Text Adventure Mode

The concept of Text Adventure mode is straightforward. It involves using a > (caret) symbol to indicate an action that you want your character to perform. The AI then interprets this action and shapes the narrative response accordingly. These > actions do not form part of the story itself but rather serve as cues for the AI, guiding the direction of the narrative.

Keep in mind that these > symbols are hidden from the story panel, and only visible when checking the Context.

Getting Started

To start off, make sure you have a Text Adventure prompt ready. You can either pick a pre-made one when you go to create a new story or create one yourself.
But it's worth remembering that while NovelAI is capable of starting a Text Adventure from a completely empty prompt, the AI should write more coherently when given more material to work with.

To select a pre-made prompt or start with a blank prompt, first click on the New Story button found in the bottom left corner of the screen.

Starting With a Blank Prompt

After creating a new story, click on the Text Adventure button. It's that simple!
But again, stories starting from entirely empty prompts may not be as coherent as ones starting from longer, properly written prompts.

Selecting A Pre-made Prompt

On the bottom right of the screen, click on View All Scenarios to expand the scenario viewer. Then find a prompt with the Text Adventure tag and click on it. You can easily do this by typing in text in the search bar.
After picking a prompt, simply click Start or fill all the required placeholders.

The Text Adventure Module

There's an AI module made specifically to assist the AI at writing in a Text Adventure style.
Selecting it will also activate the Text Adventure UI if your story wasn't initially a Text Adventure one.

To select it, all you have to do is click on the module selection dropdown on the right-hand side of the screen (the options sidebar) and select Text Adventure.

The Two Input Modes

Text Adventure mode takes inputs differently than the normal Storyteller Editor.
It takes inputs in the form of commands, that get automatically formatted to fit in its style, as well as some capitalization and punctuation corrections when appropriate.
There's two different auto formatting modes for the AI, one for actions, and one for dialogue:

Do: This input method modifies your input by adding > You to the front of it. This is the bread and butter of your text adventures, as it lets you state what you intend for your character to do.

Example: charge the dragon

Say: This input method modifies your input depending on the punctuation mark.

For a full stop or no punctuation, it prepends > You say  to your input.

Example: you've had enough

If you end your input with a question mark, it prepends > You ask  to your input.

Example: you've had enough?

And if you end your input with an exclamation mark, it prepends > You yell  to your input.

Example: you've had enough!

Advanced Inputs

Special Actions

Some inputs have special functionality when input while in do mode

• Just inputting l makes You look around.

• Just inputting i makes You check your inventory.

• Starting the input with x  followed by something else, makes you examine that thing.
  For example, inputting x book makes You examine the book.

• Just inputting n, w, s, e, nw, ne, sw, se, u or d will make your character go to a specific direction
  For example, n makes you go north, sw makes you go southwest, u makes you go up, and d makes you go down.

• Just inputting z makes You wait.

Wildcards

Special inputs like the ones above, but these work a bit different.
Wildcards leave a part of the input up to the AI.
They also work both in do and say modes, albeit differently in each.

• Ending your input with * or , will let the AI continue your action as its output, along with the ensuing result of the action. For the action continuation, the * gets deleted, but the , stays.
  For example, inputting grab the dragon's tail* can result in the final action being You grab the dragon's tail and spin it around.

• Inputting only ! in do mode will make you perform a random action, while in say mode it will make you shout something.

• Inputting only ? in do mode will make you inquire about something, while in say mode it will make you ask something.

Shortcuts

These allow you to quickly do things you normally can't do in your selected Input Mode.

• Starting the input with " will make you say something, even while on do mode.

• Starting the input with > will make you ´do´ something, even while on say mode.

• Starting the input with ! is a bit more special. It will take your input exactly as you write it, without any changes that are usually applied by the input modes, with the exception of the hidden > at the start of it.
This results in an action or command that isn't taken by or directed at the main character.
In older versions of NovelAI, this used to be classified as a story mode input.

Example: !The dragon suddenly has a heart attack.

What exactly does > do in the context?

Essentially, the AI perceives a > action as a player action, not an in-character action. You're only stating what your character intends to do in the story, not what's actually happening in the narrative. This is why the AI has to interpret the action in some way, and why it sometimes won't state the action word for word.