How to Play TriadCity

The TriadCity Players' Guide

Rooms

Rooms are the basic places inside TriadCity's imaginary game world. Whenever you move your character from one location to another, you've left one Room and entered a new one.

This'll be more understandable if you don't think of Rooms as the insides of houses, with four walls, a ceiling, etc. Instead think of them as any arbitrary space: outdoors, indoors, a city street, an empty field, the pantry inside a kitchen, a coal bin inside an electricity generating station. A Room is a physical location somewhere within three-dimensional space.

Rooms in TriadCity can have up to six Exits corresponding to the six possible directions of movement: Down, East, North, South, Up, and West. There's no guarantee that any or all of these Exits will exist; and if they do, there's no guarantee you'll be able to see them.

Rooms will typically have a more or less elaborated description, which will be shown to you automatically when you enter. In TriadCity, the description you're shown will depend on your character's many attributes; and it might also vary by other criteria which the author has chosen to apply. One common example is time of day: you'll often see a somewhat different Room description at sunset than in the middle of the night.

You can also look in each of the six cardinal directions: there may be more information there about the Room, its contents, or the neighboring Rooms. Type 'look up', 'look east', etc.

Rooms may or may not contain any number of arbitrary Items. You may or may not be able to see these Items, depending on all sorts of things. The ones that are visible to you are listed when you enter the Room.

Rooms also may or may not contain any number of arbitrary Characters. You may or may not be able to see these Characters, too. The ones that are visible to you are also listed when you enter the Room.

Here's an extended example. We'll take the Room titled "The Origin Stone at Sanctuary Island", which is the Room you enter the very first time you visit TriadCity, and we'll show you much of what it usually contains.

When you enter, the description you see will usually look something like this:

The Origin Stone at Sanctuary Island

Sanctuary Island is the exact center of TriadCity. Surrounding this point, three rivers circle and sworl, separating the City into Thirds that are widely distinct in character, culture, and reputation. Sunset casts lengthening shadows over ancient cobblestones.

The Origin Stone is here, magnificent and mysterious.
A white-robed monk stands with bowed head.

[Exits: north east south west]

Perhaps the first thing you might notice is that the word "sworl" is odd. It's not a typo for "swirl", and it doesn't actually exist. Kindof like TriadCity as a whole, really.

Let's look at the Monk, for another surprise. Typing 'look monk', here's the response we receive:

She stands so still it's impossible to know if she breathes or not.
      The monk wields a wooden staff.
      The monk wears a cotton robe over all.
      The monk is in excellent condition.

Let's look in a couple of directions and get our bearings. Typing 'look north' causes this response:

To the north is a simple building of plain gray brick, which seems to hold some attraction for the many young adventurers who can often be found there.

An archway of stones supported by oaken beams leads inside an elaborate domed building of ornate glass and wood. People in robes sometimes wander in and out. Above the arch an inscription is shadowed by deepening dusklight.

"Nowhere is everywhere, but most of all it is the country we happen to be in at the moment."

We hope this leaves you with some idea of the potential richness of TriadCity's imaginary spaces. If you were really exploring, you'd want to look in all six cardinal directions; look at the stone; and perhaps interact with the characters that have probably been wandering in and out this whole time. We'll close by pointing out that you have more senses than merely sight. Type 'smell':

Birds, bodies, water in all directions.

Players' Guide TOC

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