What Is the Avernum Series? Games, Order, and Where to Start

Avernum is a series of indie fantasy role-playing games by Spiderweb Software, set in a vast underground world where the player leads a party of exiles. If you want to start playing, the practical answer is: begin with Avernum: Escape from the Pit (2011), the remake of the first game, then continue with Avernum 2: Crystal Souls (2015) and Avernum 3: Ruined World (2018). Play them in that order if you care about the ongoing story; if you only want one self-contained adventure, the first remake works on its own.

What Avernum actually is

Avernum is a party-based, turn-based RPG series. You create and control a group of characters, explore a large open world, fight in tactical turn-based combat, and pick up quests from towns and factions. The setting is the key hook: instead of a surface fantasy world, most of the action happens in Avernum, a massive cave system used as a prison colony by the Empire above. That underground framing shapes everything — the map is vertical and interconnected, and the tone is about exile, survival, and building a life below.

Spiderweb Software describes itself as creating "epic indie fantasy adventures for Windows, Macintosh, and the iPad," and Avernum sits alongside its other series, Avadon and Geneforge, in that catalog. If you have read about Avadon, the difference is mostly structure and setting: Avadon is a more linear, companion-driven series, while Avernum leans toward open exploration with a player-made party.

The games and the two versions of the series

The naming is the main source of confusion, because there are effectively two layers: the original trilogy and the later remakes.

The remakes retell the same core stories as the originals, so you do not need to play both versions to follow the plot. For a newcomer, the remakes are the sensible entry point because they are the versions Spiderweb continues to present as the current form of the series.

Where to start, and whether order matters

• Story order: Escape from the Pit → Crystal Souls → Ruined World. This follows the narrative from the first exile through the later conflicts.
• Release order: the same sequence, since the remakes were released in that order.
• Single-game option: if you want to test whether you like the style, start with Escape from the Pit. It introduces the world and the mechanics without requiring prior knowledge.

Order matters if you want the story to build. It matters much less if you treat each game as a standalone dungeon-crawling adventure, which is possible because each has its own central conflict.

Core gameplay: what you are actually doing

• Party-based exploration. You manage a group rather than a single hero, which means building a balanced team matters more than optimizing one character.
• Turn-based combat. Fights are tactical and resolved in turns, so positioning and ability choices carry weight.
• Underground open-world design. The map is large and non-linear, with towns, factions, and optional areas. You are rewarded for wandering, but you can also run into content above your level.
• Quest and faction structure. Progress comes from talking to people, taking jobs, and choosing sides, which gives the series its RPG identity rather than a pure combat focus.

Platforms and availability

Spiderweb Software states that it creates games for Windows, Macintosh, and the iPad, and Avernum is part of that lineup. When you go looking for a specific title, check the platform list on its store page rather than assuming every entry runs everywhere — availability can differ between the original releases and the remakes.

How to tell remakes from originals

Before buying or downloading, use the title itself as the signal:

• Remakes carry subtitles: Escape from the Pit, Crystal Souls, Ruined World.
• Originals are usually listed with plain numbered titles.
• If a store page shows both, the subtitled version is the newer rebuild of the same story.

If your goal is simply to play the series as it stands today, choose the subtitled remakes and start with Escape from the Pit.