How to Play TriadCity

The TriadCity Players' Guide

TriadCity's Robots

TriadCity is home to several chatterbots who are available pretty much 24/7:

  • Eliza is our emulation of the grandma of all AI chatterbots, Joseph Weizenbaum's ELIZA, which he programmed at MIT's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory way back in 1964. She's a remarkably good simulation of a Rogerian psychotherapist. You can Ask her questions, Tell her things, and even visit her in her office in the NorthWestern Third. Unlike some of the others, she doesn't participate in Chat — that would be totally unlike her.
  • Help is our online answerbot for basic questions. It responds to Ask or Tell. It's capable of answering thousands of questions about commands, game play, and basic info about the City. Naturally we're unable to anticipate every question it'll receive, or the exact form in which questions will be asked. But, we track every question it's unable to answer, and we'll usually have that answer online by the next day. In this way it's knowledge grows continually, based on the questions it's actually asked.
  • Marvin is our emulation of Douglas Adams' depressed robot of the same name from his Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy radio shows and books. He'll occasionally intervene into ongoing chats, or start ones of his own. He responds to Ask and Tell, and also will reply publicly to Chat if you phrase it this way: "chat marvin, tell me a joke". Put the comma after his name for a public reply. He tells jokes, congratulates by complaining, and is well-beloved by many in-game characters.
  • Oscar is a repository of the wit and witticisms of one of our heroes, the hilarious and doomed Oscar Wilde. Like the others he responds to Ask and Tell, and like Marvin he'll reply publicly to Chat if you put his name first followed by a comma. We've programmed him with many hundreds of Wilde's most hilarious aphorisms, one-liners and quotations, which he'll draw on in formulating responses. Ask him about art, or history, or America, or blue china. Like Marvin he'll sometimes intervene into public Chats, often with marvelously apt comments. We intend to one day set him roaming about the City with a green carnation in his lapel, but for now he's closeted in SmartMonsters' tiny office in the Southern Third — a pun, of which he would have heartily approved.
  • Death in all his mordant creepiness is a constant reminder that our time is short. When he breaks into public Chats you'll probably not want him to. He lives in the top floor of the Haunted Mansion in the NorthEastern Third, where he stands behind the Ghost King's throne, scythe ever present. Bill and Ted are not with him, although, thinking about it, they probably should be.
  • Zhora is a work in progress. She's a citizen of NorthWest, employed by the Third to take TriadCity newbies on tours of the Park, the White Plaza, and areas nearby. She's a very good source of practical information on getting started. She's not on all the time — but she will be soon.

Chatter away!
Meet you in The City!

Players' Guide TOC

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