Text Adventures Without Map Images: How Can Players Know Where They Are?

Write space as a repeatable list, not as location hinted at through narrative atmosphere. After reading a passage, the player should be able to answer three questions: what is the place I am in called, what recognizable reference is nearby, and where can I go next. On the author's side, keep a topology table that does not change with writing style, recording places, connections, and return paths. The fictional teaching example "Grey Reef Island" below illustrates the method; the island's place names, directions, and turns are all invented and do not correspond to any real project.

Grey Reef Island has only four locations: North Shore Lighthouse, East Salt Marsh, South Slope Stone House, West Bay Shoals. They form a ring, and between any two points there is at most one intermediate point. An anchor means a location the player can repeatedly return to and whose name does not change; here these are the four places.

This table is the spatial topology; when writing, change only the wording, not "who is connected to whom." The lighthouse can be written as "the iron gate is so rusted it will not budge," or as "the door hinge makes a dry creaking sound," but its exits are always east and south.

When "there," "this side," or "ahead" appear alone, the player cannot judge distance or bearing. It is recommended that the first time a direction is mentioned, bind it to a reference that has already appeared. For example, "the Salt Marsh is east of the Lighthouse, walk along the broken wooden boardwalk" establishes position better than "you walk over that way."

Compare two versions:

• Vague version: "You leave the lighthouse, walk for a while, and come to a place with water. There seems to be someone there."
• Clear version: "You go out through the iron gate on the east side of the lighthouse and walk along the broken wooden boardwalk. At the end of the boardwalk is the East Salt Marsh, with salt water over your ankles. A person is sitting beside the boardwalk."

The second version gives information the player can repeat: the starting point is the Lighthouse, the direction is east, the path is the boardwalk, and the destination is the Salt Marsh. The position where the person appears also lands on a specific place.

Suppose the player starts from North Shore Lighthouse. In the first turn, the input is "go east."

You push open the iron gate on the east side of the lighthouse, and the ground underfoot becomes a broken wooden boardwalk. Black water shows between the boards, and the salty smell grows stronger. After the last board, you stand at the edge of the East Salt Marsh. The broken wooden boardwalk extends west behind you, and to the south is a lower waterline. There is no one else in the Salt Marsh.

This turn does only three things: leave the Lighthouse, pass along the boardwalk, arrive at the Salt Marsh. Two exits are written: west back to the Lighthouse, south to the Shoals. No fifth location is added.

In the second turn, the input is "go south."

You leave the boardwalk and step south into shallow water. The waterline gradually recedes, and the ground underfoot becomes broken stones. A grounded small boat lies across in front of you, its hull facing east. This is West Bay Shoals. To the north you can return to the Salt Marsh, and to the east is the direction of the South Slope Stone House.

At this point the player is at the Shoals. North returns to the Salt Marsh, east reaches the Stone House. After two movements, the topology has not changed: Lighthouse—Salt Marsh—Shoals is still a chain.

The return test is to have the player walk back in the opposite order and see whether the narration acknowledges that he has returned to the same place, rather than generating a new location. From the Shoals, input "go north," and he should return to the Salt Marsh; then input "go west," and he should return to the Lighthouse. It can be written as:

You go north along the original route and step back onto the broken wooden boardwalk. The salty water smell and the position of the broken wood have not changed; this is the East Salt Marsh. The boardwalk leads west to the Lighthouse.

You walk west along the boardwalk, and the iron gate appears before you again. The white tower body stands above; this is North Shore Lighthouse.

To complete the check, verify item by item:

1. The four place names are spelled consistently in the round-trip narration, with no mixed use of aliases such as "eastern swamp" or "salt ground."
2. Each location has at least one fixed reference, and that reference appears again when returning.
3. Each movement changes only the current position and does not quietly add a new location.
4. The number of exits matches the topology table: Lighthouse two, Salt Marsh two, Stone House two, Shoals two.
5. The player can say from the text "where I came from, where I am now, and where I can go."

If the movement narration is generated by AI, the input should include the current place name, reachable exits, and the most recent movement. The AI may write "go east" as arriving at a place outside the table; at that point the author needs to check and change it back to a place name within the topology table. Prompt constraints do not guarantee correct output every time, so stable place names and connection relationships must be maintained by the author and cannot be left to the model to decide improvisationally.

When the player inputs "go there," first confirm which already-appeared location "there" refers to. If the preceding text mentions only the Salt Marsh, treat it as the Salt Marsh; if it mentions both the Salt Marsh and the Stone House, you can ask, "Do you mean the Salt Marsh or the Stone House?" This is not adding a new world fact, only landing the reference on an existing place name.

If a character invents an excuse, for example saying "there is also a secret passage north of the lighthouse," this belongs to the character's speech and does not automatically become a new world fact. The author must decide whether to write it into the topology table; before that decision, the secret passage does not exist, and the player cannot move north from the lighthouse.

Even without images, key coordinates can be repeated in the paragraph. Each time the player arrives at a new location, close with one sentence: "This is the East Salt Marsh, west back to the Lighthouse, south to the Shoals." This sentence is like a signpost; the reader does not have to remember all the previous description. The writing style can change, but the signpost sentence pattern should be as stable as possible.

Next action: take a passage of movement narration you are writing, circle all place names and direction words, and add a small four-column table—place name, reference, exits, return route. Where the table cannot be filled in is where the player will get lost.