AREA
DESIGN GUIDE
Created by Divebomb for Barren Realms Mud
You'd like to design an area for Barren Realms, but you're not
sure where to begin. Or, maybe you've got this awesome idea, but you're
not sure what's required of you to make that idea come alive. Maybe
you've written the area or at least started writing it and just want to make
sure you're on the right track. If any of these apply to you, this guide
is for you.
This guide is meant to offer tips and help you
understand what is needed to plan, design, create, and complete an area for
Barren Realms.
Use the following links to navigate this document more easily:
I. PLANNING OUT THE AREA
This order is not set in stone. Feel free to do it as you see fit. This is merely my suggested order. Regardless of
whether you do rooms, mobs, or objects first, these tips and comments still apply.
- Coming up with a theme:
You cannot have an area without a theme. Before you do anything else, you have to decide what
your area is going to be about. You need to decide if you are going to make up your own theme or
base it on something that already exists. I'm not going to list ideas for areas, that's your job.
Choose something you like and that you're interested in to avoid getting bored with it and abandoning your
work. Anything medieval or based on literary works is acceptable. Futuristic and modern themes
will not be accepted. Areas currently violating this rule are slowly being phased out.
You should also choose the general level range that you wish your area to
encompass. Consider the existing areas encompassing those levels as you choose your theme. If you
choose level 1-5, you probably don't want to do a graveyard because there already is one. You could try and
pick a theme that meshes well with another area's theme in a similar level range. For instance, the tropical
forest is located next to the hunting grounds and the amazon forest. These areas share a common theme and blend well
together. They support each other despite their differences and the atmosphere adds to the mudding experience.
- Creating the Layout:
Once you have a theme, you need a layout, or a map, of your area. Drawing one on a piece of paper will facilitate
the actual design process. While you're more than welcome to alter the area as you create it, try to keep it small at first.
Most people who fail to finish their areas do so because they got tired of writing room descriptions. Their area was far too large
for them to tackle and there never seemed to be an end in sight. This is the fatal flaw of most first-time builders.
Think about the nature of your area when you draw it. Does it make sense to have ups and downs given the terrain? If you are in the
plains, you probably don't need too many ups and downs. Contrarily, if you're in the mountains, you might want to include a lot of ups,
downs, and winding paths. Think about where you want doors to be. Should they be locked? Should they be pickproof? Are they going to be "doors" or "portals"
or simply "cracks" in the wall? Make notes on your map as you come up with these ideas so you remember them later.
You may also want to consider scribbling down notes on mobs while you're doing this. If you have a throne room, go ahead and write
the king's name in there. Does he have guards? Is there a queen too? What about his ferocious pet lion? Write it down! You can always
cut it later.
- Designing Mobs:
It can be a good idea to make a list of all the mobs you want in your area, too. Just take another sheet of
paper and start writing everything you think you want to put into it. As you continue to work on the area, feel free to
add or remove from this list. You're never locked into anything and adding is always easy. The further along you get in the
actual design of your area, the harder it may become to remove mobs, but adding can be done at any point.
If you know now certain attributes of these mobs you want to put on, scribble that as well. If you know the guy is not going to move,
then write "sentinel" next to him. If you want him to have sanctuary, make a note of it. The more you do now, the easier it gets later.
Don't forget!! Your area has a theme, stick to it when you create your mobs. You probably don't want a squirrel running around in the palace bedroom.
There's also nothing wrong with making up a creature and naming it what you want. Barren Realms does not cohere to standards of Dungeons and Dragons or
anything similar to it, so you have the freedom to be as creative as you want!
- Designing Objects:
Designing objects is probably one of the most difficult and dangerous parts of creating your area. People often set out to write areas to
create the best item in the game. If your items are overpowerful the entire area will be sent back immediately and not accepted until you change
them. Your items can be as underpowerful as you want because people will either not use them or sell them for cash. The best idea is to create objects
similar to, but having slightly different bonuses or drawbacks as other items of that level. If you want to design a level 25 neck item, look at
what neck items people are using now. Compare the level of that item to the attributes and keep it similar. Instead of +1hit/+1dam maybe you want to do
+1str/+1dam, or maybe you want -2hit/+2dam.
Always take into consideration the nature of the object itself and the mob it's going to be placed on. Boots that grant wisdom do not
make any sense. You can violate this rule in moderation. A light could give you hit/dam by logical reasoning because it allows you to see your
enemy better. You don't have to make this explanation, but your object's bonuses do need to make sense. Also, if the mob is easy, an exceptional item
shouldn't be given to them. If the guy is hidden, has sanctuary, and casts spells, then it is probably okay to make the item on him a little better.
Objects are not created solely for player use. They add atmosphere and puzzles to an area. The throne room for the king should probably have his
throne sitting in the room as well. It creates a better visual picture of the room when you place actual objects in a room. Don't overdo it, though. Putting
ten objects in a room just makes it spammy. Consider using non-takeable containers such as a peddler's cart on the street with an apple in it. This is also how
you create chests with treasures inside, fountains for the center of your city, and actual trees in your forest.
- Making sure your area is balanced:
Building balance into your area is a fine art. I already alluded to this when discussing objects. The objects in your area must, must, must be balanced to other
objects in the game as well as with the mobs carrying them. Balance the good with the bad. For every really good thing you add, there should probably be one or two
bad things about it. That doesn't mean you have to negative stats on it. The object could be humming so you can't sneak while wearing it. It could be anti-good or
personalized or flaming. You could also consider putting in on a tough mob - either because of its location, abilities, or other mobs in the room with it. There are
plenty of ways to create balance. The point is to not hand players awesome equipment. Make them work for it or make them really think about whether they want to use
this item or that item.
Another aspect of balance is putting the levels of your mobs together. There is always a chance that one mob will assist another mob. If your level 10 mobs are all
hanging around your level 30 mobs, a level 10 player is going to be very upset when they get killed by that level 30 mob and they're not going to go back to your area for
experience. Think about who's hanging around who and why. Does it make sense that one mob is next to another? Think about the consequences of doing so. Also remember to
put enough mobs in each section of the area so that the player can find mobs to kill. If your area is meant to be fought in regularly, you want to supply enough mobs so that
the player doesn't have to spend ten minutes walking around looking for one.
II. CREATING THE AREA ITSELF
WRITING DESCRIPTIONS
- Room Descriptions
Writing room descriptions is the most painstaking part of creating an area. This is entirely due to the sheer quantity of rooms you have to
write. Additionally, each description must be minimally 3 lines linewrapped at 79 columns. Line wrap means the last character in the line
has to be no more than 79 characters from the left side. (The BR Builder does this for you)
The key to getting through the room descriptions is to limit the number of rooms you actually have in the area. Do you really need your hallway
to be 10 rooms long or could you survive with 4? Maybe redesign the layout some so that it cuts out a few. You'll thank yourself in the end. It
also becomes more and more difficult to write descriptions for rooms that look similar without repeating them. It's ok to have a few repeating room
descriptions (and always ok in the case of mazes), but try to limit it. It makes the area rather boring to read.
There a lot of things you should not do in writing room descriptions, so pay special attention to this list:
- DO NOT reference people or creatures that are actually in the room as mobiles. If you want to reference the patrons talking in the corner, that's fine,
but do not then put those patrons in as mobs. Any descriptions of people that are mobs should saved for the mob description itself. It seems odd to reference
the mob that's in the room in the description when he may be killed an no longer be sitting in that room.
- DO NOT put speech in the room description for the same reason as above. I find it acceptable to include speech to the player in a mob description because
it makes a lot more sense than in the room description and it's the only way (currently) to enable speech. The conversation also disappears when the mob dies.
- DO NOT use the word "you" anywhere in the room description. There is almost no exception to this rule. Any sentence written with the word "you" can be
rewritten without the use of it to make it impartial. Do not tell people what they see, create an image. Tell them what's out there, but let them create their own
visual representation. Let them discern what's going on in the room on their own. "The water in the river is crystal clear." Not "You see crystal clear
water in the river."
- DO NOT indent the first paragraph. Future paragraphs may be indented or simply have an extra carriage return between paragraphs, but it looks strange when the
first paragraph gets indented.
- Mob Descriptions
Mob descriptions follow the same basic rules as room descriptions. They should be at least three lines long, but you can get away with shorter ones sometimes. They also need
to linewrap at 79 columns. You may use the word "you" in the description and you may include dialog here. You should try to create a visual image of
your person or creature here. Are they doing something? Do they like you looking at them? Are they attractive or ugly? Any distinguishable marks, features, or clothes? Do they
slouch, stand tall, look intimidating, look pathetic? You can put any or all of these things in each mob description. Go nuts.
- Object Descriptions
Object descriptions are much easier in terms of length and time to write them. They don't have look at description, just short and long. The short description is what you see when it's in
your inventory or pick it up or give it to someone else. The long description is what you see when you look at the object or see it on the ground. It's important to remember that you can usually see
a long description when it's in your inventory by typing look (objectname). So, saying, "The sword lies here" is kinda silly when you're holding onto it. Feel free to make no-take
objects have long descriptions like that though. Nobody will picking those up and looking at them. Also keep in mind that long descriptions will wrap as well. If they are too long, they can look
a little strange when they are on the ground in the room.
WARNING!! The first letter of a short description will NOT be capitalized. If you have "Frodo's ring" it will show up as "frodo's ring".
- Extra Descriptions
Extra descriptions are your chance to add hidden things into your or area or to simply add depth. They can be put on rooms and objects but not mobs.
Room extras could be used to give a little more description to the tree referenced in your area or to look in the hole in the wall you mentioned. It allows you
extra descriptions without having to create objects to look at.
You can also do exit descriptions. This applies to exits with and without doors. If you don't want your door to be called a door, but a portal, you can do that. If you want
people to see something special when they look north, you can do that too. You need only follow the same rules as any other description.
Object descriptions work the same way. Maybe you referenced a ruby on the scepter the person picked up. They can then look at the ruby for another description.
You could reference another keyword for another extra description from the ruby's descriptiong thereby "chaining" descriptions. You can actually unfold an entire story
about an object this way - giving you more freedom with an object since there's no lengthy descriptions like in mobs and rooms.
- Writing Keywords
It is incredibly important that your keywords are done correctly. If you do not put the right keywords on your mobs and objects you will frustrate your players by making
it impossible for them to guess what it is to look at, get, or kill the target. Always put the most important words in your keyword list. Basically all nouns and adjectives should act as keywords.
"The large brown staff of Argos" should have at least the keywords "staff" and "Argos" but it should really have "large" and "brown" as well. A mob with the short description,
"Gargauth, King of the Apes" should have keywords, "Gargauth", "King", and "Apes". Also if Gargauth's long description says, "A man sits proudly upon this throne eating a banana" you need
to add the keyword "man". The long doesn't have any words resembling the short, which is fine, but without adding the keyword, the player can't deal with the mob at all. For objects, keywords are
not only important for getting, giving, dropping, selling, etc. objects, but also looking at them. When you look at a keyword, you can read the long description.
Be careful with keyword choices for extra descriptions, too. If you want people to find your extra descriptions, choose obvious keywords. Remember that if one of your extra keywords overlaps
your object keyword, you will see the extra, NOT the long description, though.
ADDING ATTRIBUTES, FLAGS, AND BITS
- Room Flags and Sector Types
Sector types are important because they determine a few different things. The biggest is how much movement is lost for moving around. Walking on mountains takes more move points than
walking around in a city. The only other thing to think about is if you have water in your area. The sector type lets you determine if that's water you can swim in, cannot swim in, or if it's completely underwater.
Swim allows you to move through the water at all times. No-swim means you need a boat or flying. Underwater means you need a breathing apparatus and cannot be flying. Also air rooms obviously require
flying to move through.
Room flags are incredibly important because they affect so much about moving through an area. For your benefit, i'm going to give a brief description of some flags so you can pick what you want for what room.
- Dark - You cannot see without a light, you cannot scan into this room.
- No Mob - Mobs cannot enter this room unless charmed. You can use this flag to prevent some mobs from wandering into other parts of your area.
- Indoors - You MUST use this flag to keep weather out of your room. You should combine it with the indoors sector flag. Without this flag it can rain inside.
- No Magic To - Players cannot teleport, astral, or prayer into this room.
- No Magic From - Players cannot summon, teleport, astral or prayer out of this room.
- Arena - Players will not lose experience dying in this room. They can also kill each other.
- Anti-Magic - No magic can be cast in this room. Spell weapons will continue to function.
- Private/Solitary - Private means only 2 people (mobs included) can be in the room at a time. Solitary allows one.
- No Recall - AKA Cursed - Players cannot recall out of this room.
- Currents - A current will blow the player in the specified direction sometimes. This interrupts battle and the avian skill "carry".
- Bank - Players can deposit or withdraw money from this room. It has no other affect.
Use flags to represent the nature of your area and each room specifically. You may want to refer to the builder's guide for a few more of the less-used flags.
- Mob Affect and Act Bits
Mob affect and act bits make your mobs more lifelike and enable them to do some functions or beef them up defensively. Every mob you have
will probably have at least one of them, most will have more. All of them should have the stay_area bit.
The builder's guide does an excellent job of listing and highlighting important information about act and affect bits. You should refer
to that for any information on particular bits that you're unsure of. Most of them are self-explanatory.
You do need to know that some flags make mobs "protected". Protected mobs cannot be killed by anyone. Mobs that have the act bits
enhance, elf/druid/avian/dwarf/illithid/human/kender/demon practice, healer, identify or repair will be protected. Shopkeepers are also
automatically protected.
- Object Flags
Object flags and guideliness are far too extensive for the nature of this guide. You should definitely read the section on objects in the builder's guide for a full
understanding of what your options are for objects. The things to know are wear locations, object types, extra bits, and apply bonuses.
- Wear locations you should already be familiar with because you've played the game. These are things like neck, on body, about body, wield, hold, etc.
- There are a lot of object types, most of them are self-explanatory. You should be aware that only armor is destroyable. Food, containers, potions, and scrolls are flammable.
Try to pick an object type suitable for your object. There are plenty to choose from.
- Extra bits are the flags you put on items affecting their usefulness or abilities. Extra bits can be used to make items more balanced, but some of them
are very good and should be used sparingly if at all.
- Glow - object gets (glowing) - cannot sneak
- Hum - object gets (humming) - cannot sneak
- Invis - object requires see invisibility to work with
- Magic - object cannot be enchanted if weapon and will last longer if tainted. Object can be made flaming by the enflame weapon spell.
- Nodrop - object cannot be dropped or put in a container
- Noremove - once worn, cannot be removed with the remove command
- Flaming - can only be used by elves and druids
- Invisify - renders the user invisible on wear
- Apply bits are the bonuses you put on objects like damroll, hitroll, strength, save vs. spell. I'll assume you know what they all do and not go into
detail. This is where you need to be really careful on balance. Don't go crazy with your bonuses unless a bunch of them are minuses. The builder's guide
discusses a way to calculate if your object is too powerful for the level of the mob you're putting it on. Going nuts here will undoubtedly get your area sent back
to you.
ADDING SPECIALS
- Mob Specials (spec_fun)
Spec_funs are mini-programs that run on mobs to do special things. The one you're probably most familiar is enabling casting on mobs.
These obviously spice up the area and the mobs, but overuse could drive your visitors up the wall and
make them not want to come back. The following are the specs and a brief description of what they do:
- spec_align_change - mob changes the player's alignment back and forth between -1000 and 1000.
- spec_adept - spells up players less than level 11 and heros
- spec_breath_x - mob does breath spells which can destroy packs - acid, fire, frost, gas, lightning or any are the options
- spec_buddha - mob runs cast_cleric and spec_breath_any
- spec_cast_cleric/judge/mage/undead - mob casts spells - see the builder guide for which spells
- spec_cast_elf/dru - mob spells self up when not fighting, heals self
when not fighting, casts offensive and healing spells when fighting
- spec_executioner - mob pushes killers out of the room
- spec_fido - mob eats corpses, leaving items on the ground
- spec_grue - mob destroys lights used or in inventory
- spec_guard - mob attacks players with killer flags and assists player/mob with higher align in a fight
- spec_hate_(race) - mob attacks player if they match the specified race
- spec_janitor - mob picks up items, you can use scavenger instead
- spec_kungfu_poison - mob poison by kungfu strike
- spec_morph - mob morphs into a copy of the last player to enter the room
- spec_poison - mob poisons by bite
- spec_thief - mob steals gold from player
- spec_love_evil/good/neutral - mob attacks players with alignment not matching specified alignment
- spec_hate_evil/good/neutral - mob attacks players with alignment matching specified alignment
Only one spec_fun may be run on a mob.
- Object Specials (speco_fun)
Speco_funs are the same thing as spec_funs but for objects. You can put multiple specos on an object though. Again, here is a list of
specos with a description.
- speco_airfill - refills scuba objects (only useable on no-take objects)
- speco_attach - jumps into a characters inventory and attempts to force the character to wear the object
- speco_burper - causes player to use the burp social
- speco_drain_hp - damages player in inventory and moreso when worn
- speco_drunker - makes character drunk if they wear it
- speco_recycler - only usable on containers - if player puts an object of type trash in the object, the trash is destroyed and gold is returned
- speco_social - causes player to do random socials if carrying object in inventory
- speco_personalized - only the one who kills the mob carrying the item will be able to use the item
- **speco_room_damage - deals 1-3 damage to each player in the room every few seconds
- **speco_teleportation - teleports all players in the room to another room
- **speco_demon_gatekeeper - teleports only demons in the room to another room
** You must have special permission to use these speco_funs in your area and you must ask to know how to use them properly. Do not expect
to be allowed to use these specos.
WRITING HELPS
- When to use helps and why you want them in your area
Helps are useful when you introduce something new to the game in the area - like if you're the first person to use a new command. Help really aren't very common and
you should probably talk to Kiri, Divebomb, Faustus, or Everybody if you think you need a help in your area.
III. RESETS - PLACING MOBS AND OBJECTS
- Comments on placing mobs in an area
Placing mobs is pretty easy. You already know where all your sentinels go, because they never move from that
spot. You probably figured that one out early. But what about all the wandering mobs? The ones that move around aimlessly that you don't care about where
they end up? There are two ways to tackle this.
- You can spread them out by hand all over the area so they repop spread out in the firstplace. If you
do it this way, remember not to clutter them up or it'll take a long time for them to wander all over the area.
- The other way you can do it is to create "mob chutes". Basically, you create a separate room with the same name
as a room in your area (this makes using the where command not look silly). Connect the six different exit directions
to various rooms in your area. Then put all your wandering mobs into that room. When they pop, they will randomly wander
in one of the six directions and end up scattered over your area. Feel free to use multiple mob chutes if you want more
than 6 locations for them to start walking to. This method does not allow for the initial balanced spreading out of the mobs,
but as a designer, it's much easier to write and it's effective enough at spreading the mobs around.
Either of the above methods will work equally as well. Which you use is completely up to you.
- Comments on placing objects in an area
There's nothing magical about placing objects in an area. You simply put the object on the mob or in the room you want it
in. Keep in mind that you can actually put no-take objects on a mob or put objects on a mob in the wrong slot. You could put a
necklace in a mob's hand instead of on their neck for instance. Also remember that objects in containers will always pop. If the
container is takeable then the player can get an item from it every few minutes or so.
Try not to get lazy with your objects. If you have mobs that are guards, give them some equipment to make them LOOK like guards.
You don't have to fully equip them, but give them some armor and a sword or something. A naked guard doesn't look very intimidating. You
don't even have to put bonuses on it. However, putting little things on your mobs makes the area more realistic and more alive.
IV. FINISHING UP
- The TOP 10 WAYS to prevent having your area sent back to you.
- Spellcheck! Check for typos!
- Grammar check! Actually read your areas or have someone else read them before you submit them. Check for mistakes like it's versus its and their versus there.
- Do not make overpowerful objects. Balance, Balance, Balance.
- Make sure your room descriptions and mob descriptions are at least 3 lines long unless you have a really good reason otherwise.
- Do not make wearable weapons. If you want the mob to wear a weapon instead of wield it, that's fine, but do not include
a type "weapon" that is wearable anywhere but in the wield/offhand slot.
- Make sure ALL descriptions (rooms, mobs, objects, extras) linewrap at 79 columns (characters) maximum. (The BR Builder does this for you)
- Capitalize words in room titles (except connecting words and prepositions like and, of, and the). Always capitalize the first word.
- Be careful with keywords. Try and use all the big words on a mob or object so that the person doesn't have to spend 20 minutes guessing.
- Keep your level range compact. No more than 15 levels for mortal areas, no more than 30 for hero areas.
- Spellcheck again!
- What is not covered in this guide?
- No coverage on shops at all. You will have to refer to the builder's guide for that.
- No dealings with the technical aspect of writing an area at all. The BR Builder makes doing that much easier.
- No commentary on spell weapons. Just be logical when you use them.
- No discussion of drink containers and fluid types.
- No mention of strength requirements and the effect weight has.
- No points about enterable objects or damaged armor.