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<blockquote data-quote="gizmo33" data-source="post: 2182478" data-attributes="member: 30001">I like this advice because it suits me.&nbsp; I get nervous when people advocate the &quot;five senses&quot; approach because I don't do that and it makes me think that maybe I'm a bad DM.&nbsp; Maybe I just can't think of enough synonyms for &quot;bad smelling.&nbsp; Plus, most all players I've DMed have a limited attention span for flavor text.&nbsp; I have an instinct for when people's eyes are about to glaze over (no such instinct for posting however)&nbsp;I guess the only place where my descriptions get interesting is when I'm withholding information.&nbsp; Instead of saying &quot;you see three orcs&quot;, I might say &quot;you see three vaguely humanoid shadows looming against the glow of the burning village&quot;.&nbsp; I could talk about the smell of smoke and all of that but it takes up time and my gut instincts are to not do it.&nbsp; My description gives the players the general idea, I'm 90% sure they're visualizing the rest in a way that is much more interesting than me adding another three sentences.&nbsp;I might talk about sound or smell in lieu of visual info.&nbsp; I might introduce an encounter by saying &quot;you hear the thwap thwap of a large pair of bare feet coming down the corridor&quot;.&nbsp;&nbsp; It's not poetry, to be sure, and I don't know that &quot;thwap&quot; is really the proper sound, but it gets the job done.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="gizmo33, post: 2182478, member: 30001"] I like this advice because it suits me. I get nervous when people advocate the "five senses" approach because I don't do that and it makes me think that maybe I'm a bad DM. Maybe I just can't think of enough synonyms for "bad smelling. Plus, most all players I've DMed have a limited attention span for flavor text. I have an instinct for when people's eyes are about to glaze over (no such instinct for posting however) I guess the only place where my descriptions get interesting is when I'm withholding information. Instead of saying "you see three orcs", I might say "you see three vaguely humanoid shadows looming against the glow of the burning village". I could talk about the smell of smoke and all of that but it takes up time and my gut instincts are to not do it. My description gives the players the general idea, I'm 90% sure they're visualizing the rest in a way that is much more interesting than me adding another three sentences. I might talk about sound or smell in lieu of visual info. I might introduce an encounter by saying "you hear the thwap thwap of a large pair of bare feet coming down the corridor". It's not poetry, to be sure, and I don't know that "thwap" is really the proper sound, but it gets the job done. [/QUOTE]

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