Very well! You've logged on, got through the character creation process, and now you're ready to roam about. But how? This section deals with basic movement, problems with basic movement, and some advanced movement.
Basic Movement
Abbreviations
Obvious Exits
Non-obvious Exits
Odd Commands
Sneaking
In Genesis one can accomplish most of one's movement by following a cardinal or ordinal direction: north, east, south, west, northwest, northeast, southeast, and southwest. Add to this up and down and you have all the commands you need to move around most of Genesis.
Of course, all that is a lot to type. So convenient abbreviations have been provided for players. The abbreviations follow.
| Command | Abbreviation |
|---|---|
| north | n |
| east | e |
| south | s |
| west | w |
| northwest | nw |
| northeast | ne |
| southeast | se |
| southwest | sw |
| up | u |
| down | d |
In general, however, one cannot just roam in any direction one pleases. Certain ways are open and others aren't. The way to tell which ways are open is to look at the last sentence in the description of the room. For example:
A disturbing clearing.
You are standing in a small clearing in a large forest. There is
a stream running through the clearing, but the noise of the water
over the rocks of the streambed seems loud and out of place. Despite
the clearing's small size, it seems very exposed to the sky. Indeed,
you feel a nameless menace from above, as if you are being watched
by unseen, malignant eyes.
There are four obvious exits: north, northwest, south and east.
>
In this way you will know where you may go from a given room.
Most every room will list the obvious exits in this manner; some won't. If you find yourself in one of the few rooms that doesn't, then you will have to pay close attention to the description of the room in order to find out where you can go. In some cases you may even have to try guesswork. For example:
A dank tunnel.
You find yourself in a dank tunnel which runs north and south.
The tunnel is extremely rough-hewn and meanders considerably.
Footing is treacherous, and the tunnel often narrows to uncomfortable
widths and heights. At this rate t may soon narrow to a complete
close. In the shadows to the west you notice a very small, rubble
strewn cave.
>
In this instance you can go north and south. It is also worth an attempt to go west, or at least exa cave. It is also worth noting that some rooms will have both obvious exits and non-obvious exits. Keep wary of such places, lest you overlook new areas and treasures.
Sooner or later you will come across a place where the standard directions won't get you where you want to go. In this case you'll have to experiment. Some times the syntax will be straightforward, such as board ship. Other times you may have to look for clues in the description of the room.
Beneath a large oak.
You stand at the base of a large oak tree with a huge trunk,
just east of a worn path. Above you, amidst the branches, you
think you can see a building of some sort. However, you can
detect no way into the building.
There is one obvious exit: west.
>
Here you might try climb tree. If that doesn't work, try to exa tree or exa building to look for clues on proper syntax.
Of course, some places are just ridiculous, such as a place in a certain domain where the room description mentions that you can enter a warehouse by going north. Of course, typing n or north returns
There is no obvious exit north.
One must type go north. Yes, it goes against good engineering principles to create a command that exactly duplicates existing functionality, but such is life on Genesis: often the least likely solution will be the correct one.
Finally, there is a specialized movement called sneaking. This allows you to enter and leave rooms unnoticed, if your skill is high enough and the others in the rooms are not observant enough. One cannot even use the sneak command until one has the skill, so go forth and find it before you try.
The syntax is very straightforward. Just prepend sneak to normal directional commands. Abbreviations are valid within the sneak syntax, so sneak north and sneak n are both valid commands. Note that one can only sneak through an obvious exit. It is said that certain very sneaky people are able to sneak through any exit, but we don't pay any attention to rumour.
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©1997 to Michael A. Laux.