by Grimm

Hey boys and girls. Most of you that will be reading this will know me as a fairly long-term builder for Adventures Unlimited. For those of you that don’t, I guess you can use this to help you out. The following is just a little summation of ways to build. I don’t mean a tutorial; I mean the kind of things that will help you produce QUALITY descriptions. So here are some pointers I find that add a lot to areas.

Generally the first thing I do is try and rip out a few dozen ideas of areas that would be good for the MUD. If you are bad at judging these kinds of things that’s also what the Implementor is for, albeit not much else. But that’s okay. So once you get your idea on what you want to build, it’s down to figuring out what should go in the area. It doesn’t make much sense to have a weapon vendor in the middle of a haunted woods, unless he’s insane and just makes metal toothpicks compulsively. So grab yourself a sheet of paper and a pencil and start listing everything that comes to mind. Cities would have a decent amount of shops as these are places players will ultimately explore. I try and include loads of shops in my areas because it’s nice having a large choice of things to help customize one’s character. A grand amount of equipment on mobs is nice too, but eventually you’ll start drawing thin on ideas for weapon and armor names.

Okay.. now you have yourself a list of what you want in your area. Now stop and take a look at the other areas on the MUD.. how can you make your area unique from the others that are currently in existence? Maybe a friendly human town might have some tunnels beneath it where they sacrifice strangers that wander in to a dark god. Or maybe a peaceful, cheery forest might conceal the movements of a band of brigands. It doesn’t have to be anything dreadful or horrible, just a way to set it apart from the other areas.

Now time for some descriptions. Stop for just a moment and put yourself in the place of the adventurer that has just laid eyes upon the spot. For instance; in my first area I used this and my very vivid imagination to come up with a city of the dead. I imagined I was walking through the skull-paved streets, looked upon the powdery white bricks that the buildings were constructed of, and the green magical shell that shrouded the entire place in a disgusting green light. Imagine my terror to look up and see a pair of red eyes gleaming out from a whispery black vapor. Or the sound of the bone feet clicking against the road as the skeleton knight searched for me. Put all this into your room descs.. put it all in. As much as you can. There is no reason for there to not be at least 5 lines in every description you do, no matter if it’s a room or a mobile. If it doesn’t sound right.. leave it a lone and move on. Note it and go back and look at it later. For a long time I was too stubborn to do this; so it took me an hour to write a room description because I was unhappy and wouldn’t leave it.

A good tactic to coming up with good areas or descriptions is using the use of moods and music to help bring out the feeling of the area. At the present, my most praised area is a 50 room manor house type area that took me six hours of straight building to accomplish. The area came about from the depths of my own depression, the feeling of utter loneliness that fills me even when I know I am not alone. So I put on the most depressing music I could find and let myself slip deeper down, and wrote it all out of my heart for the present. And turned out this area. But that is also my release for emotions, writing that is.

The most important thing to creating a good, quality area is to be happy with it. Enjoy what you are doing. I do it because I like other people to read what I write. As a player I pretty much quit, I take little joy in it. But offering the masses something to explore and go I wonder if I can find the hidden tunnels is much more appealing to me. Having an understanding imp helps as well, ours lets me keep a few areas up at a time because it is know I write when I’m emotional. And I don’t think he would want the hap-happy village to have strings of the dead and massacred innocents because my brain isn’t working well that day.

I enjoy what I do, and you should too. The players can tell when someone is not into what they are doing. And if you aren’t, then quit. Because there is no sense ruining an area at the moment that you might feel better doing at a later date. Have fun, don’t try and build while drunk, and if you are unsure of something; ask someone that knows what they are doing.

Have fun kiddies.
The former Grimm Darkblade
Currently Vallien, Lord of Knights and Honour