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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Wild Gazebo" data-source="post: 6669899" data-attributes="member: 24413">I've found the older I get the less I rely upon the itemization of an encounter.  I remember spending an exhaustive amount of time differentiating my encounters in terms of level of danger, type of scenery, placement of obstacles and the length of time it will require.  Now-a-days (while this might be sheer laziness) I truly focus on emotion, hazard and the senses...emotion being the strongest device.  This has included taking away (at times) encounter maps and miniatures.  So, I will introduce the scene through at least two senses (quite often three or four).  I don't itemize the encounter but use generalizations and comparisons and I attach emotional descriptors as much as possible.  'You trudge through the exasperatingly wet jungle kicking up sickeningly sweet fumes as you wrestle against the cloying grasps of the vegetation.'This heavy-handed vagueness, I feel, has opened up the game-play a little more.  It gives me a chance to say 'yes' more.  It allows the players to begin to take ownership of the location by forcing them to ask questions...especially when tactics start coming into play.  Truly, it allows me to change my mind about how 'I' interpret the location if a player's question sounds like a really good potential idea.  When it comes to introducing important tactical decisions I remain vague but intimate a difficulty through opinion and feeling (and of course get more specific as players ask).  I would say things like 'a staggeringly steep cliff' or 'a stout looking stump' or 'a lucky bow-shot away' or 'a dangerous looking escarpment.' This tends not to confine players within an area dealing with a danger within a border; but, remains an encounter of discovery for players to develop, utilize, and move on.  It seems to eliminate the boundaries I used to create so that I wound feel prepared and able to offer my players an interesting encounter to puzzle through.  Best of all, I've greatly diminished the amount of times I say 'no' to players requests and inquiries.  While this may seem a trifle, I've found that even minor disappointment contributes to the flow of most games (not to be confused with difficulties and failures).   I guess I just realized most of the people I have played with simply don't need the extra info all up front.  Now that I think about it, even with the extra questions and answers, my encounters seems to move a lot quicker than they used to as well.  There seems to be less examining and then shopping for the best tactic in bouts of indecision now-a-days.</blockquote>

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