Command reference

Every game on this site uses the same parser, so this list is true everywhere. Learn it once.

The grammar, in one paragraph

A command is one verb, one thing, and optionally a preposition and a second thing. That is the whole of it. take rope. use mirror on sunbeam. ask ruth about the hose. If what you want to say does not fit that shape, it is not going to be understood, and it is also almost certainly not the answer — puzzles here are never phrasing problems.

The first word has to be the verb. After that, filler is thrown away, so take the rope, take rope and take the rope please are all the same command — but please take the rope is not understood at all, because the sentence starts with a word that is not an instruction. Capital letters and punctuation are ignored, and a bare ? is the help screen.

Getting around

Command	What it does
n s e w ne nw se sw	Compass movement. Type them alone.
u / d	Up and down.
in / out	Enter and leave.
go north	Same as n, if you prefer words.
back	The way you came in. Works in the dark, which is the point of it.
fore / aft	North and south, on anything that floats.

Looking at things

Command	What it does
look / l	Describe the room again.
examine X / x X	The most important command in the game.
search X	Go through something properly. look under X and look in X mean this.
read X	Anything with writing on it.
listen / smell / touch X	Occasionally the answer.

Objects

Command	What it does
take X / get X	Pick it up. Click an item in the satchel to examine it.
drop X	Put it down.
inventory / i	What you are carrying.
use X on Y	The workhorse. use mirror on sunbeam, use clip on compressor.
open close push pull turn move	What they sound like.
tie X to Y	Rope, lines, anything that needs making fast.
cut X	With whatever blade you are carrying.
light / extinguish	Lamps and torches. Sometimes putting a light out is the answer.
fill X · climb X · throw X · wear X	All understood.

People

Command	What it does
talk to X	Opens the conversation. Always try this first.
ask X about Y	Where the real information is. Ask about anything you have heard of.
show X to Y	Proof beats persuasion.
give X to Y	Handing something over.

Two of those are different sentences and it matters: ask him about the key is a question, give the key to him is a transaction. People in these games answer questions about anything you have genuinely heard mentioned, so when a name or a date turns up in a document, ask somebody about it.

Housekeeping

Command	What it does
journal	Everything you have learned. Read this when stuck.
save / load	Manual save and restore. It also saves itself every turn.
restart	Wipe and begin again. It asks first.
help / ?	This list, inside the game.
wait / z	Let a minute pass. Sometimes essential, sometimes fatal.
again / g	Repeat your last command.
↑ ↓ arrows	Scroll back through what you have typed.

Phrases it quietly rewrites

You do not need to learn these — they exist so that the obvious way of saying something works.

If you type	It hears
pick up the rope	take rope
put on the mask	wear mask
put down the lamp	drop lamp
look at the floor	examine floor
look in the chest / look under the bed	search
blow out the candle / turn off the lamp	extinguish
speak to the sacrist	talk to sacrist

Four things it deliberately does not do

• No take all, and no lists. One object per command. take the rope and the lamp is two commands.
• No pronouns. There is no "it" that refers back to the last thing — name the thing each time. It is two more words and it removes a whole class of misunderstanding.
• No adverbs, and nothing in front of the verb. carefully open the door fails on the first word; open the door is the command. Anything after the verb that is not a noun is simply ignored.
• No fighting as a puzzle. attack is understood and every game has an answer for it, and in none of them is it the solution.

When two things share a name

A room can hold a brass key and a brass lantern, and you can be carrying a third brass thing. The parser resolves on the verb first — light brass and unlock brass are looking for different objects — and then on what is nearest to hand. If you get the wrong one, add the distinguishing word: examine brass key.

One trap worth knowing, because it is the commonest source of confusion: a thing you are carrying answers before a thing in the room. If you are holding a lamp and the room has a lamp bracket, examine lamp gets yours. Say examine bracket.

Game-specific verbs

A game will teach you any verb peculiar to it, in the room where it first matters. Thirty Fathoms, for instance, adds unclip and clip for coming off and going back onto the umbilical — and tells you so, on the barge, before you get wet.

Pick a game