Your First Ten Minutes

Written Realms Alpha combines a scrolling text adventure with clickable controls. You can type in-world actions as commands, but you can also use the map, exit buttons, action bar, and interactive text when they are available.

Worlds vary

Each world chooses its own story, rooms, characters, items, quests, and rules. Some worlds emphasize combat, while others may replace the standard classes and skills or disable combat entirely. This guide covers the interface and conventions shared by most worlds.

1. Read the room

The newest room description tells you where you are and what you can interact with. It can include:

• a room name and description;
• exits such as [ exits: N E ];
• items on the ground;
• other player characters or non-player characters; and
• buttons for actions created especially for that room.

A room is simply your current location. Older room descriptions remain in the output as history, but the newest one is the version that stays interactive.

If you lose track of your surroundings, use look or its shorthand, l.

Try it

look

Read the room name, description, exits, and the lists of items and characters that follow it.

2. Look closer and interact

Names and significant words with dotted underlining are interactive. On a desktop, hover over one to see contextual information and available actions. On a phone or tablet, tap it to open the same kind of view.

You can also inspect something by command:

look <target>

For example, if the room mentions a fountain, try look fountain. Selecting a room-detail word performs the same kind of closer look. Items and characters can offer further actions, such as getting an item, talking to a character, or beginning a world-specific interaction.

3. Ask the game for help

The built-in help system is a quick starting point for common commands:

help
help <command>

In the augmented interface, help groups common commands by purpose; the accessibility layout prints a shorter basic list. help look, for example, shows the format and description for look, along with examples when the command provides them. A world’s interface and instructions may expose additional or optional actions, so you do not need to memorize everything before playing.

See Player commands for a browsable command reference.

4. Move to another room

Type a direction to follow a matching exit:

north
south
east
west
up
down

When the command field is empty, the arrow keys move north, south, east, and west. Hold Shift with the Up or Down arrow to move up or down. On mobile, available exits appear as direction buttons. On the map, selecting an immediately adjacent room in a cardinal direction also moves you there; it is not fast travel.

Try it

Use look to find the available exits, then take one by typing its direction or using the corresponding control. After moving, compare the new room name, exits, and interactive details with the room you left.

Exploring and interacting explains rooms, exits, the map, targets, and movement in more detail.

5. Know where things live on the screen

On desktop, the game output and command field occupy the center. Side panels hold the map, vitals, items, equipment, statistics, logs, and other context when those features are available.

On mobile, use the four controls at the bottom:

• Look returns to the world output and available exits. Selecting it again issues look.
• Info opens your vitals, items, equipment, and statistics. The game switches here when combat begins.
• Type opens the command field.
• Menu opens settings, the quest log, and options for leaving the world.

See Interface and commands for keyboard shortcuts, command completion, display settings, and the accessibility layout.

6. Save or leave safely

During the temporary desktop introduction, Menu offers Save Character and Exit Introduction. Finishing the introduction also guides you into the account and character-completion flow so you can keep playing.

With a saved character, use Menu → Exit World or enter quit to save the current character state and leave the world. You cannot quit during combat; defeat your attackers or use flee first.

7. Choose what to learn next

• Continue with Exploring and interacting to learn how to move, inspect, and target things reliably.
• Read Combat and survival before attacking something in a combat-enabled world.
• Keep Player commands nearby when you want the exact syntax for an action.

When a world gives you a hint, quest instruction, or custom action, follow its wording: world-specific commands can extend the common controls described here.