STYLE GUIDE
===========

1. Introduction
2. Showing vs. Telling
3. General Guidelines
4. Room Descriptions
5. NPCS
6. Conclusion


1. Introduction
---------------

Style -- the "look and feel" of a place -- is vitally important when
creating a virtual world. Text descriptions are all that mortals have to
lead their imagination, as they build the world in their mind.

Thus, it is important to use words creatively. The goal is to create a 
richly detailed, convincing, and consistent world. Mortals should forget
that they are sitting in front of a screen, merely typing a set of
commands on a keyboard. Instead, they should believe that they are
actually exploring an unknown and scary forest, or trying to survive an
attack of armed brigands, or destroying the holy sceptre of Anikina.
Whenever a mistake is made, jarring a mortal's attention, then that
imaginary realm inside her mind is shattered. Constant typos,
anachronisms, bad descriptions, insults ("It's a mountain, stupid.") --
all are negative experiences which divert attention from experiencing the
world to being subject to the mechanics of how it was created.


2. Showing vs Telling
---------------------

In literature, authors must use various means to bring home to the reader
the true sense of what a given location is like, and what it would feel
like to be present in that place. The most mundane authors steal from the
reader the chance to draw conclusions based on evidence.  They resort to
the easiest and least creative of methods with which to describe a
location: They TELL you what you are looking at:

    This is the Library. There are hundreds of books in these
    shelves.  The Librarian sits here day and night, asking people
    to speak quietly, if they must speak at all.

Well... it works, but it is somewhat insulting to the discriminating
reader, who likes to think for him/herself. Far more interesting to the
reader, and perhaps more challenging for the author, is the method by
which a room description will not tell, but SHOW a reader what is going
on:

    Row upon row of shelves extend from the entrance of this large and
    quiet chamber, where dim shadows are cast along the bindings of
    books of all shapes and sizes. A nearby desk is occupied by a
    wrinkled, yet vibrant-looking man who peers sternly about.

Here, the same room is described, but the mortal makes the decisions about
what he is seeing, rather than simply being told that this is a library
and that such and such is a librarian who likes the room quiet.


3. General Guidelines
---------------------

- Use active language instead of passive language. Active language gives
  the world life. It goes beyond declaring the state of an object ("There
  is a green frog on the lily pad."), which is passive language. Instead,
  active language attributes and describes. For example, "A lily pad hosts
  a green frog." Or, "Resting on a lilypad, a green frog slowly blinks."

  Passive language uses "you", as in, "You see.. You notice.. You hear.."
  It also is created when declarative statements are made, "There are .."
  or "This is .." Avoid using those techniques, and the language will
  almost always be more active by default.

  This description:
    Row upon row of shelves extend from the entrance of this large and
    quiet chamber, where dim shadows ...
  is much more effective than the passive:
    This is a large and quiet chamber. Row upon row of shelves extend from
    the entrance, where dim shadows ...
  or the passive:
    You are in a large and quiet chamber. Row upon row  ...

  Another example: It is generally better to say "A branch sticks out from
  the tree" or "A branch is sticking out from the tree", rather than "You
  see a branch sticking out from the tree.", or "There is a branch
  sticking out from the tree". The distinction is subtle, but it is the
  difference between being allowed to investigate what one chooses to look
  at, and forcing one to notice certain things.

- Avoid telling mortals what they feel or think, what the limits of their
  knowledge or experience are, or what they should do.

  For example, do not say something like "The sight of the dead bodies
  gives you chills". An evil mortal might happen to LIKE corpses.
  Descriptions should be clear and colourful enough so the mortal will
  feel her/his own emotions towards the object -- if it is a dark and
  dreary dungeon, it should be described so well that the mortal is a
  little frightened (or feels a little at home, depending upon the
  mortal).

  Avoid saying "This is an oddly shaped key. Wonder what it fits?". Maybe
  they don't wonder. Maybe they have used it a dozen times before and know
  perfectly well what it fits.

- Similarly, never write descriptions like "This is the largest tree
  you've ever seen." -- how is it possible to know what they have seen?

- Finally, descriptions should never say "Maybe you should look more
  closely.", "Maybe you should explore it.", etc. Mortals should be
  curious and smart enough to explore on their own.


4. Room Descriptions
--------------------

The place/room descriptions should not be terribly long; they simply
should give the mortals a good notion of what they see when they look
around. Certainly, more is needed than "The road continues north and
south.", but the description does not have to run on for paragraphs,
either.

- Avoid putting every detail into the room's basic description ...  give
  the mortal enough to make him want to look at things, and then give
  him some reward for doing so.

- Provide an item description for all nouns in the room long description,
  and for major nouns introduced in the item descriptions themselves. For
  example, if the item description for the "mountains" mentions a large
  clearing, then the room should also have items for "clearing" and "large
  clearing". Also provide descriptions for items that simply must be there
  (e.g., "floor", "walls" and "ceiling" in an interior room).

- Respond to plausible attempts by mortals to manipulate items in the room 
  description. For example, if a tree is mentioned, respond to attempts to
  climb it. If there is a stream in the room, respond to attempts to drink
  from it, swim/dive/wade into it, etc. It is not necessary to let the
  mortal actually do the action, but "There are no branches within your
  reach." is a much better response than "What ?".

- Use specific verbs, instead of exits, where this make sense.  For
  example, if there is a ladder leading up to a loft, instead of having an
  obvious exit "up", have the mortals "climb ladder" to reach the loft.
  Similarly, "enter niche" is better than an "in" exit. Non-obvious exits
  are also good. If doing a road across open fields, for example, make it
  so that only the exits that follow the road are obvious, and exits into
  the fields non-obvious. This gets the mortals to explore, instead of
  waiting passively for the room to tell them everything they may do.

- Don't assume, in describing something, that the mortal is going in one
  particular direction. That is, avoid saying "You have almost made it to
  the top of the mountain" -- the mortal might be coming down.

- Tuck away little rewards for the observant. The reward does not always
  need to be tangible -- finding an intricate item description tucked
  three levels down is a pleasure, all in itself.

- Unless VBFC is used to check for things such as height, don't assume
  anything about the mortal. Avoid using "knee-high" in a generic
  description of a field of grass, for example -- a short dwarf hardly
  comes to the waist of a tall elf. It would be good to use the VBFC, so
  that in this field elves see knee-high grass and dwarves see waist-high
  grass. It is easy enough to do, it just takes a little more time, and
  it provides the mortals with a far better experience.

- Be specific and detailed in descriptions. "Copper beech" is more
  convincing than "tree"; "brown and white speckled hen" is more
  convincing than "chicken". There are lots of reference sources out there
  -- search the web for related info when designing a new place, and use
  it to make the world rich in detail.

- Never abuse mortals for looking carefully. If someone goes to the
  trouble of looking at every noun in a room, they should be rewarded for
  their trouble with descriptive details of a vivid world -- not slapped
  down with "Read the room description, stupid!".


5. NPCS
-------

- Npc descriptions should be as carefully written as room descriptions.
  That is, avoid "You", "This is", telling mortals what they think, etc.

- Npcs should respond to reasonable questions. In particular, if an npc
  has various chats, it should respond to questions about those chats.

- Npcs should behave "reasonably". It is not reasonable, for example, for
  a guard to stand there watching while someone attacks his colleague. It
  is not reasonable for the mayor to sit quietly while her desk is
  ransacked. They should respond to plausible actions of the mortals.
  A beggar should respond to gifts, for example, just as a minstrel should
  respond to requests for songs.

- Use the NPC_I_NO_LOOKS prop for npcs that are vividly described. Why 
  describe how beautiful a female elf is, and then have the line in her
  description say "She looks ugly for an elf."?

- Similarly, properly set weight and height for npcs to match their
  descriptions. A tall lean human should not have the description, "He is
  very short and fat for a human."

- If it is stated that npcs are present in the long description of the
  room, it is typically a good idea to have them present as npc objects.
  This allows the interaction that should be possible when an npc is
  present.

- Npcs should not have unreasonable properties set in them. If they are
  able to see in the dark or see invisible, there _must_ be a reason
  for it.


6. Conclusion
-------------

Wizards describe accurately, mortals interpret as they please.


