Spatial Consistency

A Spatially Consistent world is defined as a discrete quantizable space on which the game action happens, supported by a single set of interaction rules for the actors that inhabit it.

Interaction in roguelikes commonly happens in a small number of spatially consistent worlds (commonly just one, although sometimes an overworld with a different rule set is added), in contrast with cRPGs games, where there are commonly separate interaction rules for combat and specially crafted minigames, thus restricting the player from critical actions such as attacking or performing special moves out of the “combat screen” (if you want to attack the old man who is blocking your path, or perform a super jump to climb a rift, you can’t). There is one common exception to this rule: while some games (e.g. ADOM or Nethack) have shops that operate much like the rest of the game territory, others (e.g. Angband or Crawl) have shops that occupy a no-space, allowing only a limited number special actions within the shop.

Worlds in roguelikes are commonly spatially quantized to a grid or cube schema, although hex-grids have been experimentally used.

Most roguelikes are strict on the spatial and temporal discrete quantization, and thus this has been defined as one of the main discerning parts of roguelikes compared to standard RPGs.