This guide covers some of the possible ways to write building descriptions. Keep in mind, this is a guide and not the end all and be all. You can follow a completely different path and still make a good description, this is just to help with ideas.
It is important when you are building to consider what you want the building to do and what you can do to make it do what you want it to. Sometimes this is pretty self evident -- a watch tower for example needs a view. How could you do this? The idea is to get a very general idea of what you want the building to look like before you start getting to the more minute details.
A plain wooden watch tower built on a hill top could work, or maybe it could be a box built onto the side of a cliff? What if rather than a tower, it is a large pyramid with a flat top that people can look out over the landscape? All three of these examples can be a good basis for your watch tower and many more are possible. Remember, not all structures need to use the local landscape to achieve their goal, but it can be a helpful tool.
It is important to note, you can have many themes to a building. The idea behind a theme is just what random touches you want to add to the structure.
So, say you were doing the wooden watch tower in section one. How do you choose how you want to theme this tower? Say your town is supposed to be hardy folk, who are warlike and barbaric with low quality wood. You could think about how that would affect the structure. Maybe have a theme of low quality to your work, things like splinters could be added. Maybe note that the structure is leaning slightly and is uneven? But you don't want it to just be low quality, maybe you want it to inspire fear or inspiration to your clan. Having a banner hanging from it or making it more imposing in the description can help to achieve this.
You don't need to have the exact details at this stage. Just think of the theme you want for the building or room, and you will find it easier to come up with random ways to add this.
Now you can start writing your building, but where do you start?
I personally go with you entering the room. Buildings in Marosia follow a linear pattern, so the first time someone ever enters a room they always come from the same direction as everyone else. So describe that as your entrance. Now the description for entrances can either be for entering the building or entering a room if you are going from one room to the next.
For entering buildings, think about the exterior of your structure and where you built it. What does the outside of your building look like? Is it painted? Is it built into the wall of a cliff? Is there a path leading to it, or maybe you have to climb to reach it. Is the door interesting? Is there any sign saying what this building is? Also, do not forget what the building is made out of and local resources. The building has to mostly be made out of the material you used in construction but some use of other local resources in buildings is ok.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Do not reference anything temporary when you are doing this step. Maybe you can say it is next to another building or reference the natural landmarks, but do not give too much detail. Keep in mind these buildings may stand generations after your character dies and nothing is more jarring than talking about how your building overlooks bustling streets in a ghost town or stands next to a town hall that was destroyed years ago.
Continuing our previous example, here is something I might write:
Now you can see how the themes we decided earlier started to come into play. The massive logs suggest a strong people but given the lack of actual processing perhaps not great crafters. Similarly, the ladders creaking further reinforces this. The second theme of strength is further represented by big words like long and massive along with pride by showing the banners.
For going from room to room, you usually have a lot less to go on for entering. Still, consider how you get from the room. Are they next to each other? Is there a door in between? What about stairs? Is there anything in particular you immediately notice when you enter the room?
Don’t forget that you can organize rooms into semi categories! Building a wing to house multiple rooms in an inn is one example. Stairwells can lead to separate floors, or some rooms may house an intermediate means to reach other parts of your building. Maybe the only way into the cellar is through the kitchen!
This is the meat of your building and can be quite large, depending on the building. It is important to not to be too dense or confusing, as people may skim over this. If there is something particularly important about the building, try to put it early in the body and not right in the center.
Some things to consider:
To continue with the watchtower example from earlier here is something I might write:
Now, in this example you can see further evidence of the builders not being the best, further reinforcing the theme. A similar picture as earlier is etched into the walls. If you wanted to you might want to switch it up, maybe have a picture of someone fighting etched into the wall or have the room be painted in the three banner colors mentioned earlier. Finally, we talk about the thing the room actually does. Notice that we mention the town, but we don’t give any details at all about it. This is important because the town isn’t static; you might reference a building that gets changed massively over the years or destroyed. By avoiding the mention of anything specific you stop the description from potentially conflicting with the mechanics.
Not often required, this is maybe a sentence or two to help you know how the room transitions to the entry of the next room. You might mention the stairs to and from the room, or a ladder in the back of the room. It can be placed in the body with no real consequences, though if it is particularly notable splitting it off can make it easier for people skimming to know about it. It is not overly important but can open RP potential that can be missed if someone doesn’t know how they got to the next room without going there.
If you ever need to bring a building/room down for your work, you’ll need a battering ram! The ram can’t be carried, but it is draggable. Once you have the machine built, you should see a button to destroy any buildings or rooms in the area list. Once the destruction project is started, it will use your Engineering skill and the quality of the ram to determine your hourly effort.
The effort required to break a building down with a ram is equal to the effort it took to build it. However, in the case of rooms, it takes half the required construction effort it took to build. All building materials will fall to the ground once the room or building is destroyed. Be aware of building weight limits for interior room destruction, since the materials will drop within the building.
Anyone inside a building will fall out upon its destruction in the subdued state.
In this diagram, an inn is used as a model to show the pathways and “tree” of how buildings work. Dotted arrows indicate what rooms you can leave towards and solid ones show ones you can enter.
Large Red X’s are used to show that it is impossible to connect to any pre-built room (this doesn’t mean that you can’t list a room that you are going to build later, i.e the cellar of the kitchen).
Authors: Hamste#5674 and scvideoking#6679