IMNEWS STANDARDS DESCS

  
  
IX: Standards for Character Setup: Descs
  
Remember that descs describe what you SEE when you look at a character. Content of descs should reflect that fact. There's nothing wrong with suggesting things about personality in a desc, but the operating principle is: show not tell.
  
We have a number of resources for writing descs. We've got some general guidelines under +IMNEWS GENERALDESC. Make sure you read that, and note the following additional guidelines:
  
Tolkien elves are generally taller than humans, and more beautiful. Obvious ugliness, deformities, or scarring are unacceptable for newbie elves. (Scarring generally reflects feature level incidents in a character history, such as Gwindor's captivity in Angband in the books, or in Rhunedhel's MUSH history.)
  
Any natural hair and eye color are acceptable. Note, however, that in Tolkien, blonde hair and blue eyes are actually fairly rare among elves. Galadriel's and Glorfindel's blonde hair reflects their relationship to the Vanyar, the Deep Elves, a very special relationship. Try to discourage the movie-related assumption that elves are typically Nordic in coloration. The default elvish pigmentation in Tolkien appears to be fair skin, black hair, grey eyes.
  
Clothing should be appropriately non-modern, e.g., no zippers, no smooth shiny fabrics other than silk. Mithril adornments or weapons are completely unacceptable in a desc. The stuff's too priceless for even Elrond or Glorfindel to have much.
  
Remember that Imladris is a peaceful place. Encourage players not to include weapons in their everyday desc. They wouldn't be walking around bearing arms inside the Valley as a normal rule. Teach them about the wardrobe commands (HELP WARDROBE) so they'll know how to add things to their desc when they need to.}
  
As far as initial desc-approval goes, we don't require feature-quality writing right at the start. The idea is to get players into RP as soon as possible. To that end, here are a few basic criteria to match newbie descs against:
  
- Does the desc contain the colour of eyes and hair?
- Does it include clothing?
- Does it describe one additional feature (size, beauty, etc.)?
- Is it thematic (no green hair and violet eyes)?
  
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