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Message: <blockquote data-quote="maruahm" data-source="post: 7515102" data-attributes="member: 6974151">I dislike infodumps in general. I believe roleplaying, given its format, benefits from fast, punchy descriptions and backgrounds. Take Maze of the Blue Medusa as a shining example of this.That's the background. Now let's go to a in-game description.No diatribes on the painter, the painting's history, or even its appearance, which most writers would consider very important to mention. What do Sabbath and Stuart, the writers of the module, do in four sentences?<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Describe False Chanterelle's art history.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Describe its relationship to the player.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Evoke feelings in the reader or listener to reflect what the painting's (unknown) subject portrays.</li> </ul>Of course, your approach does not need to be so circuitous. A plausible rendition of this I might write would be, "The painting is old and pricey, but only slightly venerated. Its landscape is an abstract room in deep shades of red and blue. A nude form is chained. There are shadows everywhere, and the longest shadow is in the doorway."Now this is an important painting in the module. So maybe one should waste a paragraph on it? I don't think so. One should waste exactly as many words on it as the players need to know about it. As with all writing, the craft is in knowing what to include and what to exclude.</blockquote>