Linking Exits

Series: world-building · Part 4

A room with no exits is a cell. Exits are how travelers move through your island — they are the topology of your world, the paths between places.

Creating an exit

In build mode, link two rooms with a direction:

chart> link harbor-gate south market-square

Linked: harbor-gate → south → market-square

This creates a one-way exit. A traveler in harbor-gate can type south to reach market-square. But a traveler in market-square cannot yet go north to return.

Two-way links

Most exits are bidirectional. Link both directions:

chart> link harbor-gate south market-square
chart> link market-square north harbor-gate

Linked: harbor-gate → south → market-square
Linked: market-square → north → harbor-gate

Now travelers can move freely between the two rooms. The convention is that south and north are inverses, east and west, up and down. But this is convention, not law — a staircase might go up from the cellar and down from the loft, or a passage might twist so that east leads to a room whose exit back is also east.

Named exits

Not every passage is a compass direction. Use named exits for doors, stairs, passages with character:

chart> link common-room stairs lamp-room

Linked: common-room → stairs → lamp-room

Travelers reach it with:

> go stairs

Named exits appear in the exit list alongside compass directions:

  Exits: north · east · stairs

Removing an exit

chart> unlink harbor-gate south

Unlinked: harbor-gate → south (was → market-square)

The exit vanishes. Anyone who was about to walk south finds the way closed. Remember to unlink the reverse direction too if you want the passage fully sealed.

Exit descriptions

Exits can carry a brief description that appears when a traveler uses them — the transition text between rooms:

chart> describe harbor-gate/south
  (Enter transition description. End with a blank line.)
  You pass through the stone arch. The cobblestones give way to
  packed earth as the market opens before you.

  Transition set for exit south in room:your-realm/harbor-gate.

Transition descriptions are optional. Without one, the traveler simply arrives in the next room and sees its description. With one, the movement itself becomes a moment — a threshold crossed, a change in air.

Topology as storytelling

The shape of your exits tells a story. A room with one exit is a dead end — intimate, private, or trapped. A room with five exits is a crossroads — busy, confusing, full of choice. A room whose only exit leads back the way you came is a cul-de-sac. A room with a locked exit is a promise.

Think about flow. Where do travelers naturally want to go? Where should they feel lost? Where should they feel safe? The exits are the grammar of your island’s geography.

Verifying your topology

Switch to play mode and walk it:

chart> /play

> south
> look
> north
> look

Does the movement feel right? Is the transition smooth? Does the room you arrive in make spatial sense relative to the one you left? If south leads to the market, the market’s description should acknowledge the gate to the north — even if only by implication.

Build with your feet. Walk every path you create.