Half-giant short description

[Callisto]

When writing a half-giant short description, are we allowed an extended short description? I'm looking to create a short description, but if I include "half-giant", I'm stick with one descriptive term, rather then two.

Help?

[spawnloser]

We're not restricted by any means...it just can't be over a certain length of characters.  Pick smaller descriptives instead of grandiose-haired and other stuff that takes a full breath and a twist of the tongue with pliers to say...or type for that matter.  That'd be my suggestion.

[Rindan]

I never really understood why people are so adverse to having only one descriptive feature.  I know it is a convention in the game, but if that one descriptive piece is unique, I think it is a-okay in my book.  Seeing as how I have never had a problem getting character's through with a single descrptive attribute, I imagine that is a thumbs up from the staff too.  Of course, if you go with one attribute, make it unique.  The dark haired half-giant of course is probably a no-no.

[Anonymous]

I used titan once.  And brute.  I know that's dangerously close to 'ragamuffin' territory, but I'm just throwing it out there as a possibility.

[Bestatte]

I haven't seen too many human characters with the word human in their sdesc. From an elven standpoint, why would he identify himself as an elf, when as far as he's concerned, it's normal to be an elf, and abnormal to be a human? Why should humans not need to identify themselves as such, but everyone else does?

If you can find a word that allows the reader to know you're a half-giant, without using the word half-giant, I say go for it. As long as it's fairly clear he's not just a big gith, or a GIANT. Since giants are an actual entity in the game, and something most people would run from...or kill...seeing "giant" and "giantess" in the game without that "half" in front of it is jarring as hell to me.

[Mekeda]

The reason  you do not see many humans with human in the sdesc is because humans are considered the default race. All other races need to have their race in the sdesc or they will be rewritten or refused and requested to change it.  The massive, brawny-haired man, for example, would be a human. People seeing that sdesc in a room would think human. Were that to be a giant, it would not fit in the game flow. The same goes for elves who have to have the word elf in their sdescription as well.

Mekeda

ps. If you want to play a giant, you have to be less verbose in your sdesc but there are still endless possibilities.

[Bestatte]

Ah I didn't realize that Mekeda. I've seen things like:

the red-haired scab-faced humanoid

which doesn't give me any indication if it's a male, female, human, gith..

and I've seen similar to

the blue-skinned thin male

which happened to be an elf

and

the crusty fat woman

who was a half-elf

*actual descriptions were changed so as not to identify the characters in case they're still alive

Plus I've seen plenty of giantesses and giants, not HALF-giants and HALF-giantesses...

and given that giants exist, if only mythically, reading that on a sdesc makes me feel like I have to decide if my character should call for the Legion, or try to kill the monster myself.

[creeper386]

and given that giants exist, if only mythically, reading that on a sdesc makes me feel like I have to decide if my character should call for the Legion, or try to kill the monster myself.

Well, although it COULD be trouble if some giant just plodding on by you. If you have time for a look this could be solved, and if you see them in the city most likely it's a half-giant. I mean, you'd KNOW it if it was a real giant. As it most likely well be a fairly large Staff run event that was filling up quick with destruction.

All those examples make since. The 'male' just says it's a skinny male. Which probably means he was a fairly short elf. Expect most likely alot of hair to cover different features but not necessary, as long as the ldesc comes out and says he's an elf.

For the half-elf? They can pass as human or elven. I couldn't see them putting human in their sdesc, but woman or man? Sure.

Personally, I'd rather have other races having their race in the sdesc as opposed to something else. When I'm acctually out and about in the real world I don't go, "Oh, there is a human. There's one too." So it'd be wierd for me to see it in game. Sure some sdesc ending with male, giant or even the feared raggamuffin might be confusing and you won't be sure what your looking at untill you acctually look, but you can probably bet that was the plan of the person writing it. They may not further that plan in the long description, but it's an easy way to show at a glance what they want. Rather to stick out or blend in.

Although, I may be completely off topic, and may not speak of anything relevant to anything, thats my belief.

[Ueda]

I just wanted to add, that when I see "the bulbous crotched male" & I find out its a elf, I get upset, because I asume that its a human, but with some closer inspection I seen almond eyes and pointed ears it gets me thinking. The other day I saw an elf with no hint as to the race except for ears & eyes. Oh well I guess its not a big deal though anyway.

[Delirium]

Maybe its a half-elf.

And as far as half-giant descriptors, you could keep it simple. Just pick and choose your words carefully for what you want to get across, keeping them short but descriptive.

The filthy, obese half-giantess.

[Angela Christine]

I think the "half" qualifier in half-giant is clunky and pointless.  I say that half-giants should be moved to simply "giant" because people are lazy and would have dropped the -half within a couple hundred years of the creation of half-giants, especially since true giants are almost never seen inside the Known World.  To prevent having to redesc every giant in the world, both half-giant and giant would remain acceptable.  

To prevent confusion, any real giant NPCs (or PCs) would have to have "giant" changed to something that would distinguish them from their smaller cousins.  I suggest true-giant or silt-giant.  The hyphenated word would still be clunky, but it would come up MUCH less often than half-giant does now.

AC

[Callisto]

I've settled on a short description:

the tall, muscular half-giant

It wasn't as hard as I thought!

[Malifaxis]

That's a thing of beauty right there.

You could always go with the 'gigantic and obese half-giant' which would only be really humorous if you were raising or lowering a hood.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

Keep it half-giant. It is not terribly difficult to figure out a nice short description for a half-giant. Most words will fit in. Remember, you do have 35 characters.

the monolithic grey-eyed half-giant

the tan, gortok-tattooed half-giant

the weathered, scarred half-giant

the claw-marked, black half-giant

the rune-emblazoned half-giant

the blonde, blue-eyed half-giant

[Anonymous]

I think things are going the wrong way here.

I've seen plenty of the so and so dwarf without the word 'dwarf' appearing in his or her main desc.  Meaning he or she is a raised hood away from being indistinguishable from a mul or a freakishly short, fat hairless human.

I'd rather have creative sdescs than ambiguous main descriptions.

What's wrong with 'the something, something-something humanoid' if you can look at the desc and tell what they are?

[SailorMars]

What's wrong with 'the something, something-something humanoid' if you can look at the desc and tell what they are?

I would say nothing, technically, but not being able to distinguish a race by a quick glance would be extremely rare, IMO (except for half-elves). Simply put, 99% of humanity is not built anything like an elf, dwarf, and obviously not like a half-giant. A mul... maybe, but unless Zalanthas is full of Arnie look-alikes, even those would be easy to distinguish at a glance.

Edit: Oh yeah, why is this in code discussion?

[EvilRoeSlade]

Edit: Oh yeah, why is this in code discussion? :P

Because it started out complaining about an aspect of the code.  In this case, the limit of thirty five characters to a description.

[spawnloser]

I also believe that 'humanoid' should only be used when you couldn't tell at a glance what the person's race is...like in the case of some of the more odd looking mutants.  An elf is an elf...a mul is a mul...dwarf a dwarf...half-giant a half-giant.  A half-giant is NOT a giant...there being a large difference in height.  Personally, I believe you can be creative enough without having to go over 35 characters...while still be descriptive enough that everyone should be able to get certain information at a glance.

[Anonymous]

Keep it half-giant. It is not terribly difficult to figure out a nice short description for a half-giant. Most words will fit in. Remember, you do have 35 characters.

the monolithic grey-eyed half-giant

the tan, gortok-tattooed half-giant

the weathered, scarred half-giant

the claw-marked, black half-giant

the rune-emblazoned half-giant

the blonde, blue-eyed half-giant

And for the love of Christ, don't use half-giantess. I fucking loathe that.  :roll:

[crymerci]

And for the love of Christ, don't use half-giantess. I fucking loathe that.  :roll:

If you don't specify gender, 99% of people will assume you are male without even looking at you.  Since a half-giantess's tits are probably larger than a human head, I don't think her gender is something that would escape anyone's attention.

[Louten]

Speaking for myself, and not so much the rest of the staff, I like the race, if not human and in some cases half elf, to be in the short description. Again, everything is written from a human standpoint.

I know people want to put their character's gender in their short description, which is a good thing for and elf or half-elf to do for the most part. Dwarves and half-giants though... it's for the most part seems unnecessary to me, as I imagine both genders looking strikingly similar, -especially- when armored.

[Kalden]

Recently I've been putting "elven" in my half-elves' short descriptions, and it's funny how different the reaction is. People call you a longneck and a sharpear, whereas if you have "half-elf" in your description, people automatically assume they know you're only a half-blood. I reccomend people putting elven instead of the straight out half-elf.

I also would rather include gender in all my sdesc's, but with elves it takes up a lot of space, so I usually don't.

Edit: I'll add that I've seen one giantess recently in game - no half on her sdesc, so it looks like the imms don't really mind putting just "giant" or "giantess".

[X-D]

Louton mentioned that it is written from a human perspective, using that, giant is giant, and the half-giant is the largest humanoid people are likly to see. And honestly, If you are confronted with something 2-3 times your height and 8-12 times heavier then you, are you gonna nitpick that it's not a -true- giant, or just be happy its not a -true- giant?

Somebody else also stated that half-giants have been around now for thousands of years, also, that silt giants are basicly the stuff of legends, many people will have not even heard of them, so, the only giant they know is the half-giant. Plus, humans are lazy in speach and tend to shorten things, and there is no reason to have to say half-giant, not like there is gonna be a couple true giants standing there so you need make the distinction.

And yes, I know of a couple half-giants in game who's sdesc just says giant.

[Bestatte]

I agree about the whole giant vs. half-giant thing. I'd just like there to be some consistancy I guess. The first time I saw an "sdesc giant" in the game, it was from another room, looking in. I immediately freaked and wondered when the massacre was gonna start. Because as a player, I know giants exist, *even if only as the stuff of legends*. So from a distance, I, as a player, am looking at text that insists to me that I'm looking at something that is MUCH bigger than a half-giant.

Fortunately I got brave and stepped into the building after a few minutes of not seeing people running out screaming bloody murder. And I realized it was just someone who didn't include "half" in the description.

Imagine some new player coming to Arm, having read the docs, knowing that half-giants are part giant..that giants do exist in the culture, if not in the reality, of Zalanthas. And coming across a "giant" for the first time. As a player, how do you think he will react? What will be the appropriate way for him to RP this? How can anyone blame him if he doesn't start screaming bloody murder himself and runs for his life with his RP? He's being told it's a giant. Not a half-giant. And if I were to come across a sabre-tooth tiger in real life, I wouldn't walk close enough to make sure it wasn't just a little kitty cat. I'd RUN. real fast, real far.

Perhaps what might be a good fix, is to make some sort of official declaration on the official website, stating that you will -never- see a giant inside a town, and if you do see an sdesc that states "giant," that it's a half-giant and to RP accordingly.

I'm not the dullest nail in the box, honest. Occasionally gullible, sure, but certainly not stupid. And if I can look into a building after a year of playing the game, and see "giant" for the very first time, and actually think my character is looking at a giant, then I can only imagine how a newbie would react upon seeing the same thing (assuming they'd read the documents in the first place).

Just a little blurb in the roleplay info for newbies letting everyone know that if they see a "big-eared giant" not to freak, it's just a half-giant whose sdesc didn't fit into the max length so they cut the half part out. Like someone said in a different thread - what's intuitive for people who've been here awhile isn't necessarily what's intuitive for people who are new.

[Angela Christine]

Another way to get rid of those annoying hyphonated halfs would be to change the name of the half-creature to something else.  We don't call the offspring of a human and a dwarf a half-dwarf, we call it a mul.  It doesn't entirely make sense that both elves and humans would call the offspring of an elf and a human a half-elf, wouldn't elves be more likely to call it a half-human?

So give 'em their own names, say Gronik and Shulup.  Don't like nonsense words?  Ok, I can deal with that, although ICly "mul" is pretty much a nonsense word.  Sure, WE know it is derived from "mule" refering to sterile cross-breed, but given that horses, donkeys and thier mule off-spring are either extreamly rare or completely extinct, it is unlikely that Zalanthans would know what a mule is.  There might be a few scholars who have seen illustrations of mules, but for the most part I don't think they would be known even as legends.  So in modern Zalanthas "mul" is a random nonsense word.

But we don't have to settle for nonsense words, we can use words that could have developed naturally over time.  

For half-elf I'd suggest "breed" which of course is derived from "halfbreed" a common way of refering to half-elves which for some reason is never applied to half-dwarves or half-giants.  Both humans and elves use halfbreed, so it is a natural development in both sirihish and allundean.

For half-giants I realy think "giant" is the most likely name, given the lack of true giants in modern Known-world societies, but I can see how giant could be OOC confusing.  So my second choice is "bigun."  Derived, of course, from "big one."  Yep, he's a big'un all right.  I've seen people ICly address half-giants as "big fella" or "big guy" so bigun is a plausible development.

Down with "half-"s!

Angela Christine