Text-Based Games: The Six Kinds, and Where to Play Them
Search for text-based games and you get six different things back: parser adventures in the line of Zork, choose-your-path stories, browser games run from menus and numbers, AI story generators, multiplayer worlds called MUDs, and party games you play with a friend over text messages. They share the medium and little else. This guide maps all six, says what each one is good for and where to find it, and then makes the case for the multiplayer kind. Icesus, the game this site runs, is one of those: a free text world, online since 1995, that opens in a browser tab.
Want to see a multiplayer text game right now? Icesus runs in the browser. There is nothing to download and nothing to buy.
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The Six Kinds of Text-Based Game at a Glance
| Kind | How you play | Alone or together | Does it end? | Where to find them |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Text adventures (interactive fiction) | Type short commands such as open door to get through an authored story. |
Alone | Usually | IFDB, IFComp, itch.io |
| Choice-based stories | Pick one of the options at the end of each passage. | Alone | Yes | Twine games on itch.io, Choice of Games |
| Browser stat games | Click through pages and menus; text reports what happened. Sessions are short. | Varies: Torn is massively multiplayer, Fallen London mostly solo | No, your character persists | Torn, Fallen London |
| AI text adventures | Type anything; a language model writes the reply. | Alone, or with a few invited friends | Stories save, but there is no shared world | AI Dungeon, Friends & Fables |
| MUDs (multiplayer text RPGs) | Type commands in a world that other players are in at the same moment. | Together, live | No, the world stays online | Icesus, Achaea, Discworld MUD, Aardwolf |
| Texting games | Word and party games sent as messages. | With friends | Whenever you stop | Your phone; no software needed |
Text Adventures and Interactive Fiction
This is the oldest kind. Colossal Cave Adventure and Zork set the pattern in the 1970s: the game describes a room, you type a short instruction, and a parser works out what you meant. Modern interactive fiction keeps the parser and adds serious writing, and many pieces are short enough to finish in an evening. The Interactive Fiction Database (IFDB) catalogues thousands of them, and the yearly IFComp competition adds new ones every autumn.
Play one if you like puzzles and authored prose. You play alone, and you will reach an ending.
Choice-Based Stories
Instead of typing, you choose. Each passage of text ends in two or three options, and each option sends the story down a different branch. Gamebooks did this on paper. Today most choice games are made with free tools such as Twine and published on itch.io, and Choice of Games publishes long, novel-sized ones.
They are the easiest kind to start, because there are no commands to learn. The trade-off is that you can only do what the author wrote down as an option.
Browser Stat Games
Some games on text-based lists are played mostly through menus. Torn, which calls itself a text-based online RPG set in the dark, murky underworld of Torn City, has run since 2004. You attack and mug other players, join factions and trade, all by clicking through pages while text tells you what happened. Fallen London, from Failbetter Games, is the literary version. Its makers call it a free, browser-based, literary RPG with bitesize play sessions, set in a gothic Victorian London that was, in their words, stolen by bats.
Both persist, so your character is still there next week. Torn is full of other players, though you meet them through attacks, factions and the market rather than in the same room. Fallen London is mostly a story for one, with a few social actions such as inviting another player to tea. Both are free to play and sell optional extras: Torn has donator packs and points, and Fallen London has Fate and a subscription called Exceptional Friendship.
AI Text Adventures
This is the newest kind. In AI Dungeon, which Latitude launched in 2019, and Friends & Fables, which is modelled on tabletop games like D&D, you can type anything and a large language model writes the world's reply. Both let a few friends join: AI Dungeon through an invite code, and Friends & Fables in parties of up to six. Both have a free tier and paid plans.
The freedom is real, and so is the limit. The story is generated as you go and saved to your account, but it is your story, not a place. Nobody else is in it unless you invite them, and nothing in it was built to last beyond your campaign. They are good for improvised adventures. They are not the same thing as a world that people wrote and other players live in.
MUDs: The Multiplayer Text Game
A MUD, short for multi-user dungeon, is a text world that stays online with many players in it at once. You read rooms and act by typing commands, as in a text adventure, but the other characters you meet are people, the world keeps running when you log off, and your character carries over from one evening to the next. MUDs were the first online role-playing games, starting with MUD1 in 1978, and the graphical MMORPG grew out of them. Many are still running, and several have been online for more than thirty years.
That makes a MUD the multiplayer, persistent branch of the text-based RPG. Icesus, Achaea and Discworld MUD can all be started free in a browser, and Best Browser MUDs compares the field side by side.
Games You Play Over Text Messages
Many searches for text-based games are really looking for something to play with a friend by text: would you rather, twenty questions, emoji riddles, word chains, and story chains where each person adds a line. These need no app at all, just a phone and someone to play with, so this guide leaves them there.
If the story chain is your favourite, though, a MUD is the same idea at a much larger scale. You write and act in a shared world with other people, and the world remembers what happened.
Why the Multiplayer Kind Is Worth Trying
Almost every other kind on this page is played alone. Playing with other people changes a text game more than you might expect.
- Other people answer back. Someone on the newbie channel explains a command, someone else needs a healer for a party, and the stranger you helped last week remembers you.
- The world keeps its state. Your experience, equipment, maps and friendships are still there tomorrow. A run does not reset when you close the tab.
- Nothing ends. There is no final room. Players who have been in Icesus for years still find places they have never seen.
- Text makes depth affordable. Icesus has 65,000 rooms, 27 races and 16 guilds, because none of it needs a 3D model or an animation.
- It runs almost anywhere. A browser tab, an old laptop or a phone is enough, and the client has a screen reader mode built in.
The cost is a learning curve. You have to learn a handful of commands, and a busy room can scroll quickly. Icesus starts new characters in a guided tutorial for that reason, and How to Play a MUD walks through the first evening step by step.
Try One in Five Minutes
- Open play.icesus.org. Connect, give your character a name and follow the prompts.
- Pick Quick Start. Prepared characters such as Soldier, Mage, Healer and Ranger get you into the world quickly. Reincarnation lets you rebuild your character later, so a first pick is not a life sentence.
- Follow the tutorial. Alice, a travelling ranger, walks you from a wayhouse to the city of Vaerlon and teaches you by doing.
- Learn six commands.
look,exits,score,inventory,whoand a direction such asnorthcarry your first hour, andhelpcovers the rest. - Leave properly. Type
leave gameat an inn to save your character and store your equipment.
Play an Online RPG in Your Browser explains what the browser client shows you, and the Quickstart page on the wiki is the in-game reference.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are text-based games?
Games where the world is presented mainly in words rather than pictures. You read what is happening and act by typing a command, choosing an option or clicking a menu. The label covers six quite different kinds: text adventures, choice-based stories, browser stat games, AI text adventures, multiplayer MUDs, and party games played over text messages.
What are good text-based games to play online for free?
For a puzzle story you play alone, browse the Interactive Fiction Database or the free text games on itch.io. For a shared world with other players in it, try a MUD: Icesus is free with nothing to buy, runs in a browser tab and has been online since 1995. Achaea and Discworld MUD are other long-running MUDs you can start free in a browser; Best Free MUDs explains how each one is funded.
What is the difference between a text adventure and a MUD?
Both describe rooms in words and take typed commands. A text adventure is played alone, is written as one story and usually ends. A MUD, or multi-user dungeon, is a shared world that stays online: other players are in it at the same moment, your character carries over between sessions, and there is no final room.
Are there multiplayer text-based games?
Yes. MUDs are the original multiplayer text games, and many still run, including Icesus, which has been online since 1995. In a MUD the other characters you meet are other people, playing at the same time. Some browser stat games are multiplayer too, but most of their interaction happens through menus and timers rather than in the same room at the same moment.
Can I play text-based games on my phone?
Yes. Many text games run in a mobile browser. Icesus's browser client works on a phone with on-screen direction controls and the same command line as on a computer, and your character is the same on every device.
What text games can you play over text messages?
Party and word games such as would you rather, twenty questions, emoji riddles, word chains and story chains where each person adds a line. They need no app, only a phone and a friend. If the story chain is your favourite, a MUD is the same idea at the scale of a whole world, with many more people writing and acting in it.
Related Guides
Every other kind of text game on this page you play alone. Try the one where other people are in the world with you.
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