Zangband is a variant of Angband, influenced by Roger Zelazny's The Chronicles of Amber. This is reflected among other things in the changed goal: as opposed to Morgoth, the player's descends the dungeon to face the Amberite Oberon, and after that, the Serpent of Chaos. As the game was further developed, numerous changes and additions compared to the original were introduced, including but not limited to:

* A wilderness with multiple towns.

* A different magic system, featuring seven realms (Life, Death, Sorcery, Nature, Chaos, Arcane and Trump). Depending on class, a character may have access to up to two of these.

* New races. Among the selection are now Amberite, Draconian, various Undead (Ghoul, Skeleton, Spectre, Vampire and Zombie) and more. They also offer their own abilities and special powers. For example, Draconians have a breath weapon and gain various elemental resistances.

* New classes. Examples are the Mindcrafter, who has magic-like powers but doesn't need spellbooks, and the Chaos Warrior, who has access to the appropriate magic realm.

Aside from traditional ASCII text, Zangband also offers support for different graphic sets depending on version/platform.