Play Rogue with a screen reader

Rogue is a free fantasy game made entirely of text, a MUD that you play online with other people. Your screen reader reads the same rooms, fights and conversations that every other player meets.

Play now in your browser

This opens Rogue's screen reader page in this tab. Nothing needs installing. It is made for screen readers, with its own keys for reading the game.

On that page, choose Play now. If you already have a Rogue account, choose Sign in with a Rogue account instead.

Blind players already play Rogue, and help us test the game.

Your first few minutes

The game says hello, then asks: By what name are you known?
If you have played before, type your character's name, then your password.
A new name makes a new character. First the game asks you to agree to its terms. Type yes.
Next it asks whether you play with a screen reader. Type yes, then yes again when it asks if you are sure. From then on the game sends plain words, one thing at a time.
The game asks for your name, password, gender, email, race, appearance and background. It also offers hard mode before the final check. The email is optional. Press Enter to skip it.
You arrive on a ship and hear a short story. For about half a minute most commands do nothing. Type quest at any time to hear what to do next.

Playing a character you made before, and the game still sends lines and boxes? Type settings blind on once. The game remembers it.

If you leave a question unanswered for six minutes while you sign in or make a character, the game closes the connection. Choose Play again to start over.

Keys in your browser

These keys work while you type on the command line, so you never need to leave it. On a Mac, use Option for Alt with the arrow keys, and hold Fn with the F keys unless your Mac is set to use them as standard function keys. Option with a letter types a character on a Mac, so the keys below with Alt and a letter are Control, Shift and the same letter there: Control, Shift and L for the held lines, Control, Shift and Q for the question, Control, Shift and K for every key.

Control and a number from 1 to 9: read the newest lines. Control 1 is the newest. Press the same key twice quickly to copy that line.
Control, Shift and 1: your health. Control, Shift and 2: what you are fighting.
Control, Shift and 3: where you are, and the exits.
Alt and the left or right arrow: move between the lists of everything, talk, tells, combat, rooms, events, and the answers to your keys.
Alt and the up or down arrow, or Alt and comma or full stop: move through the list you are in. On a Mac, Option and the up or down arrow.
Control on its own: tap it to stop speech.
Alt and L: hear the lines that were held back while the game was busy, or while you were in another window.
Alt, Shift and Q: hear again the question the game is waiting on.
F8: turn reading of the game off or on. Keys and sounds still work.
F9: turn sounds off or on.
F1: help, with the keys you will use most.
Alt, Shift and K: hear every key. You can change any of them.
The number pad, with Num Lock on and the command line empty: 8 goes north, 2 south, 4 west and 6 east, the corner keys go the diagonal ways, minus goes up, plus goes down, and 5 looks around.
Up and down arrows: bring back the commands you typed before.

Commands for the page itself start with a hash sign, such as #help, #keys, #settings and #sounds. No game command starts with a hash sign, so nothing clashes. Most keys have a typed command too, which helps on a phone: #held reads the lines held back, and #hp says your health.

To put a game command on a key, type #key, the key, an equals sign and the command. For example, #key F2 = kill rat.

If your screen reader keeps a key for itself, press its pass-through key first: NVDA and F2 in NVDA, Insert and 3 in JAWS, Narrator and 3 in Narrator, or VO and Tab in VoiceOver on a Mac.

Sound

Sounds play as things happen in the game: a tell, a hit, a miss, low health, footsteps that change with the ground. They are extra. Everything important is said in words too, so you can play with sound off.

F9 turns all sound off or on.
Alt, Shift and full stop (Control, Shift and full stop on a Mac), or #sounds, opens the list of every sound. There you can hear each one, turn it off, set its level, or replace it with a sound file of your own.

Your own sound files stay in your browser and are not uploaded. The sounds that come with the page are made for Rogue, or are in the public domain.

If you have some sight

The screen reader page shows the game text on screen as well. In its settings, which #settings opens, you can make the text larger, or have your browser read the game aloud if you do not use a screen reader.

Use your own MUD client

Rogue works in any MUD client, such as VIP Mud, MUSHclient or Mudlet. Connect to:

Host: rogue-mud.com
Port: 4000. Port 6666 works too, but some networks block it.

Before it asks your name, the game sends a line of welcome, then a picture drawn with text characters. Skip past the picture to the question By what name are you known?

When you make a new character, say yes when the game asks whether you play with a screen reader. For a character you already have, type settings blind on once. The game keeps the setting. It then sends words and nothing else: no borders, boxes or drawn bars, and lists come one item to a line. Type help blind in the game to hear more.

Blind players may use triggers, scripts, plugins and soundpacks, and do not need to ask. The one thing that is not allowed is playing while you are away from the keyboard.

Getting help

In the game, type newbie followed by your question to ask on the newcomers' channel.
To report something that does not work, type bug. Write as many lines as you need, then type a full stop on a line by itself to send it.
Email us at lestat.rogue-rpg@outlook.com.
Talk to us on Rogue's Discord server.

It helps to know which screen reader and browser, or which MUD client, you use, and what happened.

Accessibility statement

Updated 5 November 2026.

We aim for this page and the screen reader page to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, WCAG 2.2, at level AA, and for the rest of this website to follow.

The screen reader page is new. So far it has been tested in a real screen reader, Orca on Linux, and with automated checks. We have not yet tested it with NVDA, JAWS, or VoiceOver on a Mac or an iPhone. That testing is still to do, along with Narrator, TalkBack on Android and braille displays.

Known problems

The character creator on this website does not announce its steps yet, and it does not ask whether you use a screen reader. Make your character in the game instead.

If anything on this website or in the game does not work for you, please tell us in any of the ways above.