New-Coder 101:
 
You may know some of this stuff already, and if so, bear with me:
 
Describing a Room:
Rooms are the bread and butter of the mud, providing players an environment
in which to explore, fight, cooperate, and communicate.  In general, the
most important feature of a room is the description of both the room and
the items within that room.  The idea is to paint a vivid picture of where
you might be, and if possible, pull the person entering that room into
the reality you have visualized.  Before writing descriptions, spend some
time thinking of what that room would look like if it really existed.  Create
it in your mind and wander through it - you'll be surprised at the things
you find and the creativity that it fosters.  Take for example the following:
 
You stand on a road.  It goes north and east here.
 
This does NOTHING to add to the environment, conjuring no picture up inside
anyone's head because there is a lack of detail to do so.  Now, examine the
following:
 
The deep, muddy wagon tracks that define the road make a turn from the 
evergreen forest to your north, towards the rising cliffside east of here.
You can hear the sounds of seagulls now and the smell of salt water,
atomized as it crashes against the rocks below the cliffs.  There is a 
sense of peace about this area.
 
In general, the more specific the detail, the more likely the room will be
loaded into someone's mind.  A rock has thousands of possibilities, but
a sparkling, granite boulder, cracked and weathered by the waves, 
encrusted with barnacles clinging to its side evokes specific imagery.  The
other idea is to stimulate many senses in the descriptions.  Add motion
to wind, waves, clouds, etc, add sounds and smells, give tactile 
sensations, emotions - all these things can make a player put his/her
character into that environment and induce better role playing.  A neat
trick with some descriptions.  Assume there is an add_item called 'sand'
Most coders would give the following if you were to 'look sand':
 
   The sand is dark grey and hard packed.
 
instead, add some actions, even though it is technically a look:
 
   You stoop down and grab a handful of sand, letting it sift away through
   your fingers as you stand again.  It is dark grey and very fine, leaving
   bits of sparkle on your skin as it returns to this dry area of the beach,
   above the tide line.
 
You don't have to write thousands of pages for one room, just make sure that
you hit upon the things that are important to that area and integrate it
with the rooms around it.  As a general rule, any object you make reference
to in either a set_long, a set_dark_long, or an add_item, you should have
a corresponding add_item to look at.  In the above description, a player
may try to look sparkle, look beach, or look tide line.  You should either
have those commands return the same description as the sand did, or
address them individually.
 
