Describe for me a 10 X 10 room

[Gold Roger]

[Play spooky Music]

The engraved door opens into a cold small room that is put into an eerie blue light by it's blue painting and a magical flame opposite to the door. The walls are painted with grizzly scenes of elves cutting down humen. The room is devoid of furnishing, but at it's center there is a well preserved wooden latch, simmilar to a coffins top in form and look. It's painted blue and engraved with elven runes. Beneath it the swapping of water can be heard.

 

[ThirdWizard]

So as not to be influenced by others' descriptions, I'll read the thread after I post and hopefully find it hasn't changed subjects several times.

<roll spot checks>

The door creaks as <insert character name> pushes it open. In the center of the small room you see a glowing orb, shedding a dark red light casting the room's contents into a shade of red, barely illuminating the room. Behind it, <those who made spot checks> think they see a shadow cast behind a large altar made of stone near the back wall, around ten feet away. The walls are carved with reliefs of fiends fighting amongst themselves. The light of the orb pulsates once, growing bright for only a brief second.

What do you do?

 

[ThirdWizard]

Interesting that several DMs start with the PCs in the room. If I were to start with "You walk into the room" or similar I would be met with simultaneous "No we don't!"s, spoken very emphatically.

Also, I tend to start a description of the most prominent thing, move onto other things, and then move back to a prominent thing. The first thing the PCs would notice is the first thing I'll describe. The problem is that its distracting, so I have to 1) keep my descriptions short and 2) move to something equally as important as the final part of my description. That keeps their attention and makes sure that by the end, I still have it.

So, I began my description with them looking into the room and seeing the glowing orb, and ended the description with the same glowing orb. In the middle I described a few things and pointed out that there might be something hiding in the room. I avoid descriptions of insignificant details because while it makes the situation more realistic, I don't think it adds much fun or interest to the game, except when I'm going for that gritty realism (usually saved for very important encounters, or the like).

Oh yeah, and I always end with a "What do you do?" to bring the players (as opposed to PCs) into the action and to make sure they know that the description is over. They try not to interupt unless its important.

 

[Hypersmurf]

It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.

Best yet

You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike...

-Hyp.

 

[The_Magician]

Arched, bronze, double doors open slowly and automatically as you approach them, producing a creaking sound from its rusty hinges and a thick cloud of dust. On the other side is a diamond shaped room. Dusty, large, diamond shaped, white marble stones cover the floor. All the walls are as white and dusty as the floor - as is the ceilling - with the exception of one, which is immaculately clean, and they all measure ten feet across. An old looking, wooden arm chair faces the clean wall. Hanging on the clean wall is the painting of a sad, lovely woman, sitting on a beautiful armed chair. She seems to be staring at the empty chair facing the wall.

Although there are no windows or other doors in this room, a soft breeze blows out the bronze doors and carry with it a faint whisper:

"Come... please, talk to me."

 

[mythusmage]

You get the sagging door open, its bottom edge scraping on the floor. The room inside is dimly lit by the torches, the walls appearing red from the ruddish light.

The room itself is about 11 or 12 feet on each side, with a ceiling higher than a tall man can reach. The walls themselves appear to be lined with wooden planks. From behind those planks comes the smell of stone and water. There is the occasional mottled patch on the lumber. Some of those patches might be moving.

The floor is heavy with dust. Some of that dust disturbed by the air you've let into the room. Some of that dust might be limning a form.

The room is otherwise empty.

 

[jgbrowning]

"You enter a 10 by 10 room. There's a door on the opposite wall."

Save or die!



joe b.

 

[Simplicity]

You've entered a square, stone room. There's nothing on the walls, and no sound eminates from the corners. A man sits in the middle of the room with no expression on his face. He carries a lyre, which he is not strumming. You can tell he isn't a fishmonger because he smells like perfume.

Carl Smith, eat your heart out.

 

[Silveras]

You stand at the edge of a space that FEELS old. About as wide and deep as two men are tall, the chamber's dusty air tickles your throat. The walls, at least what you can see in the flickering light of your torches, are stained with various growths... lichens, or molds, or something even less healthy paint the stone in shades of green and brown. The air is cool, and somewhat moist. Splinters of wood and broken boards lie along the the sides, perhaps shelves of some kind in years gone by. Cobwebs fill the corners, and others appear to have been torn into by the door opening inward; some still move in the breeze you made.

 

[domino]

You see a grey stone room, about ten feet on a side. You can smell some salty mustiness through the air. It's faint, but noticable. In the center of the room is a three foot high ring of stone, cut rough, made from the same stones as the walls and floor. The ring has a hole going through the center, about 4 feet in diameter, like a well. At the top of the vaulted ceiling is another hole, about the same size. running down the ceiling, and the walls is some moisture, that occasionally drops a droplet onto the ground. The walls are covered in some sort of slime, but the floor is generally dry.