Are you talking about a rougelike game (like ADoM and Nethack) or a true text based game?

a Rougelike game would be harder to program but I know that rougelike games have a lare following on the net (they are so damn addicive).
If you are doing a rouglike I recommend playing (and reading the spoilers of) as many as you can.

Came accross this forum here and thought I''d make a post. Over the course of the last 10 years or so I''ve developed text based 2D AD&D based RPG using colored ASCII to simulate low res graphics w/ a topographical view. I''m quite proud of it as it reminds me of the old DOS based games mixed w/ BBS door games. Take a peek if you care. Comments are appreciated. It can be found at www.pastcow.org/northworld. btw, it is called Northworld. Comments can be sent to taadowclwk@hotmail.com.