My stance on this has jumped back and forth a few times, but today's Discord Discourse has made me firm it, a little. What do you guys think about a LOOK CLOSER command? I.E. fully custom, player written descriptions. Here's some of my rough thoughts.
Pros:
- Internal Player Agency and Identity: Allows people to fully realize there characters beyond what the game's Chargen generated description offers.
- External Identity: Other people get to realize the little unique things about your characters, so you have a way to tell them about your neat scars or your cute freckles, without emoting about it every new person you meet, and possibly annoying people.
- Uniqueness in General: Short, Slim, Strawberry-blond Hair, Blue-gray eyes. I know of at least two, possibly three people with this description. Unless you get a GM to give you a custom mustache, or freckles via a third-party method that still has that base description and tells you nothing else, you'll look like the people with your atributes.
- Possibility for More Interaction: if someone isn't great at writing these, it's not as if they have to, and it can easily foster more interaction of people trying to help someone write one, if they wish.
- GM Attention Requisite: If we wish the descriptions to be vetted for appropriate language, diction and style (which I think we maybe do? ;Discussion;) that will require a lot of attention from GMs. They already do a lot for us, and I'd hate to ask them to do more.
- Overload of Options: Some people may get bogged down by this extra option, plus customizeable outfits and gear, and might get easily overwhelmed. i'm not sure if this is really a big deal or not, but as long as it's made quite aware that this is an optional thing, it should be fine.
Discuss? Maybe?