Once you've finished character generation, it's time to set up your character for play.

You should follow this checklist, even if you're not new to MUSHing! There are lots of things that are specific to this game.

Setting a Description

Your description (what people see when they look at you) is given by the Desc attribute. You can set your description with:

@desc me = description

If you want a blank line in your description, use a %r in it.
If you want a tab in your description, use a %t in it.

If you want to edit your description once you've set it, use:

@edit me/desc = {old words}, {new words}

You can also use the editor to edit your description, by typing:

+ed/begin me/desc

See +help Editor for more on how to use the editor.

(The game has descers — see +help Descer and +help Rinadescer — which are useful if you're switching between multiple descriptions, but for now, just get your first description set.)

How to Write a Description

Not everyone reads descriptions, so frequently you're going to be posing the salient details of your character's appearance. However, a description is still important for the details. The longer your description is, however, the less likely someone is to read it in its entirety. Here's a bit of advice about writing a description:

• Keep it to a reasonable length. Ten lines is probably the maximum anyone's going to read on a routine basis.

• A description is just that. It's about appearance and what can be readily observed. It's not the place to give a character history or describe his personality.

• Make details that you want to make sure people notice readily obvious — don't bury them in a lot of text. In fact, you might want to include them right near the beginning of your description, or at the beginning of a paragraph. (But if something about your appearance is really important, you will want to pose it when you enter a scene.)

• Don't include actions within your description (don't refer to your character "turning to look at you" or the like). Keep it to the appearances; if you must include something action-like, make it a generality, such as "He smiles easily and often."

• Let the reader form his own opinion. Don't use phrases like, "This is the most handsome man you've ever seen." You have no idea what other characters have seen, and it's also presumptuous to tell them what they think of you.

• Avoid cliche phrases, and avoid looking like a sex symbol, unless this is actually really core to your concept, and even then, be tasteful. Many players are prejudiced against descriptions that refer to "cat-like grace", a "sensuous mouth", "hardened abs", linger lovingly on the details of a character's breasts, etc.

Setting a Short Description

Your short description (what people see when they use +look when they're in a room with you) is given by the SHORT-DESC attribute. You can set this with:

&SHORT-DESC me = description

This description should be less than a line long. It should give just the barest essentials of what's notable about your character's appearance.

Setting a Trump Description

Your Trump description is the description that will be used by default on any Trumps made of you. It's given by your TRUMP_DESC attribute. You can set this with:

&TRUMP_DESC me = description

A Trump description should be no more than two or three lines long.

Setting a Full Name

Your full name (shown by +finger) is given by the FULLNAME attribute. You can set this with:

&FULLNAME me = name

Your full name is your character's first and last names, with title, if appropriate. It's just a way of letting people know how your character probably ought to be formally addressed.

Setting a Position

Your position (what people see when they do a +finger) is given by the POS attribute. You can set this with:

&POS me = position

This should be just a very short (a word or three) summary of who your character is — "Lord So-and-So", "Merchant Captain", "Guard Lieutenant", etc. are all reasonable positions.

Setting a Public Background

Your public background (or "PBG") is what you want other people to know about your character. There are really two types of information that you'll want to include in your background. The first is what's reasonably commonly known, IC, about your character. The second is what you want other people to know OOC about your character, so they have a better idea of how to include you in roleplay.

Your public background (what people see when they +pbg you, or, normally, when they +finger you) can be set with:

&PBG me = text

If you want to edit your description once you've set it, use:

@edit me/pbg = {old words}, {new words}

You can also use the editor to edit your description, by typing:

+ed/begin me/pbg

By the way, PBG is an attribute. All attributes can be set by the methods above. Just replace "pbg" with the name of the other attribute you want to set. You can see all attributes on yourself by typing ex me — "ex" is short for "examine".

If your public background is more than a few lines long (more than six, maybe more than three), you probably want to set a brief one so people don't get spammed when they +finger you. To do this, set the PBG_FINGER attribute. (Use &PBG_FINGER me = text, etc. to do this.)

Setting Roleplay Hooks

Your roleplay hooks are an explicit, OOC list of ways that people can get connected to you IC. They are, in short, reasons to seek scenes with you. They might be specific play goals that you are pursuing that others could get involved with, something that you're recruiting for, excuses to talk to you, or anything else that would help someone figure out how to include you in interaction. Hooks are presumed to be IC secrets unless stated otherwise; they are simply OOC play facilitation.

Set the HOOKS attribute to set your hooks:

&HOOKS me = list of hooks

If your hooks are more than a few lines long (more than six, maybe more than three), you probably want to set a brief one so people don't get spammed when they +finger you. To do this, set the HOOKS_FINGER attribute.

If you really have a lot of hooks, or you want to divide them into multiple sections, you can do sub-topics. To set a sub-topic, use:

&HOOKS_topic me = hook details

A topic name has to be a single word.
A list of sub-topics will automatically be displayed when you do a +hooks player.
Use +hooks player's topic to read a sub-topic hook.

Setting Your Trouble Preference

You can indicate your OOC preferences for encountering IC trouble using the Trouble setting. Please see +help Trouble on the game, for how to set this up.

Setting Your Roleplay Preferences

You should indicate your roleplay preferences — the type of RP you like to do, the elements you enjoy in RP, how you like to find RP, and your scene size preferences — using the +prefs command. Please see +help Prefs on the game, for how to set this up.

Setting Contact Information

The +finger command shows some contact information for players.

If you want other players to have an address at which they can send you email, set your EMAIL attribute with:

&EMAIL me = email-address

If you want to point players at a Web page or Livejournal for your character, set your URL attribute with:

&URL me = Web-URL

Setting a Quote

If you'd like to set a brief quote relevant to your character, which will show up on +finger, use:

&QUOTE me = quote

Please keep it short, so it doesn't create a lot of spam on +finger.

Setting Your Chatter Preference

Some people don't like unnecessary OOC comments during roleplay, while others enjoy talking OOC during a scene.

If you enjoy miscellaneous OOC chatter (via the ooc command) during scenes, use:

@set me = _Chatter

If you'd prefer as little OOC conversation as possible during a scene, use:

@set me = !_Chatter

The ooc command automatically notifies people of the chatter preferences of others in the scene.