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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 4311692" data-attributes="member: 29398">However, I don't necessarily want them to know right away what's "meaningful" and what isn't until and unless they figure it out for themselves or it rears up and clubs 'em in the head.If everything I ever bothered describing was meaningful, the dots would be just too easy to connect.Besides, to use the gate guards example, while the guards may be meaningless to the overall plot, having them interpose when the party first gets to Burytown and subject the party to a full search pretty handily gets the point across that Burytown is lawful with a capital L.  Never mind the entertainment that can ensue if the characters react badly to said search... <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />  The guards, therefore, are more of a scene-set in movie terms than a plot point.Advice like what the 4DMG gives here is the exact opposite of what I might have written were I its author; mine might go something like:"Detail.  The richness of the game lies in the detail.  As far as possible, the first time anythng occurs - be it arriving in a new town, a new spell getting cast, travel through a new land - present the details.  Describe the scenery, the people, the activity, etc., and give the players-characters a chance to interact with such in as much (or as little) detail as they like.  But when something becomes old hat, such as arriving in a given town for the fifth time, feel free to skip over the fine details unless the players ask for more."Lanefan</blockquote>

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