Rl>IG Descrpitions

[I]

Omen's "Colors' post got me thinking about comparing Rl to Ig thing in your mdesc. BEcause of Zalanthas' lack of lakes,rivers ect. there are no fish or frogs. But in your mdesc, would be alright to use something like saying his lips look like a fish's mouth or something like that as long as the player reading it can understand what is meant

[Chaemin]

DERAILMENT AND WHINING WARNING!  
[whining] Whatsup with that 'dry creekbed' in game?  Boggles my mind how nearly anyone would have any conception of a creek.  [/whining]

[moab]

I agree with I and explain to Chaemin that the descriptions are written for YOU the player and not the character.  After all, your character can't even read let alone play a text-based internet game.

[Majikal]

I wondered the same thing about the creekbed, any ideas on that? [/derail]


And as far as the question on descriptions goes I beleive as long as the portrayal of the person is fitting to the world and is beleivable I really don't mind. As moab said, the description are written for the players, not the character.

[Bestatte]

Okay, here's a reasonable IG explanation.

Fact: Water exists in the game.
Fact: Some of the water that exists is found in its own natural environment.
Fact: The two facts above are not secret information that no one is supposed to know about, although the whereabouts of these naturally occurring water locations is IC information.
Fact: People DO know that water exists, and some of those areas have names that people use to define those areas (such as a lake, or an ocean, etc..)

Fact: The dry creekbed used to have water in it. Maybe no one currently has ever witnessed this water in the creekbed, but certainly it would have been a children's tale told on stormy nights. "Once upon a time, water flowed free in this area, and it flowed in things called creeks. Then this monumental event happened and the creek dried up, and now if you visit you can still see where the water used to flow."

It is totally reasonable for people to have heard of the term "creekbed" for that reason, if for no other reason.

[Tamarin]

my next character...

sdesc: the black private dick

mdesc: Shaft.

[Angela Christine]

DERAILMENT AND WHINING WARNING!  
[whining] Whatsup with that 'dry creekbed' in game?  Boggles my mind how nearly anyone would have any conception of a creek.  [/whining]

How can you be so sure that there are NO creeks anywhere?    For all you know there could be creeks, oasises, pond, lakes, swimming pools, and fish tanks, but none of your PCs have happened to find them.  That doesn't mean that there aren't rumors of such things, legends, or crazy krath-touched wildernessmen with tales of far off wonders and dangers.

The concept of a creek isn't that hard.  In your home you have a big container of water for the whole family.  One day it springs a leak or a crack, and water starts dribbling out.  Since your floor isn't perfectly level it doesn't just pool, but also streams accross the floor, like a teeny tiny creek.  More often, some poor bastard just drops a cup of liquid, which then streams accross the floor like a stream, leaving a clean streak in it's wake.  It isn't that hard to generalize that idea to a concept of a large amount of water streaming accross the ground, possibly because a colossal mythical barrel had sprung a leak after being nudged by a bahamet or the Dragon.

[Raesanos]

It is not "wrong" to use non-Zalanthan metaphors, comparisons, etc. in your description writing. However, it is preferred that you use Zalanthan terms since it helps add a lot of flavor to the game.  If you're a player who has been around awhile, application reviewers may make suggestions regarding how to Zalanthanize your descriptions since we like to see people move in that direction, but we understand its hard to write that way when you're new.

[Gaare]

/Lost in DERAILMENT/

I find myself in funny situations while trying to describe certain PCs with interesting descriptions IG.

How would you define sea-blue eyes, steel-hairs, gold-skins, etc.. IG?

Like this? -->

His eyes are dark blue.. hairs are dull grey and his skin is brilliant yellow.

If so why it is steel colored hair, not dull grey?  :roll:

[amoeba]

/Lost in DERAILMENT/

I find myself in funny situations while trying to describe certain PCs with interesting descriptions IG.

How would you define sea-blue eyes, steel-hairs, gold-skins, etc.. IG?

Like this? -->

His eyes are dark blue.. hairs are dull grey and his skin is brilliant yellow.

If so why it is steel colored hair, not dull grey?  :roll:

Steel is not dull grey, it has a certian level of luminance to it.  Probably a bad example because steel does exist in game, it's just uncommon.  Gold is also not brilliant yellow.  If someone had a brilliant yellow car, I doubt anyone would confuse it with a gold car.    I do agree with you, these are hard to describe IG.   Things like jet-black eyes are just plain hard to get a zalathian analog to.

[Maybe42or54]

Steel, I can understand. They dyed it to match the big dragon one on the gates, huh?

So describe it as "Oh yea, lord templar kissmyass, he had the same hair color as that statue they painted up there on the caravan gate."

[Anonymous]

It's interesting to see which real world keywords are accepted and which aren't.  "Cherubic" is a popular keyword, for example, but I'm willing to bet if I create a character with "seraphamic" as part of his short-description, that would get rejected -- but ... why?  Somehow, cherubs have bypassed the screening process, probably because it's so common a word in the real world, it would be too much to refuse it here.  Carrot-headed, for example, is a common real world way to describe a redhead, and I don't think rejecting it would be fair even though there is no evidence that carrots exist on Zalanthas.  It's just too petty, if you ask me.  Still, there are some words which would be best described differently to fit the theme, like neon-blue, or sea-green.  And it would be silly if Arm allowed players to write descriptions which wrote: "He has a beard like Sean Connery, a nose like Tom Cruise."

I think you have to have some level of acceptance with real world keywords (steel-eyed, frosty-haired, and so on.)  I remember once having a character rejected for being "muddy-eyed", despite that the help file on his race (halfling) said they typically have "muddy-colored" eyes.  The explanation was that "mud is rare on Zalanthas, please use a different keyword."  If only the staff member at the time knew that there would some day be a code allowing items to become "muddied".  Unfortunately, the acceptance of a given keyword is at the discretion of whichever staff member is currently screening your application, though I really don't see how it could be any other way.  You can't exactly compile a list of what words are OK and what words are not (well you could but... nah!)

[LoD]

So describe it as "Oh yea, lord templar kissmyass, he had the same hair color as that statue they painted up there on the caravan gate."

Now you're talking about two different things: descriptions vs. conversations.

Your average denizen of Zalanthas might not know how lakes, creekbeds, carrots or the like appear, but I think they'd at least have a vague concept of the basic metals which merchants and noblemen can be seen wearing from time to time.  Steel, gold, silver, bronze, brass and copper aren't used widely, but they are used and visible from time to time on an expensive article of clothing.  Because they exist, I would imagine using those words in game aren't going to get much of an arguement.

When using words to describe your characters, and to a greater degree the rooms themselves, it is best if you can substitute common Earth words and materials for it's in game equivalent.  But some words just don't have a proper alternative to invoke the same image.  Words have more than a description of color to them, it can also be texture, richness and intangibles that are associated:

Steel - strong, unbending, gray, hard, impervious
Gray - drab, dull, muted, subdued

Those two words do not, to me, create the same image and cannot be used reflexively to achieve the same imagery.  Much of our language is like that, which is why I think some words are more acceptable than others.

Here's another example and what these words bring to my mind:

Gold - metallic, heavy, rich, shiny, glinting, desireable, smooth
Brilliant Yellow - ribbons, synthetic, fake, spring, paint, sunshine

There's a lot to think about when consider what words to use where, but I certainly agree that character descriptions are meant to be for us (the player) to properly envision the character.  Why cripple someone's true vision just because they wouldn't have much of a chance of seeing a piece of metal.

-LoD

[Maybe42or54]

What gets me is when people use a word that I have only heard in a "Can you remember every word from a dictionary contest".

People used bronzed a lot and not many have seen that.

[amoeba]

What gets me is when people use a word that I have only heard in a "Can you remember every word from a dictionary contest".

Heh, I think some of this is to get a somewhat unique keyword.  We've all had the discussion about "the tall, dark human".   That being said, Hirisute? Whats wrong with hairy?

[Cindrak]

It's interesting to see which real world keywords are accepted and which aren't.  "Cherubic" is a popular keyword, for example, but I'm willing to bet if I create a character with "seraphamic" as part of his short-description, that would get rejected -- but ... why?

Maybe because that's not a word
"Seraphic" would probably be accepted, though, if "cherubic" is (but what do I know?)

-Cindrak

[Bestatte]

d'oh you were refering to "sepharamic" and not "cherubic"

Never mind this post.

[Agent_137]

For my sdecs, i try to have at least one rather unique adjective.

sometimes that means using a word that people might have to use a dictionary for.

Pick your poison: Look up the word once, or constantly have to use 8.dark when looking at my character. (or worse, trying to way him.)

[ShaiHulud]

People used bronzed a lot and not many have seen that

"Bronzed" is commonly used in refering to skin coloration due to exposure of the sun.  Same with copper.  They are not nessasarily describing the appearance of the metal itself.

[Rhyden]

People used bronzed a lot and not many have seen that

"Bronzed" is commonly used in refering to skin coloration due to exposure of the sun.  Same with copper.  They are not nessasarily describing the appearance of the metal itself.

Yes, yes they are. Hence the literary terms 'bronze' and 'copper'. Humans of earth wouldn't use copper and bronze to describe a tanned, or dark skin color if both these minerals weren't that particular color in the first place.

[Rhyden]

For my sdecs, i try to have at least one rather unique adjective.

sometimes that means using a word that people might have to use a dictionary for.

Pick your poison: Look up the word once, or constantly have to use 8.dark when looking at my character. (or worse, trying to way him.)

Ya, I always like to find new adjectives for my characters, but sometimes the common ones work just as nicely. :wink:

[Cuusardo]

I always get confused by PCs who have the word water as a descriptor.  There was once a PC with water-colored hair, and the mdesc did not say a thing about what color the hair really was.  Water can be several different colors!

Clear :!:
Blue (oceans)
Green (algae)
Brown (muddy bayous, or the Gulf of Mexico)
Grey (icky Zalanthan water)

I guess what I'm saying is that if you're going to use something like this, please elaborate in your mdesc so that we know what color you mean.