Skull Crash What's New

September 2 - 23

Sound. Skull Crash has audio. Ambience follows you room to room, falling back to the area's bed and then the zone's, with music at character select. Eclipse Sanctuary and Lontadoth have their own. Terminals that can't play it are unaffected.

Room art. Rooms can carry their own ANSI art, scrolling in above the room text at 57600 baud. First piece: the Eclipse Cenote.

Arrivals. Crossing into a new zone or area now gets a two-level entry cinematic.

Portraits. NPCs have faces Anira, Wunginge'Luhe and five more of the Ngawitu.

Scrollback. PgUp/PgDn through your play history from any screen. Vendor stock and long quest offers scroll too, instead of vanishing past the fold.

Standing. Reputation is live. Quests pay standing with the people who asked for the work, you're told when it moves, vendors who know you charge less, and a door that wants a certain standing says so when it refuses you.

Combat, rebuilt.
- Preparation phase. Fights you start open before the bell. Lead with Charge or Snipe, raise a self-buff, or begin a charged cast or decline and keep your first turn.
- Positioning. Every combatant gets one free step a turn, and creatures close or hold their distance by role instead of standing where they spawned.
- Chains. Every link pays now, not just the finisher. Reaver and Ranger get an unconditional finisher at Lv7 no more building toward an execute window that never opens.
- Channeled abilities work. They used to deal nothing.
- Bleeds, poisons and buffs land as advertised. Battle Shout, Wolf's Howl and spider venom were doing literally nothing.
- Stuns take the turn they promise, and nothing can chain-stun you.
- Telegraphed attacks are always answerable you get a turn before the blow.
- Fights breathe. Longer, better paced, and levels 1-4 no longer run fourteen rounds.
- 44 creature abilities that had never once fired now fire.

Ranger. Kiting rework: Crippling Shot, Slowed and Measured Shot.

Backgrounds. Five new Cook, Knotkeeper, Deckhand, Herder, Featherworker. Noble is now Highborn, and the culture gates make sense (a Lontadoth local can finally be a Fisher).

Quirks. 29 to 40, the mechanical ones actually do something, and your first arrives at level 5.

Check it out on Xibalba!

--
|08 þ |12NuSkooler |06// |12Xibalba |08- |07"|06The place of fear|07"
|08 þ |03xibalba|08.|03vip |08(|0344510|08/|03telnet|08, |0344511|08/|03ssh|08) |08 þ |03ENiGMA 1/2 WHQ |08| |03Phenom |08| |0367 |08| |03iMPURE |08| |03ACiDic --- ENiGMA 1/2 v0.5.1-beta (linux; x64; 22.22.2)
* Origin: Xibalba -+- xibalba.vip:44510 (21:1/121)

Hi all, some Skull Crash updates - lots of new stuff, check it out on Xibalba BBS!

Skull Crash is a turn-based RPG for ANSI/BBS terminals, running as a
door on Xibalba (xibalba.vip). It is in early alpha, and here is what
changed over the last three weeks.

THE ASSASSIN IS PLAYABLE
The fourth class. Two daggers, each hand its own blow, stealth, and
Stilling Cut to take a creature's turn away. At level 5 she learns
Step for Step: when an enemy at arm's length tries to back off, she
goes with it. Both races can take her, with a teacher in each land.

FIGHTS COST LESS, AND COME ONE AT A TIME
- Ordinary creatures hit about half as hard. A one-on-one fight
with an at-level creature now costs about a third of your health
instead of most of it. Zone bosses are exactly as tough as before.
- Packs: some creatures now run in packs of weaker members. They
come at you one after another, with a small chance that two
engage at once. After a kill, the next one waits a few seconds.
- Some rooms hold a wave (stand your ground until it breaks) or a
gauntlet you fight through room by room.
- A creature with nothing in reach braces instead of swinging at
the air.

CLASS CHANGES
- Ranger: a creature that walks into your bow takes a free shot for
it, twice a fight. Crippling Shot now weakens what it hits.
- Reaver: Hook (level 5) drags a creature that keeps its distance
into reach. A Reaver who gets jumped opens with rage to spend.
- Bonus turns now pay their resource, so an energy class no longer
punches on them.

NEW QUESTS AND PLACES
- Both starting regions now carry every class from level 1 to 9 on
quests alone. New quests fill the levels where the road ran dry:
a yearling herd above the hunter's blind, a charcoal burner's
clearing, a deserters' nest on the King's Road, a culvert under
an old causeway, and a canal head behind the herbalist's tent.
- New faces: a levy watchman at the east postern, a garrison mason,
and a ranger who keeps the thorn barricade and tells you what
opens it.
- A dialog choice that needs a higher level now says so: [Lv 7 / 8].
- Kill quests close in one pass; no more waiting on respawns.

REST AND DEATH
- A graveyard in every hub. You wake at the nearest one.
- Inns in both starting hubs, a roadhouse at the last fire before
the sand, and a caravanserai in the desert. Rooms marked safe hold
nothing that starts a fight.
- Dying no longer strips your gear's stats.

GEAR
- Every armour slot has a piece on the shelves at every stage of
the starting paths, and the Human starting shop stocks a weapon
for every class. Below level 7 most quests pay a weapon.
- `look` at any item shows its card, consumables included.

SOUND (on SyncTERM and other terminals that play audio)
- New area loops: the Moon Gardens at night, the web jungle, Nise
Mile. An ambush sting, and music under the death screen.
- Combat music and level-up, quest and loot cues are wired in; the
sound files land soon.
- Fixed a case where a slow connection lost its sound for the whole
visit.

FIXES PLAYERS REPORTED
Poison that runs you out of health out of combat now kills you
properly. Creature cooldowns wear off between fights. Shouting
sentinels speak once, not on every step. Vendor rows keep their
prices on screen. Quest objective counters are no longer cut off.

There is no reset for this alpha. Found a bug or a wall? Type
`report` in game and it reaches the sysop. A gameplay video with the
game's own sound is in the works.


--
|08 þ |12NuSkooler |06// |12Xibalba |08- |07"|06The place of fear|07"
|08 þ |03xibalba|08.|03vip |08(|0344510|08/|03telnet|08, |0344511|08/|03ssh|08) |08 þ |03ENiGMA 1/2 WHQ |08| |03Phenom |08| |0367 |08| |03iMPURE |08| |03ACiDic --- ENiGMA 1/2 v0.5.1-beta (linux; x64; 22.22.2)
* Origin: Xibalba -+- xibalba.vip:44510 (21:1/121)

On October 18 2026, NuSkooler wrote:

Hi all, some Skull Crash updates - lots of new stuff, check it out on Xibalba BBS!

Skull Crash is a turn-based RPG for ANSI/BBS terminals, running as a
door on Xibalba (xibalba.vip). It is in early alpha, and here is what changed over the last three weeks.

THE ASSASSIN IS PLAYABLE
The fourth class. Two daggers, each hand its own blow, stealth, and Stilling Cut to take a creature's turn away. At level 5 she learns
Step for Step: when an enemy at arm's length tries to back off, she
goes with it. Both races can take her, with a teacher in each land.

FIGHTS COST LESS, AND COME ONE AT A TIME
- Ordinary creatures hit about half as hard. A one-on-one fight
with an at-level creature now costs about a third of your health
instead of most of it. Zone bosses are exactly as tough as before.
- Packs: some creatures now run in packs of weaker members. They
come at you one after another, with a small chance that two
engage at once. After a kill, the next one waits a few seconds.
- Some rooms hold a wave (stand your ground until it breaks) or a
gauntlet you fight through room by room.
- A creature with nothing in reach braces instead of swinging at
the air.

CLASS CHANGES
- Ranger: a creature that walks into your bow takes a free shot for
it, twice a fight. Crippling Shot now weakens what it hits.
- Reaver: Hook (level 5) drags a creature that keeps its distance
into reach. A Reaver who gets jumped opens with rage to spend.
- Bonus turns now pay their resource, so an energy class no longer
punches on them.

NEW QUESTS AND PLACES
- Both starting regions now carry every class from level 1 to 9 on
quests alone. New quests fill the levels where the road ran dry:
a yearling herd above the hunter's blind, a charcoal burner's
clearing, a deserters' nest on the King's Road, a culvert under
an old causeway, and a canal head behind the herbalist's tent.
- New faces: a levy watchman at the east postern, a garrison mason,
and a ranger who keeps the thorn barricade and tells you what
opens it.
- A dialog choice that needs a higher level now says so: [Lv 7 / 8].
- Kill quests close in one pass; no more waiting on respawns.

REST AND DEATH
- A graveyard in every hub. You wake at the nearest one.
- Inns in both starting hubs, a roadhouse at the last fire before
the sand, and a caravanserai in the desert. Rooms marked safe hold
nothing that starts a fight.
- Dying no longer strips your gear's stats.

GEAR
- Every armour slot has a piece on the shelves at every stage of
the starting paths, and the Human starting shop stocks a weapon
for every class. Below level 7 most quests pay a weapon.
- `look` at any item shows its card, consumables included.

SOUND (on SyncTERM and other terminals that play audio)
- New area loops: the Moon Gardens at night, the web jungle, Nise
Mile. An ambush sting, and music under the death screen.
- Combat music and level-up, quest and loot cues are wired in; the
sound files land soon.
- Fixed a case where a slow connection lost its sound for the whole
visit.

FIXES PLAYERS REPORTED
Poison that runs you out of health out of combat now kills you
properly. Creature cooldowns wear off between fights. Shouting
sentinels speak once, not on every step. Vendor rows keep their
prices on screen. Quest objective counters are no longer cut off.

There is no reset for this alpha. Found a bug or a wall? Type
`report` in game and it reaches the sysop. A gameplay video with the game's own sound is in the works.

--
|08 þ |12NuSkooler |06// |12Xibalba |08- |07"|06The place of
fear|07"
|08 þ |03xibalba|08.|03vip |08(|0344510|08/|03telnet|08, |0344511|08/|03ssh|08)
|08 þ |03ENiGMA 1/2 WHQ |08| |03Phenom |08| |0367 |08| |03iMPURE
|08| |03ACiDic
--- ENiGMA 1/2 v0.5.1-beta (linux; x64; 22.22.2)
* Origin: Xibalba -+- xibalba.vip:44510 (21:1/121)

Sounds really exciting! Do you offer the door as a RLOGIN'able door? I
would love to link to it directly from my BBS ...

... The Adventure BBS (HTTPS://BBS.OURBIRDHOUSE.CA)

--- The Adventure BBS http://bbs.ourbirdhouse.ca
* Origin: The Adventure BBS (21:3/254.0)

Twas Saturday, October 17th when TheWebExpert said...

Sounds really exciting! Do you offer the door as a RLOGIN'able door? I would love to link to it directly from my BBS ...

I don't yet, but noted and I'll get on that ASAP!

--
|08 þ |12NuSkooler |06// |12Xibalba |08- |07"|06The place of fear|07"
|08 þ |03xibalba|08.|03vip |08(|0344510|08/|03telnet|08, |0344511|08/|03ssh|08) |08 þ |03ENiGMA 1/2 WHQ |08| |03Phenom |08| |0367 |08| |03iMPURE |08| |03ACiDic --- ENiGMA 1/2 v0.5.1-beta (linux; x64; 22.22.2)
* Origin: Xibalba -+- xibalba.vip:44510 (21:1/121)