foolofsound:

Yeah, but it's pretty central to the character, so it stays. Description isn't merely physical; it should also describe the spiritual air around the character, and tell something on their personality.

Most players think exactly the opposite. The description is what you can see of the person at a glance, personality traits should be demonstrated via your actions.

Kialkarkea:

Most players think exactly the opposite. The description is what you can see of the person at a glance, personality traits should be demonstrated via your actions.

You are trying to tell me that people don't give off an aura? How can we say "He looks like trouble", or "He looks like a nice guy."? People do have a certain air about them. That air isn't necessarily true to their personality, but it certainly exists.

The problem most people have with appearances is that they have a totally mechanical description. Their description is lifeless and dead, as though they are describing a statue, or making a police report. This is a text medium, so the challenge in writing a good description is giving a character life; a narrative description, not merely a mechanical one. Good descriptions tell a story, and give an introduction to a character; how else can authors and directors use non-speaking appearances so effectively? Lucius Malfoy from Harry Potter; his very appearance gives off an aura of petty evil and cruelty.]

This heavy, simple warhammer features a single large, rounded, knob-like head leading into a heavy block of well worn, but highly polished, steel; perfect for directing bone-shattering force, even through thick armor. In the dwarven style, the hooked counterweight resembles a mining pick, and is tied with a azure ribbon. The thick wooden shaft has been left unstained and untreated, though darkened and smooth from intense use. Engraved deeply into both sides of the head, resembling two triangles joined at the tip, is a single dwarven rune: Nadeje; Hope.

This is the description of my Aetolian character's warhammer. Even an object can tell a story about a character; that's why I get all of my character's clothing, weapons, and armor custom made. Description of both the character and his key items make a character unique, ever bit as much as his personality.

Junia:

She is a feathered trill and her light-coloured eyes often sparkle with an innocent sort of mischief. She stands a head shorter than many humans, and her powerful, feathered wings stretch wide when spread to their full span. She moves constantly with a bubbling sort of energy. Her face is small and cheerfully rounded, and her skin is quite pale. Instead of hair, her head is covered in thousands of soft, tiny feathers that shift between many shades of faded linen to rich russet. The feathers stretch back along her scalp and grow larger in size, stopping in a fluffy, irregular line at a level with her chin. Her wings are darker in color. The feathers at her wing joints match the lightest reddish colors of the feathers on her head and grow progressively darker, finally reaching a glowing, mahogany shade at the tips.

Pretty sure that Trill aren't supposed to have head feathers... Evidently I was mistaken.

Here's my attempt:

She is a feathered trill whose pale, mist-colored eyes shine with barely contained mischief. Her pale face is small, round, and cheerful, set with tiny red lips that always seem ready to break into a smile. Her head is coated by thousands of fine, soft feathers in beautiful combination of waxy autumn tones, their brightness brightness accentuating the darker tone of her impressive wings. Short and somewhat stocky, with only hints of womanly curves, she moves with a playful, bouncing grace, filled with barely restrained joy.

Overall, I like your original pretty well; I got a good feel for what you intend for your character to be, simply by looking at her; your character certainly has life to her. The biggest problems were organization; I tried to reorganize it to read like you are meeting the character for the first time, and are giving her a once over.

foolofsound:

Pretty sure that Trill aren't supposed to have head feathers...

Wot? No, trill definitely have headfeathers. That's their "hair".

Phoebus:

Wot? No, trill definitely have headfeathers. That's their "hair".

Really? I've been lied to, then. /goes to fix description

'auras' are subjective - one person might think guy X looks like trouble, someone else might think he looks like a trustworthy guy. Characters should get to make their own first impressions, not have it dictated in a description. /thread derail

Lavinya:

'auras' are subjective - one person might think guy X looks like trouble, someone else might think he looks like a trustworthy guy. Characters should get to make their own first impressions, not have it dictated in a description. /thread derail

And that is more opportunity for RP. Does your character think kindness is weakness? Then he might also think that my "kind-looking" character is "weak-looking". Ultimately, the way that your character reacts to "auras" is 100% up to how you roleplay it. Descriptions can't REALLY step on toes unless you let them. Certainly, they step on toes less than the messages of certain skills or quests. Riding the rainbow, anyone?

I dunno, if a description tells you outright that the person looks like a shady character and has an aura of suppressed violence about them, you're already being told how your character perceives this person when they look at them. It's suddenly impossible to assume they look like a puppy snuggling kind of person (whether they are or not is not the point) because you've already been told how you 'see' them. Meh, I know it's personal preference for the most part, but I like to only see what I can see in a character. I don't want to know things like 'this character tends to blush easily when people ask them to strip in front of them' - I kid you not, that was in a description I saw. How could you possibly tell something like that from looking at a person? If you want people to see your 'aura', be smarter in your description. 'Guy X wears a perpetual frown, deep lines in his forehead perhaps hinting at a surly attitude' is better than 'guy X looks like trouble'.

foolofsound:

And that is more opportunity for RP. Does your character think kindness is weakness? Then he might also think that my "kind-looking" character is "weak-looking". Ultimately, the way that your character reacts to "auras" is 100% up to how you roleplay it. Descriptions can't REALLY step on toes unless you let them. Certainly, they step on toes less than the messages of certain skills or quests. Riding the rainbow, anyone?

When including a line like "kind-looking", "mean-spirited", "angry" or what have you, it's my opinion that line is accompanied by a presumption that you know how other characters are going to judge your own. This isn't necessarily an issue, but it could lead to some confusion.

For instance, lets say Growlpox the Bloodbaker is the next alt I want to toy around with. He's had an unpleasant past which has left him a little loopy but he's otherwise an OK guy (unless taking on the aspect of undeath, embracing the taint, and being a Fain worshiper and Magnagoran are mutually exclusive with your idea of OK). So, in my head I picture him as being attentive and generally well mannered, which I decide to describe as 'kind-looking', but he does have some issues, many of them physical, which I imagine others would find 'grotesque' or 'disturbing'.

While I could write his description as something along the lines of:
He is a regal undead aslaran and has the body of a jaguar. He has been grotesquely altered by his exposure to taint and torture and is hideous to behold. Otherwise, he smiles widely and has a kind-looking, generally personable countenance that expresses friendliness and good-humor!

I could throw in some more adjectivization here, but it would be irrelevant since we're already telling the reader what conclusions they are going to draw about this character - he is repulsive but outgoing. Now, here's a more accurate description of the idea I have in mind for Growlpox's appearance and general physical mannerisms:
He is a regal undead aslaran and is covered head to tail with myriad tattoos of Fain-ian faith. Folds of his furless flesh, discoloured and wrinkled, hang loosely from his body like the excess material of an oversized garment or a tapestry too large for its frame, the skin swinging in parody to measured and exact but discordant movements, perpetually off-beat and timed by an alien clock with each tick inconsequent of the previous. An ear-to-ear grin eternally splits his face, out from from which quiet laughter incessantly pours. He is wearing a bouncing furrikin-hide loincloth.

I'm being a bit heavy-handed in the second description of Growlpox, but hopefully a comparison between the two descriptions will convey my point, which is that two characters (say, Jemjem, a cheery and bookish furrikin from New Celest, and Darkrage, a cold and calculating viscanti from Magnagora) might not disagree with each other over Growlpox's nature if all they had to work with was the first description provided. Both Jemjem and Darkrage could conceivably go about their days interacting with Growlpox, with exactly the same impression of him as a friendly but odd-looking aslaran if that were the case. If both Jemjem and Darkrage were provided with the second description, however, I'd like to think that it would be understandable why, right from the first glance, the viscanti would find Growlpox's appearance more pleasing and why the furrikin might avoid like the plague Growlpox's invitations to dinnerparties at the Bloodbaker family manse. Explaining why a character might come across in a certain manner trumps the telling that a character has that manner, and theres still plenty of room for 'aura-reading' through in-game roleplay.

Lavinya:

stuff and
'Guy X wears a perpetual frown, deep lines in his forehead perhaps hinting at a surly attitude' is better than 'guy X looks like trouble'.

Rauhaur:

more stuff

I actually agree with a lot of what both of you say, and particularly love that second Growlpox description. Certainly, actually SAYING what a character's nature is in a description is inappropriate, but there is a lot of room of emotion words to suggest their nature. I admit that it is a fairly fine line, and when it is done wrong, it tends annoy or offend.
However, I DO believe that just because living descriptions can be a problem. that is NOT a compelling reason to have only boring, strictly physical descriptions.

I have always wondered what is considered good taste in regards to descriptions that employ a decidedly more fantastical element. Just how far can someone take a "I'm made of magic!" description without it stepping on toes? Of all the descriptions I have read, few really seem to employ a kind of supernatural factor. Some input on this would be marvelous!

First post, woo!

If you have something really magical going on, it should either be backed up by a class skill of fair obviousness, not be something totally impractical (I walk around with fire for hair all the time), or you should be a demigod/ascendant with some sort of look/entermsg to back it up, imo.

With regards to magical descriptions, there's generally a very short list of things that I'd say are actually appropriate:
-Nihilists can add in bat wings, scales and a tail.
-Celestines can put in feathery wings and a halo.
-Illuminati can put in whatever crazy fleshform stuff they want off the transmology, but probably shouldn't due to guild RP.
-Paradigmatics can get away with unnatural coloured eyes, ie. black, gold, silver, orange, etc.
-Stag/Crow users with stagform/crowform can add in the form messages as appropriate.
-Liches could look anywhere from pale to decaying. There's no set standard on how undead your liches should be.
-Illusionists that weave changeself on themselves can and should update their description to match their apparent race.
-Illusionists also get a free pass on glamouring their hair/eyes/skin to a different colour, cover up marks and scars, etc. at whim.
-Mages can kinda maybe get away with having essence-like effects. Pyromancers can shimmer slightly, aquamancers can be damp, etc.
-People who are enlarged/diminished could specify their height as being +/- two feet or so outside of racial norms due to magic.

But, keep in mind that having your character look unique is completely pointless if that's their only interesting feature. Make an interesting character first, then fiddle with the description.

Also, trill should not have hair.

:(

Eh, Trill can have hair as long as they're up front about their obvious human ancestory.

eritheyl:

Also, trill should not have hair.

:(

Four foot tall hairtrill?

eritheyl:

Also, trill should not have hair.

:(

Why do you not log on? :(

I've been running around trying my darndest to find a dracnari NPC with a scale color other than green, but I'm having no luck. Is it a strange thing to be a different color? I'm currently debating between red and blue.

You should make your skin color red, white, and blue.

My drac is green with red markings, her husband is banana yellow, her daughter is sort of gila-monster-colored, and I've seen people rocking white, purple, copper, black, sea-green, etc. I figure people aren't going to care too much so long as you aren't paisley (well, paisley that isn't the result of paint/tattoos/Transmology/etc.).