The DEFINITIVE list of nouns that can be used in sdescs

[Mood]

Yam, if 'teen' evokes images of catamites and nubile young girls, remind me not to live in your neighbourhood if I ever have children.

Don't hate.

[deconstruct99]

Young man/woman is a pretty good alternative methinks.

[path]

They're just long. I miss boy and girl too.

[hyzhenhok]

They're just long.

The adj young man is no longer than The adj, adj boy.

[NoteworthyFellow]

How about "youth" instead of "teen?"  It's quite a bit less slangy in tone, as well.  "The skinny, dark-haired youth" sounds better than "the skinny, dark-haired teen" to me, anyway.

[mansa]

They're just long.

The adj young man is no longer than The adj, adj boy.

Isn't the short description length 35 characters?

So,

Code Select Expand

12345678901234567890123456789012345
The 1234567890, 123456-78901234 boy
The 1234567890, 123456-78 young man

By my calculations, you can have 24 characters of uniqueness with BOY, and 18 characters of uniqueness with YOUNG MAN

[RogueGunslinger]

Heh. We needed calculations to see that 'Boy' is shorter than 'Young man'... Someone give that man a  cookie.

[hyzhenhok]

Isn't the short description length 35 characters?

So,

Code Select Expand

12345678901234567890123456789012345
The 1234567890, 123456-78901234 boy
The 1234567890, 123456-78 young man

By my calculations, you can have 24 characters of uniqueness with BOY, and 18 characters of uniqueness with YOUNG MAN

No. Young is a separate adjective. Young is a unique adjective. Characters under the age of 20 are not required to put "young" in their sdescs.

So for your concept for a teenaged character who also happens to be obese, has an enormous beard, a hooked nose, and sparkling green eyes, you have plenty of options besides "young". After all, assess -v will say that he's young, and hopefully your full description also indicates that he is young. So you could make him The obese, bearded young man, the obese, hooked-nosed man, the bearded, green-eyed man, the hooked-nosed young man, etc. etc. Why does age have to take precedence over other physical features, especially if you've written your character where it's not obvious? Young is no less a unique adjective than hooked, bearded, muscled, tall, etc. I see far more "tall," "muscled" and "broad-shouldered" men around than I see "young" men.

Also, if you take issue with using "man" for a teenager, you're using double standard if you think "boy" is a good alternative. If you feel obligated to indicate that your character is a young man in the sdesc, perhaps you should also feel obligated to indicate that your character is a "teenaged boy", and not any younger. Otherwise, you're relying on OOC assumptions which know that the "ugly, chubby boy" is at least 16 years old, because he's probably a PC and PCs can't be under 16. That's just extremely sloppy.

[Mood]

PCs can be thirteen and older.

[hyzhenhok]

Oh damn. I guess that voids my entire argument, doesn't it? Game over, guys. Game over.

[mansa]

Isn't the short description length 35 characters?

So,

Code Select Expand

12345678901234567890123456789012345
The 1234567890, 123456-78901234 boy
The 1234567890, 123456-78 young man

By my calculations, you can have 24 characters of uniqueness with BOY, and 18 characters of uniqueness with YOUNG MAN

No. Young is a separate adjective. Young is a unique adjective. Characters under the age of 20 are not required to put "young" in their sdescs.

So for your concept for a teenaged character who also happens to be obese, has an enormous beard, a hooked nose, and sparkling green eyes, you have plenty of options besides "young". After all, assess -v will say that he's young, and hopefully your full description also indicates that he is young. So you could make him The obese, bearded young man, the obese, hooked-nosed man, the bearded, green-eyed man, the hooked-nosed young man, etc. etc. Why does age have to take precedence over other physical features, especially if you've written your character where it's not obvious? Young is no less a unique adjective than hooked, bearded, muscled, tall, etc. I see far more "tall," "muscled" and "broad-shouldered" men around than I see "young" men.

Also, if you take issue with using "man" for a teenager, you're using double standard if you think "boy" is a good alternative. If you feel obligated to indicate that your character is a young man in the sdesc, perhaps you should also feel obligated to indicate that your character is a "teenaged boy", and not any younger. Otherwise, you're relying on OOC assumptions which know that the "ugly, chubby boy" is at least 13 years old, because he's probably a PC and PCs can't be under 13. That's just extremely sloppy.

I fixed the ages to the correct dates.

I agree that it isn't required to have 'young' in your short description, but when I make characters, I was my short description to describe as much as possible within the 35 characters.  I want to display that my body shape, race, sex, age, as well as a more specific detail that brings me out in a crowd.  That's what I want, and in what order I want them in.  That's what I think is important to be displayed, when I walk down the road.

[NoteworthyFellow]

Isn't the short description length 35 characters?

So,

Code Select Expand

12345678901234567890123456789012345
The 1234567890, 123456-78901234 boy
The 1234567890, 123456-78 young man

By my calculations, you can have 24 characters of uniqueness with BOY, and 18 characters of uniqueness with YOUNG MAN

No. Young is a separate adjective. Young is a unique adjective. Characters under the age of 20 are not required to put "young" in their sdescs.

So for your concept for a teenaged character who also happens to be obese, has an enormous beard, a hooked nose, and sparkling green eyes, you have plenty of options besides "young". After all, assess -v will say that he's young, and hopefully your full description also indicates that he is young. So you could make him The obese, bearded young man, the obese, hooked-nosed man, the bearded, green-eyed man, the hooked-nosed young man, etc. etc. Why does age have to take precedence over other physical features, especially if you've written your character where it's not obvious? Young is no less a unique adjective than hooked, bearded, muscled, tall, etc. I see far more "tall," "muscled" and "broad-shouldered" men around than I see "young" men.

Also, if you take issue with using "man" for a teenager, you're using double standard if you think "boy" is a good alternative. If you feel obligated to indicate that your character is a young man in the sdesc, perhaps you should also feel obligated to indicate that your character is a "teenaged boy", and not any younger. Otherwise, you're relying on OOC assumptions which know that the "ugly, chubby boy" is at least 13 years old, because he's probably a PC and PCs can't be under 13. That's just extremely sloppy.

I fixed the ages to the correct dates.

I agree that it isn't required to have 'young' in your short description, but when I make characters, I was my short description to describe as much as possible within the 35 characters.  I want to display that my body shape, race, sex, age, as well as a more specific detail that brings me out in a crowd.  That's what I want, and in what order I want them in.  That's what I think is important to be displayed, when I walk down the road.

This is when I think "youth" is an appropriate adjective.  Under 13, "boy" or "girl" would be appropriate; between 13 and, say, 17 or so, I'd still be a little iffy about using "man" or "woman", but "youth" fits.  Of course, it's gender neutral, which causes that issue, but it's no different than "elf" or "dwarf" which are commonly used alone.

[Maso]

I still call myself 'girl' now (IRL). I miss girl and boy nouns, I really really do.

[NoteworthyFellow]

I still call myself 'girl' now (IRL). I miss girl and boy nouns, I really really do.

I'm pretty close to 22 and I still consider myself a "boy."  I expect I still will at 30.  Maybe even 40.

[spawnloser]

Oh, 'assess' fixes all?  I hardly think so.  The big issue with 'assess' is that you can assess two people and get the same descriptor, that they're a whole heap younger than you... but one would show up to someone of a different race as 'young' and another as 'adult.'  Why do people of the same race get LESS information from the assess command than people of different races?

If 'assess' was fixed so that EVERYONE gets the "...appears (BLAH) for their race" and only people of the same race get the, "...appears (BLAH)-er than you" I would be content.  As it stands, I want people to know that my character appears in their teens without them having to get someone that is 20 to tell them that yes, my character is still 'young.'

[Yam]

Boy and girl are desperately needed descriptors.

[Sokotra]

I really don't see what the big deal is.  If someone wants to make a young PC that physically looks like a "boy" or "girl", then so be it.  The staff could always reject the app if someone is trying to get away with something fishy.  Kinda silly... but then again, I was kinda irritated that they changed my "halfbreed" to "half-breed"... silliness I tell you.  I like "halfbreed" better.

[Angela Christine]

I don't like girl and boy, because they do make me think of little children.

"elfess" is not a word, it's a piece of idiocy. (Sorry, pet peeve, heh).

Yeah, everybody knows it should be elfette. 

[hyzhenhok]

I still call myself 'girl' now (IRL). I miss girl and boy nouns, I really really do.

I'm pretty close to 22 and I still consider myself a "boy."  I expect I still will at 30.  Maybe even 40.

This is definitely a modern, real-world phenomenon. In the real, modern world, sure, someone under 25 being "still a child" is pretty common, because the threshold for becoming independent is much harder to cross.

In Zalanthas, I seriously doubt than any 16 year old who is out and about making a living on their own would consider themselves "still a child", which is what "boy" and "girl" insinuate. The only thing iffy would be for the 13-15 year olds, but even if you were allowed to be a "boy" or "girl" for such characters, it'd have to be special apped away when they hit 16, 17 and 18, which is pretty quick if they manage to survive.

The fact that in our modern language, "boy" and "girl" can refer to someone between 3 and 25 years old hardly lends credence to it being a good descriptor.

[Tisiphone]

The fact that in our modern language, "boy" and "girl" can refer to someone between 3 and 25 years old hardly lends credence to it being a good descriptor.

Unless, of course, you wanted to argue that the primary uses of sdescs are to communicate to the players, who do speak the language English, and live in cultures variously defined by it.

[Sokotra]

And that it describes how they look, physically, rather than their forced state of mental maturity in a harsh world.

[Maso]

The fact that in our modern language, "boy" and "girl" can refer to someone between 3 and 25 years old hardly lends credence to it being a good descriptor.

Unless, of course, you wanted to argue that the primary uses of sdescs are to communicate to the players, who do speak the language English, and live in cultures variously defined by it.

'Nuff said. Give it back. I do not call myself a 'girl' because I consider myself to be a child, but because I imagine a 'woman' as someone a lot older and more mature, perhaps married with kids. If I meet a guy in a bar he's not gonna go and tell his mates he met an interesting woman, he'd say girl.

[hyzhenhok]

And that it describes how they look, physically, rather than their forced state of mental maturity in a harsh world.

...no, it doesn't.

"Boy" and "girl" tells you nothing that a more specific, allowable term could. In modern English, a "boy" and a "girl" can be between 3 and 25 years old. How does that describe anything?

Not to mention, since we're getting into semantics, "boy" and "girl" in a modern sense is almost an entirely mental term. Great, you've told me your character's gender. You've told me nothing else. At all. You're obviously trying to refer to your character's age, because otherwise you would have used "male" or "female." The problem is that they don't in any way at all help specify the character's age. Youth, teen and teenager are all much better words when it comes to that respect. If you think "boy" and "girl" are synonyms to "teen," you've again fallen into the trap of sloppy OOC assumptions.

[hyzhenhok]

'Nuff said. Give it back. I do not call myself a 'girl' because I consider myself to be a child, but because I imagine a 'woman' as someone a lot older and more mature, perhaps married with kids. If I meet a guy in a bar he's not gonna go and tell his mates he met an interesting woman, he'd say girl.

The use of the term depends on context. All of these contexts don't really have a place when used in an sdesc, which is supposed to be a general, multi-purpose description.

[Maso]

What about guy and girl? To me this insinuates the same as young man and young woman but is not so character demanding.