Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="knightofround" data-source="post: 5239627" data-attributes="member: 27884">Yeah there's lots of good advise in here. For each description I would recommend mentioning at least 3 of the 5 Aristotlerian senses: sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste. And then focus upon 1 of those senses 3x more than others. When you get better at DMing you'll be able to toss out 3 sentences with 3 senses, watch which ones captivate the players the most, and then add an additional 2 sentences in the direction the players want.The toughest one to handle is taste, because its not something we normally focus on unless we are eating and drinking. If you make an active effort in your everyday life you will come to some surprising realizations...but its still hard to do. So often I try to mix up the "taste" sense with the "six sense". Like a sense of impending doom, a sense of feeling at home, or a sense of fear...stuff like that. It's best used as a contrast to other senses. For example: you might enter a beautiful, warm, and inviting ballroom full of pleasant nobles. A few of them catch your eye and motion you to come towards them. However, you have this nagging feeling that something is not right here. (And then at the end of the ball, its participants turn into vampires)The sixth sense is often best used when it turns out to be false. Imagine PCs listening to something like the above brief description...they are on their toes the entire encounter waiting for something terrible to happen...and then at the end, the nobles graciously thank the party for their deeds, and provide them with wealth and fame. As it turns out, following the rumors of the party's accomplishments has become quite the fashion. And thus, the courtiers become a new benefactor for the PCs. (While the fashion lasts, anyway) Or perhaps hidden amongst them is the BBEG, who wouldn't dare risk exposing himself amongst so many people...and he's trying to bribe the PCs away with promises of estates so they don't cause any more damage to their plans. Or perhaps some of them think to wield the PCs as a tools for political intrigue.As you can see, learning how to describe things well can assist in coming up with brilliant plot twists should the PCs decide to do something unexpected.</blockquote>

Verification