Some details on how to handle dialogue start

I'll post her what I've written in reply to Thuja's first part of the Herbwoman dialogue, hope this helps others a bit as well to decide where to put what text:

"A few notes on the herb woman dialogue... Please note that in the game the introduction to the non-playing characters (what you put into the keyword START) will be a bit different:

The START keyword you did looks like this at the moment:

"You see a small clearing that has been carved out of the pines here. Grasses, wild flowers, and a profusion of unfamiliar plants, many with pungent aromas and odd shapes, grow in a colorful mass directly in front of and on both sides of a tiny cottage. The cottage seems to have grown out of the ground, like the plants around it and is covered with vines and mosses. You see creepers springing directly from the thatched roof and gourds hanging by the door, still attached to their vines. Several sickles of various sizes are stuck into a chopping block by the front step. Flat stones have been laid as a pathway from the door down to a rickety old footbridge that spans the river. Next to this bridge you see a tiny boat tied securely against the current, the water lapping at its yellowed white-painted sides.

You step up to a rough planked door that is slightly ajar. A pleasant musical humming is coming from somewhere inside the cottage along with a peculiar grinding sound. When you knock on the doorsill the humming and grinding stops and muffled sounds of someone moving things around can be heard. Presently the door swings opens and a small white-haired old woman stands before you with a crooked smile on her face.

She is wearing a loose gray home spun dress with an off white apron with many stains of varying sizes and colors. Her skin is dusky with many wrinkles showing her years. Her white hair is pulled back from her face in a loose braid to the side. She has green eyes that still seem to sparkle despite her obvious age."

a) The description of the surroundings (garden etc.) will be put into the room description. If you're standing in front of the herb woman's house you will read what you wrote in the first part of your START keyword. Perhaps you can as well interact with an object there. Suggestion: How about doing these room descriptions seperately and post it in the forum, e.g. the description for the room in front of the herb woman's house, and the room in the house (or 2 rooms in case there are more rooms). Then you simply place the herb woman in the first room of the house. - Please post at the Forum if you do so, otherwise Judy may do these rooms, as it was assigned to her to do the southwestern rooms, but it would be better if you do them as they are related to the herb woman (I've included the room template therefore in this mail, see a more detailed instruction on what to write where here here).

b) Note as well that if the player stands in front of the house and then goes north, then he enters the house. Upon entering the house we can of course have a one-time text which is displayed when the player enters for the first time (you'd put that into the Introduction part of the template). But the player actually enters. So I suggest a rewrite in this direction:

The Introduction part of the herb woman's first house rooms should contain this:

"You step up to a rough planked door that is slightly ajar. A pleasant musical humming is coming from somewhere inside the cottage along with a peculiar grinding sound. When you knock on the doorsill the humming and grinding stops and muffled sounds of someone moving things around can be heard. Presently the door swings opens and a small white-haired old woman stands before you with a crooked smile on her face.

(Then add some text here that she leads you in, but you don't talk to her yet, the dialogue hasn't started. That's all in the room introduction part.)"

When you look at the woman (not before) you'll get this - note that the description needs to be neutral, the name of the character is not allowed to be mentioned:

"The white haired old woman is wearing a loose gray home spun dress with an off white apron with many stains of varying sizes and colors. Her skin is dusky with many wrinkles showing her years. The white hair is pulled back from her face in a loose braid to the side. She has green eyes that still seem to sparkle despite her obvious age."

Then, as you start to talk with the woman, you only put in a few sentences at the START keyword like

"As you approach, the woman looks up at you questioningly from her work: "What is it you want, stranger?", she asks."

etc."

Hope this clarifies some things... If you still have questions, just ask...

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