MASTER OF THE WORLD

How to play. After the novel by Jules Verne, 1904. You are John Strock, chief inspector in the federal police department at Washington.

1 · Giving commands

Type into the box below the transcript and press Enter, or build the same command from the buttons. Choose an entry in the ACTIONS row, then choose its target from the CONTEXT row underneath. Nothing in this story needs typing that cannot also be clicked, except naming a save file.

Commands are plain: TAKE COMMISSION, TALK TO SMITH, SEARCH WAGON, READ FIRST LETTER, USE SPAR. Articles are ignored, so read the first letter works too.

2 · Turn order

One command is one turn, and turns resolve in a fixed order, so the transcript always reads the same way:

your command is echoed with a >;
the direct result of it is printed — what you took, what you saw, what somebody said;
anything the story does because of it follows: journal entries, quest updates, achievements, and narration;
if you have arrived somewhere new, the new location is described last.

These commands are free and do not advance the move counter: LOOK, INVENTORY, SCORE, QUESTS, JOURNAL, ACHIEVEMENTS, STATS, HELP, SAVE, RESTORE, TRANSCRIPT, HINT and RESTART. Everything else costs a move. Nothing in the story runs on a timer, so looking around and re-reading cost you nothing but the count.

3 · Movement

Directions are N S E W NE NW SE SW U D, or the long forms, or GO NORTH. The DIRECTIONS row and the EXITS panel always list exactly the exits that exist where you are standing.

Some exits are closed until the story opens them, and say why when you try them. Long journeys between cities are single moves in the compass direction of the destination: Morganton is southwest of Washington, Wisconsin is northwest, the New England coast is northeast, Kansas is west and Toledo is north.

The WORLD MAP panel is a region chart. It shows only the places you have actually been, grouped under their region, with a marker on where you are and every exit from it listed underneath. A filled dot against an exit means it is still closed.

4 · The verbs

Standard	What it does
`LOOK` / `L`	Describe this place again.
`EXAMINE x` / `X x`	Describe one object or person.
`TAKE x` / `DROP x`	Pick up or put down.
`SEARCH x`	Look inside or underneath. Most evidence in this story is found this way.
`READ x`	Read a document. Several things have text that examining will not show.
`USE x`	Apply an object here — including showing it to somebody.
`OPEN x` / `CLOSE x`	Work an openable object, in the room or in your hands.
`TALK TO x`	Speak to somebody. People say something new each time until they run out.
`WAIT` / `Z`	Let the scene move. Several sequences advance only on WAIT.

Story verbs	Where they matter
`CLIMB`	Refused or fatal, depending on what you are standing under.
`LISTEN`	At the foot of the wall there is one thing worth hearing.
`TELEGRAPH`	Report to Mr. Ward from the field.
`COMPARE`	With both letters in hand. The turning point of the case.
`HIDE`	In the ravine, before you go a step lower.
`BOARD`	On the quay, while the crew is up in the trees.
`SWIM`	Almost always a bad idea.
`ARREST`	You are chief inspector of the federal police. Say so.

5 · Winning

You win by carrying the case to its end: solving the mystery of the Great Eyrie, tracing all three machines, proving they are one, taking the Terror at her anchorage, and doing your duty on her deck in the storm over the Gulf. The story ends with a closing passage and a final score out of 150.

Eight required quests are worth 120 points between them. One optional quest is worth 10, and four optional objects are worth 5 each. A player who solves everything and picks nothing up finishes on 120; a full completion is 150. The QUEST LOG shows what is outstanding and SCORE shows where you stand.

Regions I to III can be revisited freely until you board the Terror at Black Rock Creek. After that the story runs one way, so collect anything you want before you go down to the water.

6 · Losing

There are exactly three ways to end the story early, and each is warned about first — by the room description, by something a character says, and by that location's hints:

climbing the wall of the Great Eyrie, which Harry Horn tells you twice cannot be done;
going down to the quay at Black Rock Creek without taking cover in the ravine first;
going into the water above the Horseshoe Fall.

Nothing else can kill you, and there are no unwinnable states. Missing an optional object costs points and nothing else.

7 · Hints

HINT, or the button in the footer, gives graded help for exactly where you are and what you have already done. Ask once for a nudge, twice for the method, and a third time for the literal command. Hints are free and are counted in STATS if you want to keep yourself honest.

8 · Saving, restoring and restarting

SAVE writes a slot called quick; SAVE morganton writes a slot with that name. RESTORE takes the same argument. The SAVE MANAGER in the footer lists, restores and deletes slots. Saves are kept in this browser only and are never transmitted.

RESTART, or the button in the header, begins the story again from Mr. Ward's office with score and moves reset. It is free and takes effect at once. Restarting does not delete your saved slots.

9 · Accessibility and audio

The ACCESSIBILITY panel offers six profiles — Standard, Low Vision, Blind / Screen Reader, Hard of Hearing, Motor Assistance and Cognitive Support — and every switch inside them can also be set individually: text size, high contrast, larger controls, reduced typing, simplified layout, reduced motion, captions, visual sound indicators and spoken narration. Settings persist on this device.

The story is completable with narration off, with sound off, and with the buttons alone. Audio is synthesised in the browser, ships as no files at all, and starts only after you press the button on the opening cover.