My friend JeffC [1] sent me a link to They Fight Crime [2], a CGI (Common Gateway Interface) script that prints out a plot.
I checked the page, and it's all in JavaScript. Pretty easy. It looks easy. So I take the text (it's there for the taking) and write my own version [3] (in C of course) that can be easily extended (all the text are in files) and I've even included character names. Mine also has more options than just fighting crime.
I do need to fix the pronouns in a few cases but I'll save that for later.
Oh, it only took a few years to fix the problem [4].
[1] http://www.geocities.com/cuscutis/
[2] http://www.rain-street.org/fightcrime.htm