CTMOB_RULES

This help file contains the rules for building a clantown mob. Remember,
mob descriptions should contain mostly a physical description of the mob.
Adding information about the "job" of the mob is fine, as long as there is
also a physical description of sorts included. See General Mob Rules at
the end of this file for the rules that apply to all aspects of
editing a mob.

Rules for Mob Names - (keywords)

1. Mob names should be in LOWER case. Do not capitalize them. They are
    KEYWORDS. They will not be seen by players while fighting or looking
    at the mob.

2. Mob names should be a list of key words and listed on one line. You
    may have many key words. Please separate each word by a space.

3. You must be able to understand a mob's name from the long description.
    Example: (long description) "A-young woman, twirling a parasol, is
    strolling about."--One of the key words for this long description
    should be "woman".

4. There should be no punctuation used in mob names.


Rules for Mob Short Description - (seen when the mob is fighting or moving)

1. Mob short descriptions should start lower case. Example: "a young
    woman".-The exception to this is if it begins with a proper name.
    Example: "Jess, the key master"

2. Avoid using punctuation with the exception of commas. Examples: "a
    short, plump woman"-or "the baker, Jack"-There should be no ending
    punctuation.


Rules for Mob Long Description - (seen when standing in the room with the mob)

1. Mob long descriptions should be a complete sentence stating that the
    mob is in the area and doing something. This means that you need a
    verb or adverb of some kind. Examples: "A-large man, dressed in red,
    is here."-or "An ugly goblin scrabbles about to fill the orders of
    customers."-Make sure the first letter of the sentence is capitalized
    and the sentence ends with a period.

2. Make sure that the mob long description only takes up one line. Do
    not let the description wrap around. This means that you can not have
    a long description that has 2 lines when looking in the room.


Rules for Mob Description - (seen when looking at the
keyword of the mob)

1. Each mob description should be at least 4 lines or 3 sentences long.
    See Also: help CTMOB_TIPS

2. Do not tell the players how they feel or act, let them decide their
    own reactions. Also, stay away from using phrases that imply the use
    any of the senses. For example: "He is a wonderful cook" would be
    incorrect. You may think that he is a wonderful cook, but others may
    not. Another example: "He is dirty and smells terrible"  would be
    incorrect. To say that he is dirty and smells is accurate, the word
    that makes it incorrect is "terrible". To fix this sentence, you can
    simply drop the word "terrible" or you can describe what he smells
    like. For instance, "He is dirty and smells of rotting sewage." This
    tells people what he smells like, but allows them to make their own
    choice on how to receive the statement.

3. Do not use words like "obviously" and "suddenly". Things that may be
    obvious to some people, are not obvious to others. The use of
    "obviously" also breaks rule 2 within this section because it is
    telling someone how they are thinking. "Suddenly" shouldn't be used
    because time frame within a description is a hard thing to deal
    with. Every time you look at the mob, does it "suddenly" do that same
    thing? Probably not! It would need to sleep sometime! Similar words
    should also be avoided.

4. Make sure you justify the description to make sure the words are
    formatted correctly. To do this, after you are done editing the
    description, but while you are in the editor, hit the letter 'J' for
    justifying. This means that you do not have to be extremely careful
    about how many characters you use per line when entering the
    description. The editor will fix those for you.

5. Make sure you describe what the mob looks like. The description is a
    physical description. You may add extra information about the "job" of
    the mob, that is, its purpose. You may add historical information, or
    anything else that gives the mob character, as long as it is also
    physically described.

6. Do not mention players in mob descriptions. Descriptions should not
     say things like "The evil skeleton turns his gaze of hatred towards
     you."-or "This large vulture plans for its next meal to be you!"


Rules for Sex, Class and Amount Loaded

1. Make sure that the sex of the mob is consistent to the descriptions of
    the mob. You should not have a description that uses the words
    "she" and refers to a female, but has the sex of the mob set as male
    or neutral.

2. Make sure that the class of the mob makes sense. A mob that is
    described as a peaceful young lady should probably not be a thief or
    warrior. A mob that has a description that clearly mentions magic
    should be a mage or cleric.

3. There are no real rules for the amount loaded. There are a few key
    things to remember when setting the amount to load. The more mobs you
    load, the less the experience per mob. If you have a "named" mob, you
    probably would not want to load more than 1 in each room of that
    type. Example: "Jess, the baker" should probably only have one load
    per bakery room. Also, take in consideration that you will probably
    have more than one room of a particular type. Each room of this type
    will load the amount of mobs specified. Be careful that you aren't
    overloading the town. All this really means is to take in
    consideration if you want to walk down the street and see 4 or 5 mobs
    in each room.


General Mob Rules - (apply to all of the above sections)

1. Mobs should be singular. A "crowd of onlookers" would be incorrect.
    For example: "a man" or "a priest" would be fine.

2. Mob descriptions should never mention the player looking at it.

3. Do not use the words "you" "we" or "us" in any of the descriptions.
    This includes any version of these words. Examples are: "you've"
    "you'd" "we're" "your" "yourself" and "our" - along with many others.

4. Use normal punctuation. Do not use characters such as < > >> ? \ /
    ! There is no need to have more than one period at the end of the
    sentence.

5. Do not make mobiles that look like any object, real life or on the game.

6. Do not make mobiles that have the same name of a player or object
    within the game.

7. Do not make mobiles that look out of place for the type of story the
    town and/or area has. Example: Do not make an evil dragon in a
    children's park. Make sure that it makes sense to have the mob in
    that area.

8. Make sure mobs are not overly modern, and that they fit into the
    theme of the town/area. Mobs should not PLAGIARIZE or reflect
    copyrighted materials. Anything that mirrors real life should be
    subtle and open for use.

See Also: CTB_MOB CTMOB_TIPS