On Writing Areas

The Final Interlude...

Objects are the third major component of any area file, and are something of a mix of mobiles and rooms. Like mobiles, objects are things with which players interact. Players wear them, wield them, hold them, give them, drink from them, sacrifice them and so on. And like rooms, objects may have more than one description, ie. extra descriptions. Imagine, for example, standing in front of the world's largest carousel. The carousel, by itself, may be an object; but the carousel, too, is made up of lots of smaller objects that can be separated from the carousel and individually described—the horsies and other animals people sit on, the mirrors, the lights, the music box, the railings, the ticket-box, and so on.

Why not examine the description of an object for yourself?

#647
avenger holy sword~
a holy Avenger~
A glowing silvery sword is hovering here, ready to possess an owner.~
.
.
.

The dots represent the flags which go into the object definition. The object itself is from a stock ROM area, New Ofcol. Notice how pale and meager the object looks? Sure, there's a long description, and several key words, but what will happen when a player actually takes a look at or examines the item? She will see merely a repeat of the long description, ie. "A glowing silvery sword is hovering here, ready to possess an owner." Is that any way to treat a player who bothers to examine the item?

As with rooms and mobiles, objects need love, too. It doesn't do to have a long description for an object and that's that. The long description, line four, is what the player sees when she first enters the room. And when she picks it up, she'll see she has grabbed line three, "a holy Avenger", also known as the item's short description. If she wishes to see the item's full description, ie. its seahorse-curved hilt or the glint of its ever-sharp blade, she's out of luck.

Reward the players who take the time to examine the items in your area. It's not difficult, and the players will appreciate the effort. Let's beef up the item above with an extra description:

#647
avenger holy sword~
a holy Avenger~
A glowing silvery sword is hovering here, ready to possess an owner.~
.
.
.
E
avenger holy sword~
The razor-thin blade has a gleam all its own, lighting up the area in a soft
white glow. The hilt is simple and elegant, adorned at the bottom with the
head of a brown horse, befitting a knight that would wield it.
~

The extra description needn't be overly elaborate; one line often does the trick. Sometimes an extra description needs more sentences, for example, if one is describing a painting or book. Other times an object may require two or more extra descriptions, as we can do with the holy avenger above:

#647
avenger holy sword~
a holy Avenger~
A glowing silvery sword is hovering here, ready to possess an owner.~
.
.
.
E
avenger holy sword~
The razor-thin blade has a gleam all its own, lighting up the area in a soft
white glow. The hilt is simple and elegant, adorned at the bottom with the
head of a brown horse, befitting a knight that would wield it.
~
E
horse hilt~
The hilt is made of a fine hardwood, carved into the shape of a horse's head
that whinnies as it prepares for battle.
~

As a weaponsmith would take the time to hone the blade of a holy avenger, so too should the builder tighten up the rough edges of an object:

#647
avenger holy sword blade weapon~
a holy avenger~
A silver-bladed sword glows with the spirit of the righteous.~
.
.
.
E
avenger holy sword blade weapon~
The razor-thin blade has a gleam all its own, lighting up the area in a soft
white glow. The hilt is simple and elegant, adorned at the bottom with the
head of a brown horse, befitting a knight that would wield it.
~
E
horse hilt~
The hilt is made of a fine hardwood, carved into the shape of a horse's head
that whinnies as it prepares for battle.
~

The former long description was okay, but could be better. We also added a couple extra keywords which would allow a player to examine or pick up the item more easily. The "avenger", too, had the capitalization dropped, as it is "an avenger", not "the Avenger". Capitalizations may be okay for unique objects, like "the longsword Ringil" or "Orcrist", but for unlimited items one should stay away from uppercase letters.

Here's another example of an object:

#22620
great sword leon~
Leon's Great Sword~
A very large Sword with beautifuldecorations is here.~
.
.
.
E
great sword~
This Sword is of best workmanship. Its perfectly balanced, and the runes
on it glow with power, it must have been enchanted with great magic.
~

This sword, as you can well read, is a great sword, one that belongs to Leon, and possesses beautifuldecorations. Who's Leon? you might wonder. I'm not going to tell you. How do I know the sword belongs to Leon? you again may wonder. Mmm, you don't. You'll just have to take it on faith that this sword belongs to Leon. Of course, if you don't know who Leon is, if you've never met him before, how should you know this is Leon's sword?

This may be the reaction a player will have when coming across such an object. It needn't be a sword: it could be a pair of Sean's pants, or Devon's glasses, or General Hale's couch. Who are these people anyway? the player may ask. She may know only should she come across the mobile who owns the object; and that won't happen if the mobile is dead or removed from the area it normally inhabits.

As with rooms and mobiles, objects should not describe circumstances beyond their control. Yes indeed, the sword may have at one time belonged to Leon, but now that Leon is dead, who does it belong to? It obviously belongs to the player who now has it. Or perhaps a henchman. Maybe another mobile has it who happens to be a scavenger and who happened to be in the right place at the right time and picked up the sword.

Again, it's best to keep out proper names from objects unless the object is a unique item with its own proper name. We will rewrite the sword above as:

#22620
great sword leon~
a great sword~
A very large Sword with beautifuldecorations is here.~
.
.
.
E
great sword~
This Sword is of best workmanship. Its perfectly balanced, and the runes
on it glow with power, it must have been enchanted with great magic.
~

We can, if we desire, indicate who the sword belonged to at one time; for example, in the extra descriptions, we might add that the handle has a name etched into it:

#22620
great sword leon~
a great sword~
A very large Sword with beautifuldecorations is here.~
.
.
.
E
great sword~
The blade of this great sword measures fully two-thirds the length of a
grown man. The edge is a bit worn, notched and scratched in places, but the
hilt in which the blade rests is rich in dwarven scripts and designs. On one
side of the hilt some letters have been etched into it; they read, "Leon".
~

Now should the player have the sword and she examines it, she will find that this sword may have belonged to someone named "Leon". When she swings it at a foe, gives it to a friend, or whatnot, she will see she is using "a great sword", not "Leon's Great Sword". It is her sword, afterall, not Leon's, no matter where she got it.

The sword is in need of more touchup:

#22620
great sword decorations weapon~
a great sword~
A large sword with beautiful decorations lies here.~
.
.
.
E
great sword decorations weapon~
The blade of this great sword measures fully two-thirds the length of a
grown man. The edge is a bit worn, notched and scratched in places, but the
hilt in which the blade rests is rich in dwarven scripts and designs. On one
side of the hilt some letters have been etched into it; they read, "Leon".
~

Eh, it will do. We added a couple other keyword names to the object, and changed the long name slightly. The sword is not the best described of all pieces, but objects don't need to be the best described: they need only be described well. To do this one should keep in mind the guidelines we learned in the essays on rooms and mobiles.

It is time to create a couple objects for ourselves.