CTROOM_RULES

This help file contains the rules for building a clantown room. Remember,
room descriptions are what players should see WHILE in the room and should
not be subjective. Descriptions should be what is there, or possibly, what
is nearby. Describe the room as it is and do not make judgments about how
players will perceive it.

All clantowns must have a portal. Portals may not be changed to another
roomtype except by a level 35+ god. If you accidentally make a room a
portal, and need it changed to something else, pray for assistance.

Rules for Building Room Names:

1. The first letter of the main words within a room name should be
capitalized. Words that should not be capitalized are: a of and
in the to on an and for. The exception BEING WHEN the room
name begins with one of these words. In that instance, it should be
capitalized. Examples: Upon a Path of Gravel or A Warm and Cozy
Loft.

2. There should be no extended characters, which include, but are not
limited to: > - < / \ ! . Commas are the only acceptable punctuation
allowed within a room name. Example: A Small, Hidden Stairway. The
character - should ONLY be used if it is required in the word.
Example: Somewhere Within the Mist-Filled Cavern
See also:      help CTB_ROOMNAME


Rules for Building Room Descriptions with Explanations:

1. Do not use the words you, your, yourself or similar words
unless you can do so without telling players how they think, feel
(emotional or intense physical feelings), act, or what they say.
There are some exceptions to this rule.
See also:      help CTB_YOU

2. Do not tell the players how they feel or act, let them decide on their
own reactions. For example, both The destruction of this village
seems worse than any seen before. and The destruction of this
village makes everyone sad. do not work well in room descriptions.
For the most part, words such as: seem, may, maybe or any other
suggesting words shouldnt be used. Laying out the possible actions or
future consequences of existing conditions should be avoided. Yes,
there are always exceptions, but avoid any that force someone to
decide one way or the other how they are thinking. Another example:
The castle seems far away from this area. That is subjective to each
person. Maybe it seems far away to you, but it may not to someone
else. So the description should say that either the castle is far
away, or it is not.

3. Stay away from using phrases that imply the use of the senses
(smell/feel/etc.) unless it is very general and does not break rule 2
for building rooms. If you are in a bakery, having a sentence like
The smell of freshly baked bread lingers in the air. is perfectly
fine. A sentence like The terrible smell of rotting corpses fills the
air. would not be because of the use of terrible. This sentence
assumes that the smell of rotting corpses is terrible, but not
everyone may think it is.

4. If you mention animals, humans, or anything else that could be
construed as a mob in the room description it must be well in the
background.
See also:      help BACKGROUND

5. Do not use words like obviously and suddenly. If you are standing
in a room for a period of time, something is unable to suddenly
happen. Obviously is a bad word to use because not all things are
obvious to certain people.
See also:      help SUDDENLY

6. Justify each clantown room after you finish writing the description.
The command is J in the editor. It is best to type J and then hit
the enter key before you save each time you edit. This means that
you are adjusting the text to best fit the line.

7. Each description should be at least 4 lines or 3 sentences long when
justified. It is not difficult to write this amount or more.
See also:      help CTB_ROOMLENGTH

8. Do not use quotes in descriptions. Very few situations would need
them. The only real instance they are allowable is when quoting what
is on a sign, engraving, statue, or the similar. Example: The sign
reads Enter at your own risk!

9. As a general rule, do not mention other zones in the room
descriptions. The exception here is if you talk about the land of
Medievia in a general sense.

10. Do not repeat words. Example: This is a very very clean room.

11. Be very careful of comma usage. See help COMMAS for specific
information on commas. Please go through that help file if you find
that you are getting many denials because of commas or if you are not
very comfortable using them.

12. Do not make rooms loop around each other. This means, do not make
mazes. Each exit should lead to a different room. Example: Make sure
if you have room 10230 to the south of you, that you do not make an
exit to room 10230 in any other direction.

13. Be very careful when mentioning directions in the description.
Remember that a player may not be coming from a particular direction.
Refrain from saying things like Continuing to the north or leaving
the option of heading north or west. The proper use of a direction
would be: To the west, a wall.. or There is a river to the east.

14. Each room description must be unique. There should be no repeating
room descriptions. The descriptions can be similar, just not the same.

15. Use normal punctuation within the description. Do not use characters
such as the characters in between the quotation marks and including
the quotation marks: > < .. ? * & ~  / - \ ! The first of two
exceptions to this is that if the hyphen (-) is required between two
words. Example: mist-filled. The second is if they are used on a sign
of some kind. If you are quoting what is on the sign, you can either
quote it after a colon (:) or between quotation marks ().

16. Do not put mobile or player names in descriptions. This includes
purged/deleted players or gods.

17. Do not plagiarize or use copyrighted stories, characters or objects.
See also:      help PLAGIARIZE

18. Clantowns should use established and consistent American spelling
and grammar rules. Please do not use British spellings, as the ZEs are
simply not qualified to check this. It is far, far, far more important
that you write naturally and descriptively. Beyond the basics in the
grammar help files, leave the diction to us.
See also:      help GRAMMAR_INDEX SPELLING

19. Avoid using the same word or phrase over and over in a description.
Get a thesaurus to find a synonym, or try describing it with a
different phrase that means the same thing.
See also:      help SYNONYM CTROOM_TIPS

20. Make sure your room descriptions reflect the theme of your town.

21. Make sure your descriptions hold true for most circumstances. For
example, the sun will not always be reflecting off a lake.

22. Avoid ending a sentence with here if it is unnecessary.
See also:      CTROOM_TIPS

See also:  CTB_INDEX CTROOM_TIPS