*description of character*

[Aelryn Bloodmoon]

My post was mostly relevant to the current situation in which -disguise doesn't function.

Ah. Well mine was more broad in that I feel it has more relevance when -disguise does function. With the current limitations, it is effectively a moot point, given how broken it is right now, and will remain, until NwNX is functional again.

My point was that *description of character* is often a tool of last resort for people who haven't been given a better option. Are there people who use it egregiously to cheese? Sure, probably, but there is also a legitimate circumstance for its reasonable use.

While this is not the ideal situation, I agree that it happens that people, likely through lack of thought rather than malice, will disguise and have no description, before and after the function stopped working.

I also agree that in this undesirable situation I feel it's a fair last resort to use "description of person," but only if you at least know their IC name (and my opinion doesn't really count). I'd probably err on the side of playing having been too caught up in the moment to remember important details until I saw them again later and recognized them.

This premise has come up before in disguise threads - at the time I suggested that I felt all characters should have certain basic information displayed in their description for other players to observe when undisguised (or if their disguise is beaten), as follows.

Race:
~Height:
~Weight:
Hair Color:
Eye Color:
Skin Tone:


This sentiment was not received well, as it "forces people" to RP something, but I really feel like it's only requiring them to display information about what they're RP'ing where appropriate (for example, that your character is a shield dwarf with tan skin approximately 4'4 and 140 lbs, black hair, and grey eyes).

I also feel like this is something that could be automated (the way your stats could be displayed) by setting these features in a detectable way that works with the disguise system (when it's fixed).

There's an older, locked thread that gets deep into this topic (disguises and descriptions) buried somewhere over the last year and a half, but I'm not motivated enough to find it right now.

[Tourmaline]

I've thought before there could be a series of questions at character creation to get people to enter these basic details. Make them editable later with a command, have them display before any paragraphs of text about the finer details.

[Hinty]

On the question of seeing through someones disguise, if a bloke in black robes and a black helmet walks up and you see through his disguise, but you have not interacted with that character enough in the past to know anything about them, perhaps consider that you don't know enough to describe them anyway. What are you recognising? You've noticed enough is odd about them to suspect they are not who they say they are, but they are still just a bloke in nondescript robes with his face hidden.

If you know the character well and actually have reason to recognise who is under the helmet (be it by peculiar twitches, unusual walk, strange way they pronounce their "r"s) then you probably know enough from previous interactions to be able to describe something.


Certainly, no matter how bad their roleplay, if someone you have never met walks up in a black robe and a helm is there really anything you can say to describe them except what they are wearing?

[Aelryn Bloodmoon]

I would say that a helmet/hood and robes don't deprive one of the ability to determine approximate height and weight. Since we're running on the premise of WYSIWYG, it's also possible to visually distinguish racial types from one another for the most part (built like an elf/human/half-orc/short-people).

The question, I feel, is whether or not it's appropriate for the player to not have a more readily accessible means than trying to zoom in on your character and write down details in an open journal during a potentially hostile encounter, as opposed to a sensible alternative of "you examined them, so you know these things."

I can't script it, so I acknowledge the whole premise is reliant on someone wanting to do work on something that probably doesn't inspire them, but I can't think of a logical reason IC or OOC other than resources that it shouldn't work this way.

I feel it's also worth noting that part of a disguise is hiding things like your hair color and eye color. Perhaps a successful spot check is a moment where light shined into your helmet and someone saw your eyes, or a strand of hair slipped free? (You could have false values for these during a disguise, as well).

[Hinty]

If there is no description of height or weight you just end up with the bane of police investigations everywhere. "Average height and build" Incidentally that is the description that people will often give even for people who are notably, if not exceptionally tall or short. peoples memory's for descriptions are rarely good. I mean, it is average. Someone has to be average.

As for eye colour, that should always be on descriptions as far as I am concerned, (although i am sure I've been guilty of forgetting it before now) still I find it very unlikely that anyone would ever see someones eye colour if they are wearing a full helm unless they were to jam their face right up against the vision slits.


You can certainly tell Race at a glance, so describing someone as an elf is easy enough.

Half Elves are often indistinguishable build wise so I see no reason that you should be able to tell that at a glance, and Half Orcs are also supposed to be largely the same size as humans with just a slight tendency towards heavier (but still natural human) builds. (Why Bioware made them look like some sort of freakish super soldier gone wrong I don't know)