Your Average Zalanthian Supermodel

[Rhyden]

Alright. I've played the game awhile, I've read several ldescs. Many of the ldescs are ldescs it would seem of completely flawless, attractive, smooth-skinned, muscular, tall, curvaceous, feminine, whatever the case for male/female.

It seems like most people are playing supermodels! Everybody's absolutely stunning minus those of us who play the good ole' one-eyed hunchbacks with pimples, boils, rashes and scar-lashed skin.

Anybody else see this within ldescs? I know there's only so much room to describe, but it just seems that you're a mutated, ugly character or a supermodel!

It really makes it hard to determine whether or not a pc/npc is really good-looking or more good-looking than others because everybody looks the same! Who's with me?

[EvilRoeSlade]

Huh, I've never had that problem.  My character always seems to have it in his head whose better looking than who.

[Maybe42or54]

Just like IRL. If you are that white, I'mma stay away from you. I don't want to catch anything.

I'll play one of these people one day.

[Rhyden]

Huh, I've never had that problem.  My character always seems to have it in his head whose better looking than who.

You've gotta admit though, it's pretty hard. Usually, the better-looking people are the ones with the longer long descriptions. This isn't fair nor accurate and I can hardly depict what character would be better looking than another as they seem to have many of the same characteristics.

[halfhuman]

I've never really noticed this problem. The only extremes I usually see are on the Rinth citizens. They ugly.

I'm afraid to try and start relationships with any of the well written out female characters in the game, cause when I see the most idealistic, well described females I've ever seen in the game, I just assume that it's some creepy guy in his parents basement playing them.

[YellowCactus]

Mom's basement Rocks.
  I've got a popcorn machine.
   A magazine collection
   Kanks of all shapes and sizes drawn along the walls
   
    Oh, we're talking about character descriptions.  I think you should let people play what they like.  The staff will (I've learned) tell you if they have a concern about a description.  Some are odd, some are typical men and women of perfection.  Most are pure imagination.  Whoever you play, there you are.
Be happy

[Rhyden]

Ya, I don't know why I'm even complaining about a world full of supermodel-like Zalanthians.

I just strive for realism, but isn't that what this entire board is for?

[FiveDisgruntledMonkeysWit]

Rhyden wrote:

Alright. I've played the game awhile, I've read several ldescs. Many of the ldescs are ldescs it would seem of completely flawless, attractive, smooth-skinned, muscular, tall, curvaceous, feminine, whatever the case for male/female.

Rhyden wrote:

You've gotta admit though, it's pretty hard. Usually, the better-looking people are the ones with the longer long descriptions. This isn't fair nor accurate and I can hardly depict what character would be better looking than another as they seem to have many of the same characteristics.

To be honest, Rhyden, I'm confused as to what your problem is. Do you dislike seeing words such as "muscular" or "flawless" in sdesc and mdescs? Are you warning people against making their descriptions too verbose? Are you saying only people who make attractive characters bother to write good descriptions? Are you saying people who are able to write good descriptions are therefore better-equipped to make a physically attractive character, and this gives them an unfair edge somehow? Are you afraid people who have short sdesc and mdescs are assumed to be ugly? Or that people who don't make their character incredibly attractive are considered ugly?
I'd glad give my opinion on the subject, if only I knew what it was you were talking about.

[Rhyden]

So many subjects...

My main concern is that there is a certain median that many characters tend to look like: absolutely perfect. It's true, most people who don't clearly emphathize 'ugliness' in their description are just about perfect in most ways. I'm not saying this is bad, but because of this:

Are characters supposed to think that everybody is extremely good-looking minus those with mutations or mutilations? Because that's the way it seems to me.

[Rhyden]

So many subjects...

My main concern is that there is a certain median that many characters tend to look like: absolutely perfect. It's true, most people who don't clearly emphathize 'ugliness' in their description are just about perfect in most ways. I'm not saying this is bad, but because of this:

Are characters supposed to think that everybody is extremely good-looking minus those with mutations or mutilations? Because that's the way it seems to me.

Sorry for the confusion, I tend to do that.  :lol:

[tortall]

I remember this being brought up somewhere... Either on the board(probably) or at an APM.

Yes, there are two types of people. The ugly people to do the muscle work, and the pretty people.  They are the only types of people likely to survive in this world. Why? Well, does some noble REALLY want a puss-oozing pimple-faced woman near him as his aide? No, but he won't mind if she's part of his guard... FAR away from him.

Gah, I really didn't say that right, but do you get what I mean? And as for realizim, for most of us this IS a game. One where you CAN be uber-ugly IF YOU WANT TO. Or you can be uber-attractive. Which, quite frankly is more fun since most of us that play this arn't.

~strikes a pose~ Except me, of course.


-Tortall, the most attractive person ever.(In her mind)

[Spoon]

I think I'd rather have extremely flawless characters or extremely ulgy characters that mundane, shop assistant PC's called Dave.

Besides, I thought ldesc/sdesc's were supposed to highlight the MOST prominent features of your character.

Anyway, I'd rather play "the deformed, hunch-backed midget" than "the not-quite-so-good-looking, average-chinned man" any day.

And one last thing: Characters are deeper than sdesc's, stop being so shallow! :wink:

[My 2 sids]

I suppose that perhaps a regular amount of dust, ageing, and scaring is to be expected on most characters (like having 10 fingers even if the desc doesn't say they do).  So when a player takes the time to draw attention to flaws or filth, many players probably assume this is something big, something noticeable.  In turn, characters that don't want to be known for an abnormal about of flaws, probably have very nice looking descriptions.

[Cuusardo]

If you think there is too much beauty in the world, play a character who isn't beautiful rather than sit back and complain about it.

[Xamminy]

While a great suggestion, Cuusardo, don't expect anyone to go out and suicide a pretty character just to follow it.  Seriously, yes, lots of people want to be popular, so they create a character that looks like what they think should look good so that everyone will want to muds3XX0r them.  Why is this a problem that can't just be solved by, "If you think there should be more ugly characters, play one," is because those people that see it as a problem aren't bitching about their unpretty character, they're finding everyone else's pretty characters jarring.  Why is that Byn Sarge a 'flawless, porcelain young woman'  Things like this need to be looked over realistically.  Most poor people don't have the money or means to go about unscarred or get wounds tended so that they wouldn't scar...but all these commoners wanting jobs have flawless skin blah blah blah.  Why not have a few faint scars on your hands from working in the kitchen as a child?  Maybe you were assaulted by the neighboorhood serial rapist and have a knife scar down your right butt-cheek.  Not a single commoner child should have unmarred flesh by the time they are thirteen (human starting age) without a really good reason.  They, likewise, should not be a trim yet quite busty young vixen, as most of these people are just scraping by and shouldn't have much fatty tissue, which is what is necessary for an expansive bust size.  The list goes on.

[Nidhogg]

This is a really hard issue. I remember, a couple of years ago, I felt that I had to make sure that my pc's were flawed. Had to - was required in order to gain legitimacy. So, I'd write up a rather ordinary looking person, who was not terribly unattractive, then knock out some teeth, and give them some disfiguring scars.  The thing is I hated that I felt -required- to disfigure all my pc's.

I also have flet frustrated by the sheer volume of lovely perfectness. Sometimes after a round of finishing apps, I'll have a whole new vocabulary for describing beautiful breasts. It feels trite.


Perhaps the answer is to reassure the beautiful people, that they -can- be beautiful, but they don't need to be.

I love that on Zalthanthas a femme fatal can be hard, scarred, and brown toothed. Don't you love that? And I love that that makes more sense than the soft handed uber-warrior. Don't you love that too?

[Maybe42or54]

The average Zalanthan supermodel to all my pcs are the ones that you pay and they lay.

[FiveDisgruntledMonkeysWit]

I remember early on in my arm career, I had a lot of trouble with the text editor. The result was that one of my longest-lived characters had a mdesc that was only one sentence in length. Somewhere in that sentence, I mentioned him as having 'flawless' skin. Now, by 'flawless', what I meant was that he wasn't covered head to toe in hideous burns, didn't have any gigantic moles or tumors, and wasn't green. Later on, however, it occured to me that some one might assume my character was attractive, based on the lack of description. So I made sure to put in lots of EMOTEs about his battle scars and crooked yellow teeth.
My point is, it's never too late to make a pretty character ugly, through the magick of EMOTEs.

[path]

Realism is great. Hurray for that! May more characters desperately need to piss outside the tavern after finishing that last ale!

But, for me, part of the charm of playing in a fantasy world is the fantasy of being the person I can't achieve in real life.  Be it a different height, larger breasts or different colored, high up-keep hair.
A common complaint in the RL world is the seeming demand for visual perfection in women (and possibly for big muscles and height in men, hell yes), and oftentimes no matter how balanced your upbringing you're likely to feel the cultural push anyhow. For those girls and boys who want to be the beautiful people, can't we just smile sympathetically and allow them to soothe their burned psyche?

If you feel the desperate need to qualify them let's use the concept of natural selection, as forementioned.

On another note, I'd like to speak for the female player population on arm. We are not all nerdy man-children hunched in darkened basements. Sarah is pretty, or so some of my guy friends have told me.  

[EvilRoeSlade]

Heh.  If anything I'd rather have Armageddon be an experience where people realize that you can still be cool even if you don't live up to the expectations of appearance that are rarely attained in RL, let alone a desert planet.  You know, as opposed to the game being an avenue in which people can magically live up to those expectations just by writing in a few sentences.

Honestly, if that's your idea of a fantasy world, then I don't think that this game is one.

[Rhyden]

If you think there is too much beauty in the world, play a character who isn't beautiful rather than sit back and complain about it.

My characters are usually pretty as much as they are ugly: rarely. I usually play the riff-raffin' mundane, mediochre character who has nothing to do with absolute prettyness. You know why? Because that's what makes up most of the entire population. Instead, I see pretty people making up almost the entire population. Yikes!

Oh, this isn't a complain, just an eye-opener.

I don't complain, I explain.

[Angela Christine]

I think flawlessly beautiful and hiddiously deformed characters are two sides of the same coin, and equally good/bad.  Both are ways of making a character who stands out from the crowd.


However, I think sometimes people over-estimate the perfection of an average character.  Having all your teeth and no disfiguring facial scars doesn't make you are beautiful, that just makes you normal (having all your teeth isn't really impressive until you are over 30).  If they don't mention that their skin is smooth and flawless, but they don't mention that it is chapped and scarred either, then I assume that they have normal skin for their place in life, with the normal assortment of small scars, blemishes and imprefections.  A mercenary is going to have a few more scars than a florist, so I assume that they have a few good scars unless they specifically mention that they have no scars.  Putting scars into your maindesc or using coded scars is ok too, but without them I assume the character has the normal allotment of non-disfiguring scars.


AC

[HardCarbon]

My less then humble opinion?   In a fantasy world characters are main (or at least secondary) characters in a novel.. We ARE the extremes...

While some folk might find it fun to be the everyman..  We are the rogues,  the foolish heros,  the wanderers, the courtisans,  the bards of lore, the knights errent (well mebby not),  the wicked sorcerer, the evil warlock, the kindly witch.... well you get the picture...

we are larger then life.. even if we can't hold down a regular job.

[Bestatte]

I dunno, I have only made three out of my 13 characters *intentionally* good looking. One was buxom with decent curves, another had a bit of described femininity, and the third was written to be very feminine-looking in an exotic kinda way.

I don't think it's necessary to make a drop-dead gorgeous PC *or* a mangled mutant PC in order to RP someone interesting in the game, or even someone who gets actively involved in all kinds of "cool stuff."

I think the average Zalanthan is - average. That's kinda what makes them average, ya know? So I try to make my characters appear fairly average, given their backgrounds. If they stand out, it's because they've done something to make themselves stand out. Not because they sashay with child-bearing hips, or thrust their tits in peoples' faces, or continuously and blatantly expose their long slender curvy perfectly flawless thighs when they cross their legs at the bar.

NOR do they stand out because of some mutation, or Rave-dyed hair, or glowing eyes, or deformities or disfigurements.

Physically - they're just pretty normal average looking Zalanthan citizens. I figure with all those f-mes and mutants running around, SOMEONE's gotta look normal <--- those are smilies to show that I'm being sarcastic and not all that serious or critical.

[Anonymous]

I think Bestatte makes a good point.  From what I've seen on TV of different tribes and middle-eastern countries there are attractive women.

Specific to Zalanthas though, I think boobs like Pamela Andersen or Tara Reid would be very rare as I doubt most chicks get enough fat in their diet to grow a nice set of cans.

The other thing I think is out of place when describing an attractive PC is the pale skin stuff.  Unless you've had servants getting you food your whole life at some point you are going to have to take long walks through the city to get some food or water or clothes.