To play Text Adventures like ROK II you will need to put on your thinking cap. Unlike video games, where everything is visualized for you, in a text based RPG you need to imagine what is happening. This means you need to read and comprehend what you are reading. Jumping over the text of the story will have an unfortunate impact on effective play.
Imagine part of a story that includes your character entering a magical vineyard. The adventure may have the premise that you need to pick purple grapes and leave the green ones. If you decide to gather the wrong ones then you will end up with a result that puts you in a dull place.
Sometimes a scenario may not be so cut and dry. For instance, a non-player character (NPC) might say “Do not take the ones that are the same color as a plant’s leaves…” rather than “Do not take the green ones”. This is where you have to think a bit to know what should be your character’s next action when embarking on text adventures. Of course that example is very simplistic because games like ROK II tend to have mysteries, puzzles and clues that are hidden within the story. Sometimes these are implanted in a subtle manner that might be easy to overlook.
Typical text role-playing adventures normally guide your path by giving you a general direction to go in. This is where ROK II is different, once you enter the Town (the central place in the game) then you have to decide your next move from hundreds of options. Young minds, who do not want to exercise the head muscle, might immediately look for a ‘cheat’ button to get past all the ‘thinking’ that’s involved but there is none. To play ROK II you will need to read everything and digest it as mentioned here: Text RPGs: Reading vs Comprehension.
You can also learn more of about various kinds of text adventures through this article: Browser Text Games.
