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Message: <blockquote data-quote="maddman75" data-source="post: 3655189" data-attributes="member: 2673">Agree that reading exposition about your imagined world isn't going to wow anyone.  If you want to be a good or great DM, your goal should be to run awesome games.  That's what I'm in the hobby for.Exposition sucks.  Its boring.  No one cares.  But you need to get that information out there somehow.  Show, don't tell is the primary one.  If they find the sword talked about upthread and the GM reads off that paragraph in response to a lore roll or something, no one's going to care.  They're going to go "uh, okay, +1 flaming bastard sword"  Why?  Because it doesn't matter.  On the other hand if they'd been hired by one tribe to find it, fought off assassins from another tribe to stop them, had a third tribe try to bribe them, and fought through the Frost Giants who lair near the great hero's tomb to stop anyone from getting it.  Nor does all this need to be laid out all at once.First tribe - "Hey go get this sword.  Our great hero killed the Frost Giant king.  We'll give you cool stuff."Second tribe - "Grrr.  You aren't giving that sword to them, whoever wields it will be King of the Barbarians!  Die!"Third tribe - "Dude, we'll totally give you cooler stuff.  We really want that sword!  We need it more, its flames rise higher with the wielder's sense of purpose.  Our chieftan is awesome and will make it glow the best!"Giants - "The sword of the barbarians will not slay us again, it will stay in its tomb!  Die puny humans!"By spreading out the exposition and combining it with conflicts and action, it becomes not only palatable but interesting to the characters.  Set up like this, there's every chance the players will be chomping at the bit to get ahold of this sword.  At the same time, be prepared that they might not care at all about this sword, the barbarians, or the giants.  In that case it is better to forget it and go onto something else - don't drag the players through something boring just to stick with what you have planned.  Some of the best, most enjoyable sessions I've ever ran came from the players looking at the plot hooks and saying 'Naw, none of that really looks interesting.  Let's head west and see what's over there."</blockquote>

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