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Character Template Update

Wes

Founder & Admin
Staff Member
🌸 FM of Yamatai
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Here at Star Army, we're always looking for ways to enhance our roleplay. Every good roleplay post should try to include three things:
  1. It should include other characters, so that other players have something to react to.
  2. It should advance the story.
  3. It should be interesting and enjoyable to read.
On the third item, the best way is to try to paint a mental picture that helps your fellow players imagine the scene and your character's actions. But maybe picture isn't the right word, because it seems too visual, rather than including all the senses.

That's starting today, April 1st, all Star Army character profiles are now required to required to include the "smell" field which should attempt to vividly describe your character's scent in various states. For instance, maybe your character smells musky and earth with notes of motor oil and recently-killed moose. Maybe she smells like a Grilled Stuft Burrito(tm) from Taco Bell. Figure something out. Smell descriptions should be at least a paragraph.

Thanks for your cooperation and I can't wait to see your updated bios!

Update: April Fools!
 
What about people that were born without a sense of smell like me? There's no way to build a mental picture of something you have no frame of reference for... and now it's going to be required?!

For shame, Wes, that's extremely discriminatory! Not only is this kind of a slap in the face for people with handicaps like me, but it's also a very hypocritical double standard: you're including obligations on smell, but not touch?

I really think you ought to make this optional, rather than make it be a requirement - kind of like how measurements for female characters are optional too. And even that is a double standard: adding female proportion measurements is okay, but adding in measurements for male genitalia is not? How sexist is that?! I thought SARP was supposed to be a forward-thinking community that didn't display such sexism. We men should have equal rights to women, and be free to accurately describe how the dongs of our fictious characters is to provide an accurate mental picture too!
 
I didn't know you had anosmia, but if you had to write bios by player disabilities, wouldn't that mean we should also remove visual descriptions because some of our users (if not current, then future) are blind? Neither would make sense.

Measurements are for helping describe a general body shape and they're optional because we don't want to be sexist. If players don't care to use them, that's fine. It's entirely different than posting measurements of sex organs, which is not PG-13.

As for your suggestions, I agree and will also add a requirement for describing how a character feels to touch and also how they taste, so that no senses are left out. We should also describe their voices and any ambient noise they make, like burps, farts, and tummy rumblings. As players we owe it to one another to create that complete, realistic vision.
 
You shouldn't disregard how certain people are fully capable of overcoming their handicaps. In the case of blind people, if they want to use computers there is specialized equipment that allows them to perceive text. Heck, while I was training to become a tech, there was a blind person in our group and he managed (somewhat). So, I think it's okay to keep the site within reach of people with disabilities if they do use the measures at their disposal. Concern is one thing, pity another, and I'd rather display the former to the latter. You can bridge lack of vision. You unfortunately can't bridge lack of smell unless you decide that tasting the air is a viable second-option.

Are you going to impose that GMs describe how the air not only smells, but taste too?

As for sexism: female breasts are usually something that's concealed, just as much as men private parts, but when you describe them for 'fleshing out someone's figure' with measurements and bra-size, you're describing them! Well, the package between the legs for a man can also affect his figure! Why is it okay under that PG-13 clause of yours to describe the female parts and not the male parts? Isn't that still a double-standard, and even misoginy, to take that stance?

I stress keeping all of those extra description as optionals as well, simply because most science fiction books don't really go so far anyways. Descriptions are nice and all, and people will be glad for any suitably evocative picture, but you're kind of going too far.
 
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I have to agree with Fred, that how a character smells is far too subjective to make it a requirement. Especially to make a paragraph of all the situations and fragrances. I am even fine with 'asking' folks where appropriate to add that detail to their posts. For example if a female character likes to wear a particular perfume when she goes out dancing. The player could mention it, when the character enters the scene, but lets get real I am not going to try to say what every type of perfume smells like, for one I don't now what most of them smell like. Sure we can add some details like when a Nepleslian walks in puffing on his pipe the player can make a general comment about the smell.
 
As for sexism: female breasts are usually something that's concealed, just as much as men private parts, but when you describe them for 'fleshing out someone's figure' with measurements and bra-size, you're describing them! Well, the package between the legs for a man can also affect his figure! Why is it okay under that PG-13 clause of yours to describe the female parts and not the male parts? Isn't that still a double-standard, and even misoginy, to take that stance?
You've convinced me. I don't think describing male parts is a good idea, but I think we can work with a "bulge size" stat that indirectly addresses the issue in the same context like how bust size doesn't address breasts, but rather the circumference of the body at breast level. To lead by example, I'll start adding bulge size to my male characters soon.
 
I want to say this is an April Fool's joke.
I don't know why you're slamming a perfectly constructive topic as a prank. You should be well aware of the steps being taken by Wes of late to improve character creation and the bios resulting from it. I don't see why you felt compelled to be a blockhead about it when we're having an intelligent brainstorm.

SARP gets the wierdest things crop up. Heck, in my first year, I asked if nekovalyrjas had hymens... and that wasn't a prank either.

[...]I don't think describing male parts is a good idea, but I think we can work with a "bulge size" stat that indirectly addresses the issue in the same context like how bust size doesn't address breasts, but rather the circumference of the body at breast level. To lead by example, I'll start adding bulge size to my male characters soon.

Maybe we could do it like clothing stores for men underwear do it? Measurement for the waist, and then S, M, L, XL and XXL sizes?

Describing 'bulges' sound kind of crass. I figure it'd be better to use the more dispassionate and professional (as far as clothing industry is concerned) measurement for male underwear instead. Like so.

That, in fact, would set parity with female characters, add detail and preserve that PG-13 rating even.
 
SARP gets the wierdest things crop up. Heck, in my first year, I asked if nekovalyrjas had hymens... and that wasn't a prank either.

Now you have me wondering; do Nekovalkyrja have Hymens? And...does their regenerative ability cover everything?
 
That actually was the question. Answers seemed to go from "if that's what you want for your character" either way, while Wes finally came in and implied a 'no' in actuallity to either where the modern neko was concerned.
 
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Pah, was too busy dealing with the annoying bean counter at work today for several hours, totally forgot what day it was. Oh Well
 
So, are we settled on making most of the above discussed changes optional (smell, touch) rather than mandatory, as well as document measurements and size for men underwear as being an optional data just as relevantly as it is listed for female characters? :)
 
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They'll be so optional they won't even appear on the template! :p

But, nothing is stopping people from adding them to their wiki pages if they desire. In fact, it may be kind of cool.
 
Maybe we should bring the smell field back, lol.
 
Maybe....but...

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