Just a random idea that I'd totally script at least the basic idea of if I could:
Clearly, what DROD needs is an implementation of
Conway's Game of Life. Equally clearly, it must be named
The Grey Goo. Note the three-letter name.
Ordinarily an inert substance, when stabbed it awakens, heals the stab wound, and starts to follow the rules of Conway's Game of Life. Due to the Life rules, diagonally adjacent goo blobs do connect, but can be traversed by Beethro. When expanding into a new space, it destroys anything in that space, blocked only by hard walls (because hey, we need something to do with them) and other inert blobs of goo. It suspends itself across void, and sinks in water, allowing Beethro to walk on it. It's up to the architect to keep it from opening up unexpected paths to other rooms, since eating through doors would be particularly prone to causing backtracking issues.
However, once awakened, individual tiles can be destroyed by stabbing them. Depending on its conformation, effects can range from an inert, self-healing 2x2 square, to 3x1 "
stoplight"
that destroys monsters adjacent to its central space, to gliders ripping a diagonal path through the room, to explosions ripping apart the room (and probably Beethro along with them).
Goo babies? You don't want to deal with goo babies. They'll munch through monsters, and can only be killed by direct stabbing - a sideswipe won't hurt them. At least they don't chew through walls. They're formed when a piece of goostuff is left completely isolated - not an especially common occurrence, but can happen with stoplights.
Specific interactions:
-Tarstuff babies add onto inert goo when they move adjacent to it. No interaction with active goo, and active goo will happily rip through tarstuff.
-Briar and goo are two unstoppable forces. Goo eats briar, briar eats goo. At least goo can be stabbed - but it moves faster... If they both try to move into the same space, briar wins.
-Bombs will kill goo. Hot tiles won't, and will get destroyed.
-Goo probably *should* destroy pressure plates, but it doesn't because activating them is so much more fun. Put a stoplight next to an on/off pressure plate!
-Aumtlich beams will destroy a piece of goo without activating it. The feedback kills the aumtlich, though, since we don't want a single aumtlich clearing an entire room of goo.
-While goo will eat through raised doors, lowered doors will be unaffected and will destroy the goo on top of them when they're raised.
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