Entry tags:

meta, ooc, rules

Rules Post
If you have never played before, to join you just need to join (and preferably friend) the community, then make an inventory post. After that, you can start issuing commands and creating rooms! There's very little to it other than that; there are no predefined goals -- essentially, the player base determines what the game will be. What follows is a set of guidelines for creating such a game.

Inventory Posts

When you join the game, the first thing you should do is make an inventory post. This post should have the subject "My Inventory" and list exactly one item when you first make the post. This item can be anything you want, provided that it does not already exist in someone else's inventory, which you can check by refering to community posts tagged with "inventory": here. In addition, you should also tag your inventory post with the word "inventory" so that other people can find it easily. Along the same line, don't make the post private or anything; we all need to be able to see it.

So, to summarize: make a post with subject "My Inventory", list one item not already in the game, tag with "inventory", don't make private.

Managing your inventory throughout the game is up to you. You are only permitted to add an item to your inventory if you receive a response to a "get" command indicating that an object was successfully taken, or if another player gives you an item in trade. It's up to you to make sure your inventory is up to date (meaning you should also remove things from your inventory if a response indicates that you lose the item!).

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Commands

There is not a specific set of commands you need to follow, since the people interpreting them are people and will, in general, understand what you mean to do better than a text adventure's parser will. However, some commands have predefined effects on the game.

Commands should only be issued in response to room posts, and they should only be responded to by the roomkeeper for that room.

look/examine/x <object> - if <object> exists in the room, this command should yield a more detailed description of <object>t.

get/take <object> - if <object> exists in the room and is takeable, the response should be something like "<object> taken.", and you should add the item to your inventory post. Additionally, the post should be edited to reflect that the item is no longer in the room, unless the item is dupable (see Room Creation and Management). If it is not takeable, the response should indicate such.

drop <object> - if <object> is in your inventory, you should remove it from such, and the post should be edited to reflect that there is now a <object> in it.

go/move <direction> or just <direction> - this only has an effect if going in that direction would take you to a place on the map that doesn't have a room post yet! In that case, you have just opened up an opportunity for someone to create a new room. See "Room Creation and Management" for detail. Otherwise, the post should have links to the rooms in each of its visible exit directions, so rather than issuing the command, you should just follow the appropriate link in the post. To emphasize: you do not have to issue movement commands to go between rooms unless you're trying to go somewhere that has not been created yet.

<use> <object> - "use" is not a predefined command, so any command you issue on an object in your inventory or in the room is up to the interpretation of the roomkeeper. You should issue a command specific to the object you're trying to manipulate, such as "eat apple" or "open door", rather than ever using the word "use". It is up to the roomkeeper what effect the command will have, if it has any effect at all.

Anything else is defined by the roomkeeper in a similar way to the above.

Replacing things with synonyms in any of the above should make no difference, unless the roomkeeper feels like giving you a really hard time. ;)

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Room Creation and Management

When a player issues a movement command (e.g. "go north") in a room, and the room does not already have a link to a room in that direction, the roomkeeper should respond to the movement command with "[new room]" (to authorize that the movement command was valid), and then anyone playing can create the room for that direction. Creating a room means doing the following things:

0) Respond to the movement command saying something like "I call this room", or something to flag that you're working on making a new room for that direction, in order to avoid someone else making the room at the same time.

1) Make a new post. Tag it with "room". Give a description of the room in the post. Have a good idea about what items you want to be manipulable/takeable/dupable, what already-existing items (that are now in people's inventories) should be applicable, and what effects other commands issued may have. Make sure to indicate what directions people can travel from your room, otherwise you will have created a dead end - this is usually in the form of "To the east, you see a door. To the north, you see a long hallway..." &c.

2) In the post you just made, link back to the room on which the movement command was issued, presumably in the opposite direction (e.g. if the reason this new room was created was that someone said "go north" in the Library, then at the end of the new post, say something like "Back to the south, you see the dimly-lit shelves lined with ancient tomes" and link the word "south" to the Library post). It is not mandatory that the map make geometric sense, but you should stay internally consistent.

3) Respond to the movement command on the original post again, this time with a link to the post you just made, so that the player who issued "go north" knows that s/he can now do so.

Additionally, you need to manage any rooms you create -- this is what it means to be "roomkeeper". You are in total control of responding to all commands issued as comments to your room posts. Here are some guidelines as to how to do that:

When a person takes an object in the room that you want to be takeable, make sure to indicate this by responding with "Taken." or "ok, add that to your inventory" or something like that. Additionally, if you want *only* the first person to find that object to have it, you should edit your room post to reflect that it's no longer there. If you want *any* player to be able to take that object, then the object is "dupable", meaning that it can be taken an infinite number of times (but probably only once by each player, unless you decide otherwise).

If someone uses an object in your room, first check to make sure s/he actually has object by checking inventory! Then, figure out what effect you want this to have, if any. The effect can pretty much be unlimited, but be wary if you decide to rob a player of an inventory item. If a player loses (an) item(s), it shouldn't be beyond what s/he would reasonable expect -- that is, it's unreasonable to respond with an "examine object" with "A little gnome pops up and steals your entire inventory", but it is reasonable to respond to "give object to npc" with "npc takes object, and you no longer have it in your inventory"; it is probably also reasonable to respond to "press giant button labeled 'INVENTORY STEALING VORTEX ACTIVATOR'" with "A giant vortex sweeps by and devours your entire inventory".

In general, the best rule to follow as roomkeeper is that you should be internally consistent -- make sure that any tricks you're hiding up your sleeve are actually being executed deterministically.

You do not have to have an inventory to be a roomkeeper.

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Effects

A roomkeeper can assign an effect in response to a command. Effects should be short term things such as "sticky fingers", "invisibility", "on fire"... and roomkeepers for any room (not just the room in which the effect was given) can remove the effect in response to an appropriate command (such as "douse hand in fountain" to remove the effect "hand on fire"). Effects should be things that would have a significant impact on how NPCs and other aspects of the environment would react to the player.

A player should list his effects at the beginning of the first command he issues in each room (and keep track of them in inventory). For this reason, effects can be cumbersome, so try to use them sparingly.

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Trade

You are welcome to trade items with or give items to other players. To initiate a trade or ask for an item, you should comment on the player's inventory post saying what you want to trade for what. If the other player accepts, update your inventories accordingly.

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Lost + Found

The moderators will make a lost labeled "Lost + Found". This is basically a big community inventory. If a player has been inactive for too long, and is not responding to requests for objects, a mod will move everything in his inventory to this lost+found room. Then, players can comment in this room to request anything from it, and the mod will grant these requests on a first-come first-serve basis (updating the room as objects are taken from it). You may also donate any items you wish to share with other adventurers to the lost and found.

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Meta/OOC Posts

If you need to say anything metagame-related or OOC (to the extent that there are "characters" at all), just indicate so clearly in the post, so that it's not mistaken as a room or inventory (for extra clarity, feel free to tag such posts with "meta" or "ooc"). Same goes for comments. If you want a thread for meta-discussion, feel free to use this rules post as a forum.

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What are you still reading this for? Go! Make content!