Ad Verbum

Interactive Fiction by Nick Montfort

Best Puzzles XYZZY Award, 2000
1st Place Pick of Competition Authors, Sixth Annual IF Competition

Wait for text to appear in the rectangle below. Read the text, click in the box, and press the spacebar after "[ ... ]" appears. At the ">" prompt, you can type to interact.

New to IF? This Oulipo-inspired interactive fiction is intended for those who know the conventions of IF, but you may find it fun, anyway. Try the following commands (in the order listed below) and then see what commands you can come up with to clear out the Salon. The comments in parenthesis are notes, not to be typed in:

• GO EAST
• PICK UP THE VERBOSIFIER
• WEST (means the same thing as "go west")
• DROP VERBOSIFIER ("the" can be omitted)
• CLIMB STAIRS
• SOUTH
• WARNING
• SOUTH

If you end up stuck in the Salon, type START.

This Web edition of Ad Verbum is enabled by Matthew Russotto's ZPlet interpreter. This provides an easy preview of Ad Verbum, but downloading either the executable or an interpreter and the story file is strongly recommended for convenient play.