[WingsOfStardust]

Well, I know people could 'abuse' it or put weird and misleading text in the description.
But for so many others, it gives an opportunity to change it at will, adding or removing certain physical quirks for instance.
I see it as a nice way to set a frame for my character and to give it a certain 'mood'.

For instance, since I knew in advance I could not change descriptions: I limited to describing Alice's physical traits on a fairly basic level.
With player-editing description I could proceed to point out things that are obvious and tell more about her.
I could have explained if there's anything special with her armor, or in this case her sword - which is special.

At the same time, as characters change and develop, so should the description. You acquire new items and lose the old.
I'd in the same manner like to explain how she has trinkets and bottles stuck in various easy-to-access pouches and whatever more she has on the belt. All adding to the flavor and impression somebody would get from my character upon taking a good look at her. Without me having to lengthily emote it and thus perhaps hindering the flow of RP, simply, I'd not spend any time emoting her equipment ingame unless it was REALLY important. But this way, anybody who'd look, can see it.

More you can do with it: Perhaps your character limps or has a visible injury? Perhaps you are trying to hide something our stick out as suspicious. It's another way to easily edit your description to point out what somebody might snap up on, thus providing for more chances to RP. On Arelith, I often had one or two things that (to some) would surely raise interest.

I think it could be very handy, and as far as possible abuse? - You can't build an empire without a little trust!

[Vortar the Mad]

I'll chime in here.

I know that when I create characters I tend to do so from a visual standpoint and often times I don't have a clear idea of who they are until after they have been in game for some time. Sometimes the initial concept of the character will radically change, Vortar started crazy for instance. His mind fractured by the intrusion of his father Tharax. Eventually his personality and that of his father integrated and he became who he is.

I am loathe to write descriptions that go beyond the incredibly general and physical because they are permanent. The ability to chage these descriptions could make it easier for players to be accurate with their PC's.

I also understand that this ability could be misused somewhat, but hopefully the player base is mature enough to make this a non issue.

As Dm it would be nice to change the description of an npc so players could realize that it is an important plot character at a glance, or to be able to assign properties that that creature that are beyond the ability of the engine to render...ie "this older human walks with pronounced limp and has lost his right arm at the elbow."

Just my 2 coppers, I don't thing this isuue is game breaking....we've gotten along just fine without it until now and certainly would fall squarely in the "Maybe if it were convenient and not slowing anything more important down." Category.

[WingsOfStardust]

....we've gotten along just fine without it until now and certainly would fall squarely in the "Maybe if it were convenient and not slowing anything more important down." Category.

Yeah, of course. :)

[Hellstrom]

I'd like to add my vote for this.

I like the idea of being able to update my characters' descriptions based on the way they evolve from events in the game. I can certainly think of several chars I've had that have diverged significantly from my initial concept of them due to various IC experiences. I've understood that I could ask an admin to help out, but it never felt important enough to ask for when I know admins get so many requests as it is.

I know giving players the power to edit their own char descriptions would open things for some minor abuse, but I think the player base in Thay is, in general, mature enough to make use of it properly. Guidelines could be established for it, and any abuse could be handled on an individual basis.

That said, I completely agree with the sentiment of our special snowflake :D

...I don't thing this isuue is game breaking....we've gotten along just fine without it until now and certainly would fall squarely in the "Maybe if it were convenient and not slowing anything more important down." Category.

[Sun Tzu]

I can only speak for myself but I assume it is common among many, no one really bothers to fully read the in-game bio, especially not if you constantly update it either.
I personally only hit examine as a habit (to see difficulty rating which is disabled on every server today) and I skim through text or exit it altogether if its too long.

This is where forums do wonders, you can write a biography and then update/bump it with posts so people will know when relevant information/changes of your character occurs.

Another way is to RP the changes if they are visual or apparent, others are perhaps best left to forums or for players to find out themselves.


My 100 minus 98 cents

[DarkRanger]

I usually read descriptions the first time I encounter a character, though I don't usually use that space myself. I definitely think being able to change it would be good as long as it's convenient and not messing something else up, since sometimes you might want your character to get scarred or something based on in game events, or pick up something along the way that would be visible but isn't represented on the in game avatar(holy symbols, Alice's bottles, ears or scalps of enemies, etc.).

[Hellstrom]

I guess I'm the opposite... I do read the in-game bios on PCs (at least when they aren't pages & pages long) and don't bother to read most PCs history posts on the forums here. The problem with most of the forum PC background/history posts is that they are A) more like daily diaries than character bios, B) long-winded and full of trivia that there's no way my chars would know about, and sorry but C) boring. No offense intended :)

By their nature the PC descriptions tend to be short, to the point, visual- and personality-related, and there is much more immediacy to reading the description of a PC standing right near my character.

[WingsOfStardust]

I'm much like Hellstrom. I don't read the Bios on the forums, partially out of that they are rarely updated and I don't want to fill my impression with lots of OOC information.
I've learned a bit from Arelith when it comes to description, so I usually split mine in two parts.

1. Part is on the top and contains straight facts about how my character looks in a short factual manner. For example:
Apparent age:
Height:
Hair-Color:
Etc etc.

2. For those who wish to go in depth, I have maybe two or three paragraphs explaining different aspects. For example:
Weaponry, [TEXT]
Clothing/armor, [TEXT]
Things of attention, [TEXT].

That way, for those who just want a quick look at how my character looks, they get it. And those that want something more in-depth, just have to scroll down :)

[TheSupremeForce]

I make a point of checking character descriptions (generally more than once, since I can't possibly keep names and faces straight on one read), but I tend to skim the ones that are too long. I generally stop at a paragraph, but that's typically because I rarely have more than that in mind when I initially whip up a character anyway. I can think of several instances where I'd have added to a description if it had been an easy option.

[dremora]

I like it personally as just one of those nice little touches, allows you to reflect changes to your character and tbh I have never not read the description of a character I Rp'd with. Even if the descriptions are long.

As for abuse of the system, its nothing truly threatening that can't be changed the minute a player complains or a DM notices something abusive. Then they change it or are dealt with howevers appropriate if things are that bad If its just an idioitic thing. Well ignore it. People who tend to do stuff like that will do it through other mediums anyway so I doubt the feature itself will have a unique negative impact on the server. As said before, you can only hope the playerbase is mature enough not to be outrightly offensive or write stupid things like their dwarf being made of nothing but muscle, 7 feet tall with a flaming head of hair and the ability to smite people with a thought :P.

I also agree the need for it is far from dire so as a side edition when time and mood strikes Thayan, it seems like a good addition