The Basics

You take the role of an elf, dwarf or human, attempting the impossible: to infiltrate Morgoth’s famed fortress of Angband, descend a thousand feet into the cold earth, find Morgoth in his throne room, and escape with a Silmaril from his crown. Along the way, you will need to find many items of power, learn potent skills and abilities, and slay many of Morgoth’s servants.

After creating a character, you begin the game just inside the great dungeons of Angband. However you managed to enter (disguise? subterfuge? capture?) the cost was high: you are unarmed and carry only a few meagre supplies. Your first task will be to find a weapon so that you can hold your own with the early enemies. You will then need to secure a basic set of equipment over the first few levels, and begin developing your chosen skills and abilities.

The best way to pick up the basics of the game is to play the tutorial, and remember that you can always press (?) in game to bring up the help screen.

Much of the randomness in Sil is generated through simulated dice rolls. The terminology XdY is used for throwing X dice each of which has Y sides and adding up the total shown on the dice. For example, throwing two six-sided dice is represented by 2d6.