ToME WikiNerdanelVampire: The Night Land (from the book of the same name by William Hope Hodgson) is in certain ways a great setting for a roguelike. I have incorporated some of it to Zothiqband and may later add it as a dungeon. Despite its potential, the Night Land has certain qualities that are hard to make to fit into a standard *band without compromising the setting, or at least placing the game far earlier in the timeline than the book (the latter would in fact be a good idea, but it's not the idea explored here). Most importantly, the Night Land is a really really nasty place to be adventuring in, and including a Barrow-Downs equivalent would be just wrong.
Background
It's a distant future. The sun and the stars have gone out. The last millions of humans live in a huge pyramid-shaped arcology surrounded by a dark and horrible wasteland - the titular Night Land - full of monsters and soul-eating horrors that have encroached upon our dimension and would dearly love to dine on the humans in the arcology.
But a connection is made to another arcology far away, and this prompts a dangerous fetch quest on the part of the main character. The object of the quest may be a reincarnated True Love, as per the book, but if that's too impractical, something other can be invented.
Gameplay
Dungeons and Stealth
The core of this module idea is that dungeons are not any level as such. Instead, they are all level 1 in the beginning, but that number increases as the inhabitants of the Night Land become more aware of your presence. Stealth is essential to have, and comes in several types. I think we could have stealthy movement, stealthy combat, and stealthy spellcasting at least.
At whiles your character gets semi-random messages that are related to how stealthy he is being. Some examples:
- You step on a twig.
- Your footsteps make pebbles rattle down a slope
- The monster emits an echoing scream as it dies.
- Your spell-fire streaks silently through the night.
- The ground shakes at the force of your spell.
You are more stealthy if you are not carrying a light.
The overland is composed of several different "dungeons" with different physical characteristics (for example, some might lit by volcanism where others are dark), types of monsters found, and sensitivity to intrusion. You get to see the big picture in the overland view but you cannot travel through it.
Unlike a standard *band, there is no Word of Recall, and the mechanics discourage dawdling in the early levels - unless you wish to win by awakening the full unholy power of the Night Land and beating it, which should be about the equivalent of an ultimate ending - so your best bet is to dive quickly, even though you can return to the town if you wish.
Character
You can choose your character's initial power level.
- Runaway - no experience, little equipment
- Youth - no experience, standard equipent
- Adult - some experience, standard equipment
- Veteran - a good bit of experience, standard equipment
- Hero - a good bit of experience, superior equipment (may be too powerful to be atmospherical)
The standard equipment is actually very useful and far higher quality than you might expect. The dungeon won't have that much loot and scumming is very dangerous. Sometimes you will find great stuff in the dungeon, but you will also have to deal with decay in your equipment with the added trouble without any certainty of finding a replacement.
There are also different classes. For example, a warrior would rely on killing things quickly and having the capacity to deal with tougher enemies, while a rogue would concentrate on stealth, avoid enemies, and keep the dungeon level as low as possible. A standard mage would also rely on quick killing, but be less durable and more dependent on using identify spells on dungeon equipment to compensate.
Chatter
DarkGod: I like that, sounds very .. roguish 
It cuold be made into a small game instead of a big monster like ToME/BDT/Zothiq/Norse/.. something one can play in a few hours. It would adapt well IMO
Verdigriss: I would definitely play this, sounds awesome.
BucketMan: The mechanics sound very simple to implement. I've never heard of the world, but it sound slike most of the time and effort to build this module would be making thematic monsters and dungeons and things. This might be a good candidate for a group project.
NerdanelVampire: The book in question is in public domain (and therefore lawsuit-proof) and online. You can read it at http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Night_Land. I consider the book a flawed masterpiece. The faux archaic language can be a little thick and the romance... could have used heavy cutting, but for atmosphere and sheer awesomeness, The Night Land is something special. There is also a site with Night Land articles and fanfiction (professional quality - they pay with real money! I am not one of the authors there.) you might want to look at.