Object Books

Object Short and Long Description

Short descriptions, are what is shown when the object is worn.
For Example: <wielded> a steel broadsword
There are to be no periods at the end, and the beginning is to -always- be lowercase.
To set a short description, type: short <short desc>

For creating a book, you can include the title of the book in the short description if you want. An example would be: a book that reads "Tale of Two Cities"
But you can also just describe the book, an example would be: a thick leather embossed book

Long descriptions are what is shown when the object is on the ground.
For Example: A steel broadsword has been discarded here.
Always start the long description with a capital, and -always- end it with a period.
To set a long description, type: long <long desc>

When creating the long description, like the short, you can add the title of the book. An example would be: A leather bound book has been placed here, etched with the words "Tale of Two Cities" in gold.
But you can also just describe color and size, an example would be: A large green book covered in fine brown leather and tied closed with thick leather straps has been left here.

Long descriptions can not be something like: A purple flower. It has to show what the object is doing. Is the purple flower lying there? Floating? Is it on a plant? Is it in a garden? It should be something like: A potent purple flower towers disobediently above a patch of green foliage.

Object Extra Description

Extra descriptions allow us to add detail and originality to our objects. It is a must for you to create some sort of extra description for your objects, even food. Extra descriptions are what is shown when we ‘look’ at our objects.

To set an extra description, type: ed add ‘keywords’
(Be sure to include all possible keywords for the object)
Note: Be sure to include all your keywords in the apostropies.

This will take you into the description editor, which has very strict commands for use. It should look like this:

-=======- Entering APPEND Mode -========-
Type *h on a new line for help
Terminate with a ~ or @ on a blank line.
-=======================================-
>
Your first step is to type in your description in full. When you are finished there are a few commands you will absolutely need to know.
First, you will need to format the description, so it lines up evenly. In order to format, type: *f
If you then wish to see what the description looks like, you can type: *s
To clear the description and start again you type: *c

If you want to insert or remove a line type the following:
To insert: *i <line number> (insert text here in parenthesis)
To delete: *d <line number>

And most importantly, to get out of the description editor, you type: @

To see a complete list of different commands you can do while in the editor, type: *h

To replace a section or word:
*r ‘word/phrase to replace’ ‘new word/phrase’
Note:
You -must- put the old phrase in a set of apostrophes, and the replacement in apostrophes. Also, this will not work on a phrase that is on two lines because it will only do one line at a time, or if the sentence has an apostrophe already in it. In those cases you’ll have to delete and replace the individual lines.

This is the meat of the book, and for consistency this is how we would like all of our books formatted:
Most books will have a Table of Contents. So you would add an extra description with the keywords ‘table contents book‘
(for when someone reads table or read book).

This would show a list of chapters, poems, stories, etc in the book, and should look something like this (although you can get creative with the layout of the table of contents):
read book
A Tale of Two Cities, scribed by
Alimonius Gillian of the Sacred Order of Erileia
_______________________________________________
Chapter 1 – The Storyteller
Chapter 2 – Before the Age of Strife
Chapter 3 – The Age that destroyed the Kingdom
Chapter 4 – The Conquest of Revenge

Afterwards, you will add extra descriptions for each chapter. For example, if we wanted to add chapter 1 this is what we would type: ed add ‘1 one storyteller story’ and you would fill in the story in the editor as normal.

What this would do, if someone wanted to: read 1, read one or read storyteller, it would then display that chapter. The same goes for the rest of the chapters.

Try to include the number (If you decide to number or use roman numerals), and also the chapter title. Notice I didn’t use THE in the ed keywords since THE is used in several chapters.

Now as far as scrolls are concerned, they are usually just one page. So you’d explain the description of the scroll, and any markings, in the first paragraph. Maybe add a straight or dotted line after that, and then display the entire contents of the scroll as if someone has just unrolled it, instead of making chapters like a book.

For example:
This beautiful leather-bound scroll has been stitched from supple deerskin and tied close with a simple leather cord. The pages are somewhat worn with years of wear and made from thin creamy parchment.
___________________________________________________
“A Tale of Two Cities”
Insert scroll paragraphs here

Don’t forget you can add chapters in your paragraphs with the insert command above.