That is over 35 characters; try again:

[Rhyden]

Personally, I don't like describing eyes in a sdesc. They're not noticable enough plus there are more primary defining features to people.

What I'd put in a sdesc:

-the (obviously)
-race
-age
-sex
-hair description
-size (height & weight)
-one-word description of the character's overall physicality

The only time I would use eyes or any other minor characteristic is when it truly stands out primarily with a character. Something one would notice right off the bat taking a quick glance at them.

[Socko]

I'm guilty of using complex words in a short-description-- never ones that are so archaic and seldom-used that you'd need a dictionary for, but I don't always like using simple words.

I'll do what I like; call me pretentious if you want.

[Marauder Moe]

Uncommon words in sdescs help to give your character unique keywords.  I've been in rooms where I couldn't emote with someone because his sdesc was like "the dark-haired blue-eye man" and there were 5 other PCs who came in later with those keywords.

[Twilight]

If I actually have to consult a dictionary to understand a sdesc keywords, something I've done maybe ten times in my playing history, I'd congratulate the player with such a keyword.  They've just added to my vocabulary.

[Cuusardo]

There have been PCs in the game that have caused me to need to have dictionary.com open while roleplaying them.  I like to think I have an excellent vocabulary, but I've seen people using some really obscure words that I've never even heard of.

I love dictionary.com, and I use its thesaurus function quite often when creating new PCs.  It's really helped me to find a lot of good words to use in sdescs and mdescs.

And so what if your PC has a common word or two in its sdesc?  You don't have to have a super awesome unusual sdesc with every single PC.

[X-D]

I like em short and sweet myself.

Simply because I like using change ldesc.

And eyes don't belong in sdesc...first thing you see my ass, but I suppose I should res one of the many threads on that subject rather then do it here.

Though, if you don't use eyes in your sdesc you can usually find some other descriptive term about your char and usually it is shorter.

Anything that has a hyphen in it is going to take up a ton of space.

Curly-haired...thats 12 by itself.

I always try to just describe what is *really* seen first, body type and skin type/color.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

There are two points that I need to make here.

1. Using a word not known to everyone who plays the game is not bad writing, it is not nessessarily an attempt to look smart, and it is not jarring. What it is is writing. You have all presumedly read books, and having done so, have stumbled upon words that you are not familiar with. Was the book over-written because of that? No, it was a story or articale that needed that word right where it was. You learned a new word because of it. Now, you can make yourself look smart. Stop whining about words you can not pronounce or have to look up, it is assinine, and it is insulting to those who really are just trying to make a short desc that they like.

2. I can understand the dislike for excessively long sdescs and the fear that it will verbose the screen input that you get. However, any character that ever wears a cloak already exceeds that sdesc limit. If we keep the maximum ldesc length the same, then there will be simply less room for a long-lined character to explain his actions. Let them suffer. Furthermore, it will be no worse than speaking to some cloaked figures, so I say give us 40 rather than 35 and let's call it even.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

As an aside:

Somebody noted that eyes do not belong in a sdesc.

So, do you think that in a character from the world of Dune shouldn't have his or her eyes in his or her sdesc? That is, in fact, the very first thing you notice about those characters, in film, at least. Or, what about the famed tribal on the cover of a National Geographic some time ago?

It shouldn't bother you overly what somebody has in their sdesc, as long as it coincides with their main desc. Some folks are just tall and dark and muscular, and that is all they are.

[Angela Christine]

An unusual word may not mean that the player is trying to be obscure, they may genuinely not realize that it is an obscure word.  I once . . . *quickly looks around nervously* . . . I once used the word "whelp" for a young 'rinther.  Not "the dappled dickens whelp" I used whelp before that became famous.   :oops:   I really didn't think it was obscure, I saw it used in USENET back in '95!

The worst part was one I overheard some people at a table say,
"What is a whelp?"
"I don't know.  That, I guess."
Argh!!!  Don't do that.  :x  You can't use a word neither you nor your character know to ask what a non-spoken word means.  That is insane.

If you don't know a description word means either ignore it, infer the meaning from context, or visit your friend dictionary.com.

whelp    ( P )  Pronunciation Key  (hwlp, wlp)
n.
A young offspring of a mammal, such as a dog or wolf.

A child; a youth.
An impudent young fellow.

A tooth of a sprocket wheel.
Nautical. Any of the ridges on the barrel of a windlass or capstan.

v. whelped, whelp·ing, whelps
v. intr.
To give birth to whelps or a whelp.

v. tr.
To give birth to (whelps or a whelp).


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Middle English, from Old English hwelp.]

That's right, my PC was the tooth of a sprocket wheel.

Thesaurus.com is good too.

1 entry found for WHELP.
Main Entry:   brat
Part of Speech:   noun
Definition:   child
Synonyms:   cub, devil, enfant terrible, guttersnipe, jackanapes, kid, punk, puppy, rascal, snot nose, terror, unruly child, urchin, WHELP, whippersnapper, wild one, youngster
Antonyms:   little angel
Source:   Roget's New Millennium™ Thesaurus, First Edition (v 1.1.1)
Copyright © 2006 by Lexico Publishing Group, LLC. All rights reserved

I guess next time I'll just use "whippersnapper."  That'll use up 15 characters right there.  


Angela Christine

[spawnloser]

I dunno, AC...I think 'jackanapes' is the best word from that list.

[Vesperas]

There are two points that I need to make here.

1. Using a word not known to everyone who plays the game is not bad writing, it is not nessessarily an attempt to look smart, and it is not jarring. What it is is writing. You have all presumedly read books, and having done so, have stumbled upon words that you are not familiar with. Was the book over-written because of that? No, it was a story or articale that needed that word right where it was. You learned a new word because of it. Now, you can make yourself look smart. Stop whining about words you can not pronounce or have to look up, it is assinine, and it is insulting to those who really are just trying to make a short desc that they like.

I can't help myself, I have to reply.  

For Point #1, I believe it is sort of asanine to input words that are extremely rare or archaic.  I am not calling 'cerulean' a rare word (I'd use it), because it is fairly common (it's on crayons!).  It's very rare that I will see a PC or a NPC using a word in their short descs that I do not understand, but every so often, I will see one that confounds me.

Most recent was the discovery of the word 'lilliputian'.  I looked into the long desc, thinking I was going to get some clue as to what 'lilliputian' meant, but it could be a reference to all sorts of things: stature, frame, size, color (my first guess), style... in a book, this would have been fine, because context clues immediately followed afterward.

But this is NOT a book.

This is a real-time roleplaying experience.  I don't have time to sit and wait for my modem to drag up dictionary.com (which I did do), especially if I am in an active, full roleplaying session.  I guess I could OOC to the room, "Yo, people, I'm looking up some words," but that would annoy my fellow players.

Don't confound your audience (other players) on PURPOSE.
Find something you like, that's original, that's suave, but don't drag something out of the back of a long-forgotten old dictionary because you want to The One, ya?

[Pantoufle]

Greetings, everyone.. I would like to know if it would be possible to slightly extend the maximum numbers of characters in a short desc?

No, please no!  35 is the perfect amount if you ask me.  Anything longer and it quickly gets tiring to read.

Besides, just remember the longer your sdesc is the shorter your ldesc can be.  With an sdesc of 40 characters long you'd be lucky to use an ldesc of 'is standing here' before it gets cut off!

[spawnloser]

You know, Vesperas, there are plenty of people that play this game that won't know what asinine or archaic means.  I mean, however much I'd like to believe that people that play a game like this are intelligent and well read (I mean, it is a text-based game), unfortunately, we have some people that can only be described as dumb and/or [not well educated] (I'm going to avoid using 'ignorant' this time as it tends to raise people's ire).  I'm not saying they're bad roleplayers or bad people, it's just an accurate way of describing them.

Possible solution?  Don't look it up.  Look at the mdesc and ignore the sdesc word.  The mdesc is an accurate description of the person and the sdesc should not include anything that isn't in the mdesc.  This means that you don't need to know what lilliputian means and react to it, just react to what it says in the mdesc instead.  I mean, your character is NEVER going to use the word lilliputian anyway, so why break your head over it?  Just write it down and look the word up later?

PS: I know EXACTLY which NPC you're talking about with that sdesc, and he's damn cool.

PPS: Lilliputian means small for those that don't know.  (You know, the island of Lilliput, where tiny people lived in Gulliver's Travels.)