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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Heathen72" data-source="post: 5126819" data-attributes="member: 7029">The title says it all: How do you try to engage of the senses of your players to add flavour to your games? Do you draw on the full range of the character's senses (taste smell, hearing, touch, sight) when describing your world, or do you just tell them what they see?* What sort of props do you use to or tricks to aid in that? To clarify, I am not referring to mood music so much, nor the "old maps made of parchment aged with coffee or tea". Don't get me wrong, I love a good handout, but the smell of those maps just makes me want to get a good espresso. No, I want those never-fail images, sounds, feelings and tastes that make a grab your players and puts them straight in the environment, and keeps them there.Here are 10 that my group used to get you started:<ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Cutting lemons to create the smell of a grove of fruit trees</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Turning on a gas heater (which made big "woosh!!" sound) to create the sound of a fireball billowing down a corridor towards the players</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Making use of an actual creaky door or floorboard to create a sense of foreboding</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Using different essential oils and incense to create the aroma of an middle eastern trade market.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Turning off the lights to convey the sense of vulnerability and isolation </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Giving the players some stout, or mead, because they said it was what their characters always drunk</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Making the players hold some ice for a minute to make them think about how incredibly cold their players were.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Using some mothballs to create the camphor-y smell of an old academic. "He is mostly bald except for some flyaway hair at the side of his liverspot mottled head and his favourite attire was an old elbow patched houndstooth jacket, but no matter what he wore he always smelled like this..."</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol"> Breaking an actual twig (or a pencil) to suggest a failed sneak attempt.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol"> Saying "click" when your players aren't paying attention...</li> </ol>* I mean the basic 5, mainly, not so much the other senses such as balance, position of limbs, hunger etc - apparently there are almost 20 distinct senses, and I want to keep the thread simple. That said, if you have starved your players for a day to create the sense of hunger for them, by all means, tell...</blockquote>

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