Classical roguelikes, just like classical RPGs, aren't "fair". The most obvious way is that the hero gains levels (or other powers). Even if monsters can gain t

Classical roguelikes, just like classical RPGs, aren't "fair". The most obvious way is that the hero gains levels (or other powers). Even if monsters can gain technically gain levels as they can in some roguelikes, they practically never do, and even if they can pick up a wand, they can't optimize it like you do in Noita. You are the hero, you are the active agent, other creatures in the world can only respond to you in very limited ways within the same basic ruleset. Tarn Adams of Dwarf Fortress fame once made a game as a bit of a joke, where the enemies were more actively adversarial, though. As soon as they became aware that you'd entered, they would hide all the treasure and equip all the loot themselves. It was fair to the monsters I guess, but it could be very unfair from the perspective of "developer providing a fair challenge to the player". Dwarf Fortress is, in adventure mode, famous for being relatively "fair in simulation" rather than "fair in gameplay". Many roguelikes, including the old ones, are perfectly fine with e.g. level scaling, which is hard to justify in simulation-fairness terms.