Nethack was the one that really hooked me. Telnetting into nethack.org from the CSCI lab computers during university will always be a fond memory.
These days I facilitate roguelike development each year with a group code-along (for lack of a better term). Each year a group of participants follow along together and produce their own roguelike. The tutorial is in Python but folks participate using a bunch of other languages. This year we had people who made it to the end with Rust, C++, C#, and Odin, to name a few. Completion posts are still rolling in so I'm excited to see what this year's batch cooked up. :)
I start it around the beginning of summer vacation (northern hemisphere) so unfortunately you'll have to wait ~10 months for the next one. But given the yearly participation, I believe it's worth it :)
Caves of Qud is quite good, though a bit less traditional in being a big open world vs a dungeon. There a few quirks and bugs but the game is very fun and creative, and it has excellent music. I also love the graphics but it is an acquired taste.
I played the Dwarf Fortress roguelike mode several years ago, and it was really more of a toy - nifty to play around with the mechanics but too dry and arbitrarily difficult to be a fun game. But almost all the dev focus was on fortress management, maybe they’ve spruced up the roguelike with the Steam release.
The permadeath mode is really not that well suited to CoQ I find. It's a long game and most playthroughs are substantially the same for the first couple hours. It doesn't have the fun "fresh start" feel of the the early dungeon in other RLs. It's a cool feature to include for experienced players though.
I've played a lot of CoQ and totally see your point but isn't that the same in most Roguelikes? To be fare DCSS and CoQ are the ones I've spent the most time in my life on but in my experience with DCSS, Nethack, and Slash'Em the first few hours are pretty much the same "opening". Though it's been over a decade since I've touched most Roguelikes from my youth other than Pixel Dungeon and CoQ.
I don't think so really. In those others you mentioned early drops (or other random choices like altars) can have a big impact on which direction your build goes. CoQ also has a more traditional rpg approach to quests which is completely different from the others and adds to the repetition. I think ToME is probably its closest relation, also having an overworld, skill trees you can plan out in advance, reliably placed towns & npcs. And it also has a goofy relationship to permadeath.
Angband I once played a lot, but I can't face it today. I play DCSS once a week, the Sydney server has a weekly challenge. That's enough gaming for me.
These days I facilitate roguelike development each year with a group code-along (for lack of a better term). Each year a group of participants follow along together and produce their own roguelike. The tutorial is in Python but folks participate using a bunch of other languages. This year we had people who made it to the end with Rust, C++, C#, and Odin, to name a few. Completion posts are still rolling in so I'm excited to see what this year's batch cooked up. :)