what happened if you took that foundation and built on it with modern tools.

It's written in C# on .NET 8.0. All the original gameplay is in there. Then I added about 60 unique NPCs with an autonomous world simulation, a companion system, New Game+ where the NPCs gradually become aware of the loop, seven god encounters with branching dialogue, and five endings. The world simulation runs on the server 24/7 and keeps going whether anyone's logged in or not. It still runs on BBSes too — there are a couple boards on the BBS list below that have it installed as a door game right now.

// PLAY

► Play in Browser

No install, no download. Opens a terminal right here in your browser.

► SSH (Recommended)

Best experience. Use any terminal or MUD client that supports SSH.

ssh usurper@usurper.rayzer.net -p 4000 click to copy

Password: play / then login or register in-game

► Telnet

For MUD clients that don't do SSH. 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 for Windows, Linux, and macOS. Play offline or connect to the online server.

Latest Release on GitHub

► Steam

Usurper Reborn is available on Steam. Includes bundled terminal and fonts.

Get on Steam

► The Observatory

Watch the NPCs live their lives in real-time. Personality charts, relationship maps, demographics, live event feeds.

Open Dashboard

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

// 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