Best Of

RP shouldn't be stress-inducing. It's for fun! Don't worry about making "mistakes."

magee101 said:

Malash said:

@magee101 I've seen enough genitals flapping in the wind in IRE games already, thanks. Besides, if you really want to do that, just set up a simple set of triggers to change your character description when you add or remove articles of clothing; no need for a built-in system.

@Satomi Tattoos are different, since they have a mechanical component in IRE games (and at least as far as iriil goes, they will in Starmourn). I agree, a system to make them visible/invisible makes good sense to me, since they're equipment, not just flavor.

Meh thats assuming I am using a computer and not mobile first off. Second off there is a ton more customization that can be done with a system like I proposed. Likw having a character that is heavily scarred in certain areas so you have them desced but they are only seen if you choose to reveal them etc. Sure its a bit niche but all the games i have seen use a system like this have only gotten benefits out of it

I've played a game called HavenRPG that uses this system and here are some drawbacks I've observed:

• Players end up feeling obligated to describe every single body part, which becomes spammy and superfluous. These body parts include upper arms, forearms, hands, and be real with me here, is it really necessary to describe these all separately?
• Players become rather lazy and unimaginative with the way their descriptions flow and instead of describing an organic, overall impression of the human body (e.g., 'He is lanky of build, with long, sinewy limbs and a sallow disposition.') fixate on unimportant minutiae. (e.g., 'His athletic thighs would allow him to cover long distances. His calves are pale, skinny, and covered in hair. He has ten perfectly standard toes.')
• Such systems don't allow you to describe multiple body parts in one sentence, since you must categorise each description separately. For example: 'His eyes look like they have seen much, with a vacant, thousand yard stare. Like his cheekbones, they are sunken in, flanking a beak-like nose.' In this instance I would have to choose whether the second sentence belongs to 'eyes' or 'lowerface'. And if I choose lowerface, any time my character wears sunglasses, you would have a visible description that doesn't actually make sense out of context. If I choose eyes, you're seeing more of the face than should be visible if he's wearing a balaclava.
• Predictable breast/groin descs. I mean really. It's a running gag in Haven that the town it's set in has an uncommonly large average penis size, because unsurprisingly the dudes all give themselves 10" dicks. This problem is further compounded by men playing female characters as cartoon blow-up-dolls and giving them all gravity-defying bosoms with pepperoni nipples, since they rarely seem to have an understanding of how the female body works.

In my opinion, none of this is necessary. It's overengineered and gets in the way of organic storytelling flow. Don't describe your character as a set of attributes, describe them as a person.

Emotes allow you to explore such attributes in as much detail as you desire when the need to do so arises. Instead of describing a back tattoo or hidden scar, describe what's ordinarily visible about your character and when you emote them undressing, emote what's revealed. From a writer/roleplayer's perspective I think this is a lot more interesting to read, anyway.

Counter system I would propose would be something like 'describe hidden (area)' — a command that lets you specify a hidden detail that isn't included in your ordinary description, but becomes visible when you remove an item of clothing. So you have your ordinary paragraph description which is always visible, and then on top of that, any time your character removes all of their torso garments it sends an echo of your hidden description, e.g., 'A back tattoo of planet earth hovers between his shoulder-blades.' But if there's nothing interesting about their naked torso, ideally you just wouldn't bother with that command at all.

I would also like a system that enables you to conceal your identity via masks/costumes but that would probably require IRE to move beyond their current system of having character names visible as soon as they walk into a room regardless of whether you've ever met/seen them before, and I doubt that's going to happen any time soon.

Should totally make the person look up the ship owner in the 'database'. If the person stole the ship, then it'd relay the real owner and make things all the juicier!!