Ten Commandments of Character Descriptions
1. Thou shalt not force actions or thoughts upon the viewer.
If at any point you make the assumption that a character is going to do something or going to think something, such as stare at a certain part of our anatomy, drool, vomit, wave, cower, or whatever, you're doing something wrong. Not all characters behave or react in the same manner, or they may not be capable of reacting at all.
2. Thou shalt not put your own actions in a description.
Similar to number one, your character may not act the same way. Giving a coy wink to someone your character finds hideous is fairly nonsensical. On that note, your character may be distracted or not capable of giving actions at all.
3. Thou shalt not call thyself beautiful.
...or handsome, pretty, cute, ugly, or anything else of that nature. What is beautiful to one person is not beautiful to another, especially in the world that is Azeroth (case in point, the Orcs in WC3 called quillboar prettier than humans!) If you want your character to be attractive, describe traits that you find attractive in a person. The best descriptions can make a person sound beautiful without ever using the word.
4. Thou shalt not describe anything about your character's body as "angelic."
...or demonic or something equally nonsensical. As angels are something your average person likely has never seen, this is fairly silly to use as a description of a physical quality. Similarly, this bears the exact same problem described in #3: what might be "angelic" to one person would not be to another.
5. Thou shalt not recreate Mary Sue.
If you do not know what a Mary Sue is, I suggest you look it up, as you may be a culprit. Mary Sues are, in brief, characters made purely for wish fulfillment. While this is often done in RP and writing situations, it can also be done in descriptions. As an example, creating someone with what is described as flawless grace, unearthly beauty, young age with extraordinary abilities is most likely a Mary Sue. The male version also exists, someone as handsome save for a scar, strong with perfected fighting abilities and lightning reflexes, usually in black leather or something equally "cool." Such characters are not only idealized to an extreme, but are also as a result wholly unbelievable.
6. Thou shalt not describe a character not fitting with the Warcraft universe.
This includes, but isn't limited to, characters that are half-dragon, half-demon, god-children, or something of that nature. As these characters cannot even exist in WoW, there's no sense in describing them now is there?
7. Thou shalt consider thy race and class in your description.
Certain races favor certain builds. Certain classes favor certain builds. If you're an Orc, you're going to at least be muscular whether you like it or not. If you're a Blood Elf, you're not a body-builder as much as you might wish you were. Warriors tend to be more muscular than other classes, cloth casters tend to be weaker. Also, don't go outside of the normal skin/eye/hair colors that your race allows.
8. Thou shalt not describe clothing in your description.
Clothing is what equipment is for. On top of this, there may be times where your character is stripped, in a different outfit, or whatever. You can, however, describe things that are likely always there or aren't visible on the character, such as jewelry or tattoos.
9. Thou shalt not describe personality or background in a description.
That is what character profiles are for. Descriptions are, in general, things used to convey what a character would know ICly.
10. Thou shalt proofread thy work.
...as there is nothing worse than a typo everyone is going to see. Also, people do sometimes miss typos in their description. If you spot one, let the person know so he/she can fix it.
This was written as some people are using FlagRSP...and already I'm noticing some people doing strange things with it. :p
- Grakor
