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Message: <blockquote data-quote="clearstream" data-source="post: 8199579" data-attributes="member: 71699">I think it goes further than that. The crucial context is what happens across the narrative, not delivered as a series of potted ability checks. It doesn't matter, for example, if the only immediate cost of failing a history check is lack of the knowledge it might have delivered, if that check is meaningful to your players within your contextual arc.One can also draw on the power of symbolism, and player imagination. I can say - make an athletics check to climb this tower wall - and that really can be enough for my players. They have an internal picture of the wall. They understand that for whatever reason it is difficult to climb. Any differences in what is envisioned are only salient if they will impact play. Almost all differences won't. I believe a DM - especially a new DM - should start simple: light-touch narration, not heavy-handed. I have seen groups turned off a campaign by a DM overindulging their passion for narration... players literally falling asleep at the table as their DM layered detail upon detail.Also - as a point of style - avoid adjectives that tell players what they should be feeling. Are the beetles disconcerting? I don't know? Do you feel disconcerted by them? Yes? Then fine, they are disconcerting.</blockquote>