The final interlude...

As a kid I liked to watch Saturday morning cartoons. Bugs Bunny, Fat Albert, the Ghost Busters, Scooby Doo, Hong Kong Phooey and the like were some of my best friends. Children still watch some of these 'toons as reruns on The Cartoon Network. I'll admit, I do, too. *snicker* I just wish the Network would run one of my all-time favorite cartoons, School House Rock.

School House Rock was awesome. They were short cartoons -- no more than three minutes long -- that ran in-between the main cartoons. Each was set to a catchy song that taught kids, like me, various things like the number zero, the skeletal system, the American Revolution, the workings of government, and grammar. *chuckle* The catchiest of the 'toons was the one about nouns. It went something like this:

Well every person you can know,
And every place that you can go,
And any thing that you can show,
You know they're nouns.
A noun's a special kind of word,
It's any name you ever heard.
I find it quite interesting,
A noun's a person, place or thing.*

Oh I took a train, took a train,
To another state.
The flora and the fauna that I saw were really great.
But when I saw some bandits chasing the train,
I was wishing I was back home again.
I took a train, took a train,
To another state.

Well every person you can know...
(Like a bandit or an engineer.)
And every place that you can go...
(Like a state or a home.)
And any thing that you can show...
)Like animals and plants or a train.)
You know they're nouns
You know they're nouns, oh!

Yeah, "I find it, quite in-teresting, A noun's-a person, place, or thing." In these interludes and chapters on mud building, we've been discussing these very nouns. What's a mobile if not a person? What's a room if not a place? What do you suppose is next on the agenda?

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. Like rooms, objects may have more than one description added to them. For example, you may be at the carnival and before you is the world's largest merri-go-round. The merri-go-round, by itself, may be an object; but the merri-go-round, too, is made up of lots of smaller objects that can be separated from the merri-go-round and individually described, for example, 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, i.e. "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", or the item's short description. If she wishes to see what the item looks like exactly, 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".

Let's create a couple objects for ourselves.