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Old 04-22-2005, 12:18 PM   #8
Alsta
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Join Date: Aug 2004
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Dynamic room descriptions are always a good way to captivate the reader (read: player). If your mud has the capability, different descriptions for night and day, summer and winter etc. are always a good way to go. A Theseus and random phrasings of the same sentence also give a room the feel it's not just a static world. Also, room descriptions should be written for the people who will read them, read every object described, and attempt to interact with them in as many ways as possible (at least using the five senses).

The room long, the first impression as it were, shouldn't really be any longer than 5-7 lines (even 7 is a bit much). Every object described needs at least an extra description you can view or smell or touch (and it's always much better if this isn't a circular description.. becomes a little pointless then).

The use of 'you' in a long description is always a big no-no in my book. Same with having descriptions of things you can't see (ie. "This house has a fresh and rosy smell." - look is for viewing with your eyes.. use smell for finding out such information).

Good spelling and grammar is a given. For line length, I'd go with anything between 75-79 max. Colourwise, I can't stand MUDs that make you go blind. I usually play with a black background, and prefer all room descriptions in white (bold maybe for the titles, and it doesn't hurt to have the exits in a soft colour like cyan). As long as there's some separation between title, exits, long desc and objects it can look fine - though, this is just what I'm used too.

NB: I used 'should' a lot of times here.. these are just my opinions, not the be all and end all of room building.
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