How best identify those who don't describe themselves?

[The Kriv]

When a player leaves their description completely blank or uses the generic racial description provided at character creation, how do YOU treat identification in written reports when your character has had excellent chance to observe them IG?

If that character doesn't make any apparent attempt to disguise or alter their appearance or cover their face, would it be appropriate to use the character name in the description without specifically saying, "it was Johnny Jimjon" in the report.. for example... would it be wrong to write an IC report like: "A male in blue armor with brown buzzcut hair and (( a detailed description of Johnny Jimjon's appearance)) "

Or would it only be appropriate to say the more generic avatar appearance that would meet the description of several dozen or more other PC's?

Keep in mind, the observing PC was one who watched and followed "Jonny Jimjon" for a good long while, at fairly close range, and has exceptional "spot" skill level.

Suggestions? Anecdotes? Funny stories?

[In A Motionless Scene]

it's Johnny Jimjon's mum's son
everyone knows her

A real answer would probably look like this:

I'd decide on a case by case basis if I want to go this route. Obviously, if you have a description and emotes to work with, the above behaviour is rather lazy, and doesn't really foster RP or help the RP environment.

If you have neither of those and you have nothing else to work with to make some sort of interesting story out of it, and the character in question is an actual offender, yeah, what you describe is pretty much all you can do.

[Queen Titania]

Easy, by their model. Skin hue, hair hue and style, all show, even facial details are describable based on the model. If not, you have their armor colors and metal, which can give you signs of heaviness, or helmet style.

[StrykerMontgomery]

*description of jimijobio when wearing heavy armor with said ammo*

I honestly can't describe people in real life so i stay out of the gaurd business.

[PinataPlethora]

Skin, hair, race, subrace, armor type and color, helmet type and color, weapon type (especially if it's uncommon), shield size and color...

Level of stupidity can actually be a pretty strong identifier in some cases.

[Rwby]

Why not shoot them a tell?

[JediMindTrix]

Take a screenshot.

[GoboJenkins]

When the character description is a novella I have problems reading all of it just to be able to interact with a character. I think what your running into is different people are wired differently, even beyond the audio, visual, kenistetic (sp) aspect. This does make me want to develop some type of Genus classification system to put in some characters bio. But I digress.....

Humans (taxonomically Homo sapiens) are the only extant members of the subtribe Hominina. The Hominina are sister of the Chimpanzees with which they form the Hominini belonging to the family of great apes. They are characterized by erect posture and bipedal locomotion; high manual dexterity and heavy tool use compared to other animals; open-ended and complex language use compared to other animal communications; and a general trend toward larger, more complex brains and societies

[ForgottenBhaal]

I screenshot them to have something to fall back on, really. If they dont have any description, its hard to put something to memory.

[Aelryn Bloodmoon]

As a player, I am not color-blind- I am fortunate to have excellent vision. I played Cev as a guard for a good long while.

Here is a real (embarrassing) truth; I have mistaken halflings without descriptions as dwarves and gnomes, and the other way around, as well, because in the middle of being immersed in a collaborative story, panning the camera around to zoom in on everyone is not high on my list of priorities; keeping up with the dialogue is. I have made this mistake with some description-less characters for longer than 3 real life months of interaction.

While I am loathe to do it, I have emoted describing someone by name in a few situations where it was appropriate and they were undisguised; fittingly, if I were wrong, and I just didn't see the disguise tag because they are that awesome at it, then no one will ever find that character unless they re-use the same disguise. Taking screenshots can work, but sorting through them all to find the right person is a pain in the Snuggybear.

Veers sharply to a tangential topic.

This thread and the difficulty you're facing are the reasons I once called it lazy and selfish to play with no description in a role-playing game that is supposed to be based on a story of words as much or more than it is supposed to be based on your ability to click and commit things to visual memory.

I, however, received quite a backlash for having that opinion. I still maintain it, although perhaps I would call it more thoughtless than selfish today.

Easy, by their model. Skin hue, hair hue and style, all show, even facial details are describable based on the model. If not, you have their armor colors and metal, which can give you signs of heaviness, or helmet style.

What if the player is color-blind? I'm not asking this just to be difficult, but at that point can't the argument be made that a player's health issue is being taken advantage of (even unintentionally or without malice)? How unreasonable is it to expect people to provide a block of basic information that everyone around them can reasonably see (which can be concealed/edited if they disguise or things change)?

Race: A
Height: B
Weight: C
Hair: X
Eyes: Y
Skin Tone: Z

[MissEvelyn]

I don't mind that characters don't have descriptions. Sometimes it takes time to develop it. And if you have nothing to give us from a first impression, then we'll have to make that impression ourselves upon interacting. A fair point.

What I'm sick and tired of, however, are the NWN default descriptions. It would be lovely if those were just removed upon character creation. I've grown so accustomed to ignoring those that when I see a character with a description that has one long paragraph, about the same length as the default NWN, I tend to ignore it by habit without actually taking a closer look.

Another argument against those pesky default descriptions could be that they serve to accomplish literally nothing.

[RedGiant]

I don't think you should ever use a character's name if you haven't learned it in character...as this is a type of meta-gaming. That being said, it happens to me about 90% of the time, even on first meetings, so I'm not sure some of our new influx of peoples are aware of this point.

[Tourmaline]

When the character description is a novella I have problems reading all of it just to be able to interact with a character.

Long descriptions where the data you need is buried under tons of flowery prose is more egregious to me than no description at all. I usually skip it unless I really, really need to know.

I wish there was a series of basic questions about identifiers to fill in when you created a character and that you could edit later (hair color, eye color, height etc etc) and that would sit in a standard form above the longer player written description when you examined so you could get the info you need quickly.

[GoboJenkins]

That basically describes the best ones I have seen. I need to get mine cleaned up a little now.

[The Kriv]

I do try to grab screenshots when I can, but I also play the game with a VERY zoomed out camera, and maybe it's just poor memory skills, but I also have a hard time writing a detailed physical description of my allied characters of whom I have played literally days of my life alongside in this game.

For this reason, I try to be conscious of my own descriptions keeping to some simple rules:

1) keep my description short enough that another player doesn't have to "scroll" at all.

2) use line-breaks to keep paragraphs separated with physical space to make it easier on the eyes to scan information quickly

3) limit the information to key defining characteristics that another character would easily "See"

4) If I include some sort of background, I phrase it in a way that if your character was looking at nearby NPC's who were looking at MY character... what would be the reaction of those NPC's that you are watching that are watching me.
-for example, I had an unsavory character whose description included something to the effect of "When in town, you notice village women pull their children close as he walks past and guards always eye him warily" -and presently I have a paladin who's description states, "Wherever she goes, people seem to be drawn to her, as if they feel safer when she is around."

5) Never include thoughts, beliefs, prejudices, likes or dislikes in my descriptions. This information can only be gained by interaction. i.e.: I never write what my character believes, thinks, or feels in a character description. That stuff can only be gained through RP interaction. So why give it away for free?


most of all, though, when I am penning a character description, I feel the responsibility to my fellow players that if specific details or identifying information can't be surmised from my description within 2 - 3 seconds of opening my character's description, then it needs re-writing.

In journalism there is a common saying.... Don't bury the lead. (a.k.a. most important stuff first!)


character descriptions can be personal things, and I don't say the way I do it is how everyone should do it. And I am not judging anyone else for how they do it. IF you want to write a 1,000 word essay in your character description, have at it. I respect you for your effort and desire for detail. Chances are I won't read it in its entirety, please accept my apology... I might make a screenshot of your long description so I can reference it later if I really need to, however, so it may not allways be in vain with me. I'm happy you wrote something!