A Brief Building Style Guide For Dawn of the Ages

Ignore these guidelines at your risk. If your area does not meet the criteria found here, it is likely your area will be rejected.

General Guidelines for Building

• All descriptions should appear in good English. This means making sure proper names are capitalized, using English words for numbers rather than Arabic numerals (e.g. "eight" as opposed to "8"), knowing when to use "it's" and "its", and so on. If you have trouble with English grammar, consider using Bartleby's Reference Section or EduFind's Online English Grammar for help.
• If you use more than one sentence in a description, use only one space to separate the sentences.
• Begin your vnums with a "1" or greater number (an area can have at most 32,000 vnums), not zero (0). Zero is used to denote the end of an area header. This also means do not use "xx01", "xy01", etc., to denote vnums.
• If you need an exception made for any of the guidelines hereafter, ask the lead builder.

Guidelines for Building Rooms

• Make sure to capitalize all words in your room headers. Exceptions: articles (a, an, the) and prepositions (of, from, at, in) that occur in the middle of the room name. Correct examples: "Under the Bridge", "At the End of the Road". Incorrect examples: "Along The Gravel Road", "Near The Mouth Of The River".
• Avoid using punctuation in the room header.
• Give all room headers one line only, with a maximum length of 76 characters.
• All room descriptions are to be one paragraph in length, and no more. This paragraph should contain a minimum of four lines of text. The maximum length of a line should be no more than 76 characters. There is no maximum number of lines for a paragraph; however, a good rule of thumb is no more than a dozen lines: if there is more to say about the room then consider placing the remainder into extra descriptions.
• Do not indent room descriptions. This includes the first line.
• Please refrain from using metric or English measurements. Orcs and elves know nothing of these things. Instead use relative sizes in reference to world races (e.g. "looms larger than a titan", "so small a halfling cannot squeeze through").
• Give all exits a description.
• If there are objects in the room description, strongly consider using extra descriptions to describe them. That is, no one wants to enter a forest full of trees, type "look tree", and watch the world reply, "You do not see that here."
• Do not describe mobiles, objects, or players in the room that are beyond the room's control. Thus, if a mobile starts out in the room, but can move, can be killed, etc., do not describe that mobile in the room description. Do not describe objects in the room description that players can remove or sacrifice. Players know how they feel, whether sick, frightened, angry, and so on: let their imaginations do the work for you.
• Vary your room descriptions. No one wants to read "The hallway is very dark. And is very empty." in the next dozen rooms she enters.

Guidelines for Building Mobiles

• All mobiles need names in their name list relevant to the short description, long description, and look description. So, for example, you have "a grumpy grendle", relevant names in the names list should include "grumpy" and "grendel".
• Do not capitalize names in the name list.
• Do not use colors in the name list.
• Short descriptions should be no longer than three or four words.
• Unless the mobile has a proper name (i.e., is unique), always begin the short name with an article (a, an, the).
• Do not capitalize the first word of the short description unless the description is a proper name. Examples: "the black orc", "General Tsu-lan", and "the Mayor of Midgaard".
• Avoid using punctuation in the short description.
• Give all long descriptions for mobiles one line only, with a maximum length of 76 characters.
• Capitalize the first word in the long description.
• Do not indent the long description.
• All mobile look descriptions are to be one paragraph in length, and no more. This paragraph should contain a minimum of three lines of text. The maximum length of a line should be no more than 76 characters. There is no maximum number of lines for a paragraph; however, a good rule of thumb is no more than a dozen lines. Afterall, some things should be left to players' imaginations.
• If possible, give your mobile a program of some kind. No less than one in three mobiles in your area should have a mobprog or script.
• Do not describe objects, players, or situations near the mobile that are beyond the mobile's control. For example, writing out the long description of a mobile as "The wunderbug is dancing madly across the street" will look odd if the wunderbug is swimming in a river (a player having teleported the mobile).

Guidelines for Building Objects

• All objects need names in their name list relevant to the short description, long description, and any extra descriptions. For example, a player sees this when walking into a room: "A snake-handled long-sword lies here, its edge stained with blood." Relevant names may include "snake", "long", "sword", "blood", and "weapon".
• Do not capitalize names in the name list.
• Do not use colors in the name list.
• Short descriptions should be no longer than three or four words.
• Unless the object has a proper name (i.e., is unique), always begin the short name with an article (a, an, the).
• Do not capitalize the first word of the short description unless the description is a proper name. Examples: "the double-bladed axe", "Skull Crusher", "the belt of Asperides".
• Give all long descriptions for objects one line only, with a maximum length of 71 characters.
• Capitalize the first word in the long description.
• Do not indent the long description.
• All objects need at least one extra description. The extra description should be one paragraph in length with a minimum of two lines of text. The maximum length of a line should be no more than 76 characters. There is no maximum number of lines for a paragraph; however, a good rule of thumb is no more than a dozen lines: if there is more to say about the object then consider placing the remainder into other extra descriptions.
• If you have but one extra description for an object, use all the names in the name list in the extra description's keyword list. So you have a "blue glass fairie container object": for the one extra description the keywords will be "blue glass fairie container object".
• Treat object names and short descriptions with care. If you decide to make an object with a proper name, "King Oberon's Belt" or "the axe called Nightshade", make sure it is unique (i.e. no more than one such object exists in the world).
• Do not describe other objects, mobiles, or players that are beyond the object's control.

Addendum

• Remember, unless an object is not meant to be taken, flag it takable (A) and wearable, held (O) generally being the default wear flag.
• When it comes to mobile and object name lists, only relevant names should go in there, NOT articles, adverbs, etc. Don't be lazy and just copy the short description and paste it into the names list.
• Please keep the use of elipses (...) to a minimum.