Character and item descriptions

[Devi]

What do you think is needed for a good item or character description?
What ruins a character or item description?
In other words...
What do you like and dislike about character and item descriptions?
(don't use specific examples for disliking. That's mean.)

I'll start. I think an item description with over 5 lines of writing is painful. When I look at the item and see my window fill with text, I cringe. It's unfair (especially considering some of the longer descs are beautifully written), but I usually don't read them.

I like item descriptions that take the time to describe the little things, especially colours. For some reason, "red" never feels sufficient to me.

I love character descriptions that make me giggle with ingenious wording or imagery. Two of my favourites are Yegerfin's and Kortha's. I also like how Yegerfin's and Delia's address the scars. Most characters pretend they don't exist! The last line in both really makes sense.

[Devi]

Also feel free to post your own descriptions here or ask for help writing your own. I really adore writing descriptions in Geas. It's a very unique and enjoyable feature.

[iza]

hmm, in some games you can have as long of a desc as you want but since its limited here i've never had problems with reading it all. I really like Kortha's the last line really makes me shiver and go eww no mater how many times i've seen it.

Usually when i write something i write it for the intention of using it for RP. Iza has three distinct features hair, teeth and eyes. Each with two or three emotes attached to them, and thanks to how customizable settings are 1 of those emote really means something .

I really like when descriptions around you mean something or are/can be used for RP. Whether in rooms (ex. trees to sit against and rivers to bath in). or on people like scars or beards. These are the RP playgrounds to me that should be used more frequently to bring the world around us to life and add to our own entertainment.

[Sairina]

Hmmm... since several people seemed to like Kortha's description, I wandered if you might post it here?

I don't think it's absolutely necessary to adress the scars, but I hate if the description disagrees with the characters other looks - for example saying that he has a perfectly smooth skin, when in fact he is covered in scars (then again, it takes very long to change the description). Or a brown-eyed elf that has blue eyes mentioned in his description.

hmm, in some games you can have as long of a desc as you want but since its limited here i've never had problems with reading it all.

I think this was about item descriptions, not character's... I don't know if there's a limit for these, but I try to keep them between 4 and 5 lines myself. Seems to be a reasonable length for a fair amount of detail.

I like items that add something to the game, like the player clerics I've seen in robes with their gods symbols and colours - this has so much more charm than just the same old unicoloured tunic everytime.

I dislike items that tell me things I can't possibly know by looking at them. For example a tunic "stained with a lion's blood" - how do I recognize the blood of a lion from that of a pig?

Iza has three distinct features hair, teeth and eyes. Each with two or three emotes attached to them, and thanks to how customizable settings are 1 of those emote really means something

I'm not really sure what you're talking about here. It means what?

[Sairina]

Is it OK to post a character description here at all, or is this considered IC information? Because I wonder if there's anything wrong with mine, since it's been months since I wrote it and it's still not been included - even though my second chars description (send later) was already processed. But I guess I would have been told so, if it hadn't been OK? Which wizard is responsible for the character descriptions anyway, so that I may ask him/her if I even sent in correctly? Or is there a way to check if I have a pending description myself? If there isn't, it would be a nice thing to have, by the way, so that you can check what you wrote months later...

[chara]

You are notified if a description is rejected. Drake is the one who is currently handling long descs. In this case, your desc just slipped through the cracks; it has now been approved.

If anyone has a problem with long descs not being approved after a reasonable period of time, they should poke Drake about it.

[Drake]

Just don't poke too hard, I'm none too stable on my perch at times.

But yes, if there is a problem with a description that is submitted, I do mail about it and what exactly the problem is so you can get to fixing it.

As Chara said, yours seems to have slipped through somehow.

So you all know, how I'm notified someone has submitted a description via a mudmail from the system. Like I'm sure everyone can understand, sometimes my inbox explodes, usually due to me pressing buttons when I'm in no condition to be operating them.

So if you don't hear back from me after a week or so, prod me with a mudmail or a commune about it and as soon as I see it, I'll either get to it, or get back to you if need be.

Drake

[Sairina]

Thanks!

Back on topic, though, as I noticed I didn't say yet what I like about a description.

For me, a description is good if I can imagine the item/creature. If I can close my eyes and picture the character wearing the item, or if I could pick up a pen and draw it without having to stop and wonder about the shape of the sleeves or the length of the skirt - then it is described well.

One of the things I consider most important to picture an item is the colour, as has already been mentioned. Most of all, I hate it if the colour is left out completely. Of course, this is OK if the material mentioned is already associated with a colour anyway. "A long ebony staff" is perfectly good without writing that it's black. A "fur coat" could be anything, while "a wolf fur coat" is probably the usual colour for wolves, which is something greyish, since anything else would likely have been mentioned. But "a woolen shirt" irritates me, because it might very well have been dyed.

Of course, the colour doesn't have to be mentioned in the item name, especially since custom items are limited to two adjectives, I believe. Which brings me to another thing I dislike: if the long description just repeats the item name with a sentence around it, without adding any details: "a red shirt" - "This is a red shirt."
Of course, this is the easiest, and it has been done with many of the simple items in Geas shops, or with the creatures as well: "This is a dangerous Nibbler". I see the item name as what I would see on my first look at something, and the description as the details I would notice on a closer inspection. And even the simplest item would have those, about how it's cut, whether it looks used or new, expensive or cheap, clean or dirty.

[Sairina]

As for the character descriptions, there are some that you just remember if you've ever seen them, and I really like those.

Like, Mazarmormuk. I mean, he's ugly, but you just don't forget a face like that.

Or Naga - all wrinkles. How old does an elf need to get before he looks that old? It certainly makes an impression.

Or let's take Kaspar's - that's just so creepy

Some details I also liked are the descriptions of Rukia's and Omen's eyes... and Taynan's ear studs (just because they're cute)

[tessa]

Kaspars? He kind of reminds me of a a baby Jezz. It's cute, in a totally gross and creepy way. :P