Scroll Descriptions & Timelines

[CottagecoreKobold]

So, I'm figuring this won't be a priority anytime soon, but I thought I'd share the ideas just to get people's thoughts about them.

 

First, I think it would be quite nice to be able to write a short introduction to one's scroll - not anything long; perhaps 200-300 characters or so, the limit given to description feedback. It could be moderated the same way dragon descriptions are. This would be tremendously useful in explaining the "theme" of a given scroll, and might actually help shorten the dragon descriptions themselves -for instance, in my case, saving me the trouble of repeatedly recapping, "so they're in a valley, and here are the four factions".

 

I realize this would only increase the mountainous backlog for descriptions, of course, which is a big part of why such a change would need to be coupled with whatever changes they're eventually planning for the description review system. I don't think it would increase the workload too much, at least, since it would only be one description per scroll and the descriptions would be a lot shorter. Maybe there could even be a limit on how regularly the scroll description could be edited. Users could enable or disable being able to see scroll descriptions.

 

I actually enjoy the constraints of "trying to worldbuild simply through each dragon's POV", since I like nonlinear storytelling, so this description would need to be kept short, but I think it could make scrolls a lot easier to understand and more fun to browse.

 

The second idea is a little more involved, and definitely not happening anytime soon, but I think it's Neat and wanted to share it. Basically, updating dragon descriptions ("good news! the star-crossed lovers got together after all!") creates a lot of needless backlog, so I figure, why not discourage it by offering a single place for "updates" on the scroll? Like, a timeline?

 

My thinking is that you'd be allowed to add a new update, say, once every season, and it would date itself automatically within that season. This could be a chance for users to advance little "storylines". It would be strictly opt-in to view, like the Pending Descriptions, and because viewers would have to actually click a link on the scroll to view it, it might not need to be moderated as intensely, since a lore-breaking timeline wouldn't be vandalizing a normal dragon info page and creating confusion. It would still be reportable, of course.

 

I feel like this could really enhance the feeling that time is passing, and could help build on the storytelling aspect of Dragcave that some of us enjoy!

 

Overall, I think these two additions, if added alongside the more robust description review system that will hopefully one day be released, would serve as wonderful companions to the dragon descriptions, and make it easier and more fun to browse user scrolls and read the stories they've told.

 

Thoughts?

[HeatherMarie]

The scroll descriptions idea has been suggested before, I do think it'd be a pretty neat little addition. Thread of interest:

 

 

The 'timeline' idea is really interesting, I'm not sure I've ever seen that suggested before. I'm unsure what percentage of players actually have that sort of in-depth continuing lore for their scrolls, but it could be fun, even if someone didn't want to use the feature itself it could be fun to look at other people's.

[CottagecoreKobold]

Ooh, thanks! I did search "scroll description", and that thread didn't turn up, so I guess I'm not too good with the search function.

 

I do think it's worth considering that more people might want to do things like continuing lore if the tools were on the site to do so, too! I know I wouldn't have bothered to come up with stories for my dragons if the Description option didn't exist.