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Want to make custom Myriad item descriptions?
🕑 Added 2021-07-08 20:11:45 +0000 UTCHey patrons! Want to help contribute a little something to The Myriad?
You can respond to this post with a comment of a specific type of random item description to be put in the game! Temporarily I will also be adding a channel to the discord where you may post descriptions or links to pastebins if you go crazy.
Let me explain how it works:
First you will select a category of item or specific description type. Make it clear which one your description is for! Each description for a category begins in a specific way as shown below. If it is a full sentence, the sentence is up to you entirely. If it has a ... that is where you come in. If it is in quotes it is merely an example and does not need to start specifically that way.
Blade: Full sentence
Hilt: Full sentence after Blade description, "It has a grip/hilt/crossguard..."
Polearm (pole): Full sentence after Blade, "It has a long wooden..."
Mace (metal): Full sentence
Club (wood): Full sentence
Shield: Full Sentence
Thurible: Full Sentence
Bow: A Lonbow... "which has, that has, that comes with..."
Quiver: Full sentence after Bow. "It comes with a quiver that..."
Gem: Full sentence describing a single gemstone
Clothing: An outfit....
Medium Armor: An outfit...
Heavy Armor: An outfit...
Trinket: Full Sentence that may include the specific type of item. It can be a ring, pocket watch, amulet, or dead bird. You can really go wild with this one, but I prefer that these still remain grounded and only subtly weird rather than glowing god items. These are meant to be found as 'magic' items you must attune to that provide singular benefits.
One thing you will never need to describe is the type of item. For example, if you are describing a Shield, you never need to say it is a Tower Shield. A shield is never a Tower Shield or Buckler. The description must be capable of uniformly describing either of those possibilities. Swords and daggers are described by the Blade and the Hilt combined so they remain very flexible as well. A 'long' blade will automatically mean something different in the context of a dagger or a greatsword to a reader.
This means a business suit or a maid's outfit (Clothing) could be described by the same phrase. It is okay if these things end up weird, but still possible; like a zippered leather nurse outfit with 5 front pockets.
Individual descriptions should never exceed 1 sentence and extremely long run on sentences should be avoided.
I'll be keeping it very simple with most of the examples to not overwhelm the point being made.
After you have chosen a category, here are some tricks you can use within the description to add a ton of variation. Here is an example of how a description could look:
The blade is [r:p1("short,stubby,small")], but [r:p1("dense,thick,girthy")] and [r:p1("strong,reliable,dependable")] [r:p1("to make up for it,to compensate")].
This could become:
- The blade is stubby, but dense and strong to make up for it.
- The blade is short, but girthy and dependable to compensate.
- Or any other combination of the word choices!
p1 stands for Pick One! The [r:p1("one,two,or many words")] function selects one word or phrase between commas, allowing the description to be variable and ensuring descriptions stay fresh and unique. These can be entire sentences to drastically change the direction the description was going in or a single descriptive adjective. There is no limit to the amount of choices within a Pick One command.
Here are some other commands you can use within the description:
[r:mA()] An adjective that varies based on the quality tier of the item. The tier of the item has already been rolled and decided so that the description can take advantage of it.
This item is [r:mA()].
- This item is ugly.
- This item is fine.
- This item is exceptional.
[r:t1("Negative,Tier 0,Tier 1,Tier 2,Tier 3,Tier 4,Tier 5+")] is just like p1, but will output the phrase or word based on the quality of the item as described in the command. Negative is an absolutely awful item. Tier 4 is amazing, but Tier 5 is above and beyond that. This is very important when describing severely damaged or profoundly expensive items. A player will infer that a blade bedazzled with glowing gems is worth a lot of money even if they roll a 0 Tier item and we'd like to avoid that. Unlike p1 allowing for infinite choices, this command requires exactly the examples shown. (unless you get to the advanced section and add p1 commands inside of this command)
The item is made of [r:t1("molded wood,wood,rusted iron,iron,silver,gold,diamonds")]
- Lowest Quality: The item is made of molded wood
- Highest Quality: The item is made of diamonds
[r:mTL('Color')] grabs a word from an already existing weighted table of different colors. This is so that you do not need p1() to constantly write gigantic lists of very common variable words. Keep in mind that the 'Color' is case sensitive and not all of these tables were made before I knew that :P
Useful mT Tables: Color, food, gem (amethyst sapphire etc), Material (metal types,wood,stone), RareMaterial (better metals), Mammal, Fish, Fabric (wool silk), Liquid (blood water), stone, noun (100s of options), Foe2 (mythical creatures), bug, Location (myriad specific cities and places)
[r:mTL('wood','stone')] This command can handle selecting between up to 2 different tables. Always use single quotes for this command to avoid issues.
The item is made of [r:mTL('wood','stone')].
- The item is made of oak.
- The item is made of marble.
- The item is made of granite.
[r:mMat()] decides material type based on item quality using those lists. You do not need to edit the command. Very low and very high qualities will also provide an adjective, so one is not needed before this.
The armor was made of [r:mMat()].
- Lowest Quality: The armor was made of molded oak wood.
- Mid Quality: The armor was made of copper.
- Highest Quality: The armor was made of flaming sapphire.
Advanced: If this confuses you, just skip it.
The p1() selection may include any of these other options. p1 is within quotes, so you must exit the quotes in order to use the command. It will look like this:
[r:p1("one,two,"+mTL('color')+",three")]
This example has an equal chance to select 'one' as it does 'yellow', a randomly selected color.
You no longer need the [r:] container and need to use +'s to add it between quotes. Commands placed in here need to be single quoted to not cause issue.
Here is an example where a p1() is inside of another p1() to drastically change outcomes. Note that you will need to include a blank space before and after quotes here to give the additional words within the second p1 space in the sentence.
The hilt is [r:p1("strangely,weirdly,oddly,bizarrely,peculiarly")] [r:p1("flexible,stretchy,slippery,shaped,much "+p1('longer,shorter,wider')+" than needed for normal hands,itchy")].
- The hilt is oddly itchy.
- The hilt is oddly much longer than needed for normal hands.
- The hilt is oddly much shorter than needed for normal hands.
Nice!
I'd love to see a patron description appear on a random item in a streamed game. The examples are a lot more simplistic than the infinite combination of descriptions you can create with these tools. Enjoy!
Comments
Invinci-Cool
Damn, wish I had originality to make one
I know what I'm doing tonight
