Disguise and @desc
Help a chummer out

Would be good if there were a few 'required' @describe descriptors, e.g. height, age.

They seem pretty basic things I should be able to tell at a glance, even if it's just an approximation: 'He's a tanned male in his mid twenties, standing about 3'3" and sporting a magnificent handle ar moustache' would keep me happy!

Suck it

And I get it Vera, I agree with you and got what you meant by that example. Non descript descriptions that give out absolutely nothing don't make sense.

Sure, it's not the much where it comes to sharing with others but, to be honest, sharing descriptions via prose shouldn't be that useful anyways. It's why law enforcement IRL loves a photo or video. Guy of X height and X build and brown hair and blue eyes and pale skin and big node and boney fingers just doesn't do much.

The real wealth to be gained here is that you WILL know them if you see them again. And if you've seen them before then see them in a slipped disguise you know who that disguised person is.

If all this is about is giving someone who say another person in a slipped disguise more info they can pass on to others via prose, I am not really all that interested. I personally feel that people are way to generous when doing this. Acting like that collection of descriptors mean a whole lot more that makes sense in my opinion. Get a picture!

When a hoodie slips, assuming no other layers of disguise. And full clothing coverage? Then what has that failed roll, potentially baited by myself accomplished? Other than giving me a meta name? You can know him when you see him. Sure... Can you see how even that doesn't make sense? Because what happens when that person then goes and puts contacts in, changes their hair style, and shifts their posture, puts some make up on etc. And then has that disguise break again? Can I still recognize them without meta? I mean Johnny Solo coulda just turned into Joynny Femboy, and then had that disguise break, everything about him could be different except the frame, and the race.

What detail do we assume has come from the failed roll in an instance where a hood specifically has failed? And what consequence does it have? if I don't know someone, they beat me to shit, and their hood slips, and I can't tell me allies anything that they looked like? A name? Or anything beyond, "I dunno, pretty skinny. Male... Dirty as fuck."

I've literally seen people walking around with descs like, "Just a plain face in the crowd." While yeah I agree that having it reveal a lot of identity is counter to the stated intent of disguises. If your hood drops, you dun failed at the disguise. And if you are canny, you can get away, and change your shotdesc up completely rendering the whole OH You get a shortdesc point moot as well... Hell I know of people who change their shortdesc whenever they fucking wear a hood. From say, Dyke, to Bitch, to Tomboy, Madam, etc. Dirty Bitch, could be Petite Tomboy the next time she emerges from her house.

This is the levels of meta you get with disguise as it is currently. Yes there are people who use it appropriately. I'm not knocking them. There are others, who use the fact that hoods are essential identity glue as a weapon that doesn't make sense.

My solution.

If the hoodie, ski-mask or poncho fails, full head exposed barring additional layers. You failed your check, and that means your hood is gone. It fell, you positioned it wrong, something has occurred that has removed your disguise from at least your face, ears and hair.

Want to disguise your face, ears, and hair better? Get better at disguise, use a wig, contacts, etc, things which are expensive and fulfill the purpose of actually disguising your features. We have those options now, and hoods being a silver bullet isn't needed anymore.

I agree that the guidelines are gray when they could be more specific.

@describe has not been optional for a long time and that was an oversight in the help file. I've updated that, and cleaned the helpfile up and given more clear direction on what to use your @description for.

I don't want to do automated or required height/build because then people will begin to use that to OOCly identify people who are disguised since there are only going to be a limited number of thinly built 5'5 characters in the game.

I think the abuse would come in if a person changes their @desc in anticipation of their Disguise potentially slipping. eg they have @desc A when they are Disguised and @desc B when they are not.