Generic Room Descriptions?

[Sado]

Is there any book or website where I could find generic room descriptions so that I don't have to write up something for unimportant rooms every time? Ideally, it would be divided by rooms, Like throne room, armory, bed chamber, library, etc, with a number different 1-2 paragraph generic examples of such rooms described for each.

This would really save time in filling a castle or any other building.

 

[philreed]

Give this series a try:

http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=4188&SRC=EnWorld

 

[DonTadow]

Is there any book or website where I could find generic room descriptions so that I don't have to write up something for unimportant rooms every time? Ideally, it would be divided by rooms, Like throne room, armory, bed chamber, library, etc, with a number different 1-2 paragraph generic examples of such rooms described for each.

This would really save time in filling a castle or any other building.

The link left in the post above are some of the best product's I've bought this year. They are great descriptions. You have to mix them up with your own descriptions if you don't want to have red herring's around.

Something else you might try is getting a subscription to Dungeon magazine. I rarely use the adventures in there, but I'm always stealing the descriptions.

Another thing I do, and I"m not sure how well your computer is in your adventure, but when i have free time I go through the magazines, find descriptions and enter them into a database. I'll have cave, city, woods, dungeon blah. Just so i have something generic to pul out from time to time.

 

[Sado]

Give this series a try:

http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=4188&SRC=EnWorld

Those are awesome. It doesn't look like they have exactly what I was talking about, but that's the kind of setup I was looking for. I may have to grab those up.

 

[philreed]

Those are awesome. It doesn't look like they have exactly what I was talking about, but that's the kind of setup I was looking for. I may have to grab those up.

Feel free to grab some of my PDFs while you're there.

 

[IronWolf]

Another thing I do, and I"m not sure how well your computer is in your adventure, but when i have free time I go through the magazines, find descriptions and enter them into a database. I'll have cave, city, woods, dungeon blah. Just so i have something generic to pul out from time to time.

So, uh - is this database available to others? I would be interested in a similar setup. I run across many things in Dungeon that would be nice to have at my fingertips and from other sources too. Even just more details on your setup would be nice (what DB, what type of front-end, etc.)

 

[Nyarlathotep]

Feel free to grab some of my PDFs while you're there.

While not rooms, the 101 mundane treasures (1 & 2) are very cool. I sure liked them!

 

[Crothian]

THe Bits of series is very good, I've been really happy with it all

 

[DonTadow]

It's a simple MS Access database that lists the type of escription, the adventure, magazine and notes on what i can expect basically from it.

when i get ready to build a story arc i open it up and see what woudl fit and what i can twist to fit, then open up the bits book for filler leave your emai laddress and i'll send what i have

 

[Celebrim]

Is there any book or website where I could find generic room descriptions so that I don't have to write up something for unimportant rooms every time? Ideally, it would be divided by rooms, Like throne room, armory, bed chamber, library, etc, with a number different 1-2 paragraph generic examples of such rooms described for each.

This would really save time in filling a castle or any other building.

I'm not entirely sure how this is actually going to save you time.

If the environment exists in order to be explored, then I would argue that you are better off removing the unimportant rooms from the map. That saves even more time. In alot of ways, a dungeon is like a story and empty rooms are like chapters in the story that don't actually advance the plot or develop the characters. Rather than use Phil's bits to clothe empty rooms (which is a legitimate use to be sure), I'd suggest that they are even better used to fire the imagination and add actual substance to the room. Player's examining that torn backpack (with appropriate skill checks) might learn the size of the creature, or even something about its nature - valuable clues to what might lie ahead. Examing the tattered contents they might recognize (with appropriate skill checks) the ruined vestments of a clerical order, and so forth.

If the environment doesn't exist in order to be explored, for example in an event based scenario rather than a site based scenario, then detailing the rooms in which something isn't going to happen is perhaps not the most productive use of your preparation time. And even then, if the important thing about the room is what happens in it and not the exact nature of the room itself, you can usually get by with a sentence or two rather than a paragraph. Elaborate descriptions serve the purpose of allowing you to interact more fully with something, or to set a particular mood. In this case, since its your NPC's that are important and meant to be interacted with, I'd spend most of my introduction time describing them and move the room into the background.