Gettinig Better At Describing A Scene

[pjrake]

lately i've been feeling like i'm using all the same description in my game: all the taverns look the same, smell the same, traveling through the forest are all the same, etc. and i hate reading "text blocks" to describe a scene.

any suggestions, advice, tips you guys use when describing your world?

-PJ

 

[S'mon]

1. Visualise it, focusing on some detail. Tell the players the detail.

2. Use an arresting cliche. "The darkling plain." "The wine-dark sea". "The snow-capped mountain." We have thousands of years of literary antecedents to draw on. No need to be original.

 

[Snoweel]

lately i've been feeling like i'm using all the same description in my game: all the taverns look the same, smell the same, traveling through the forest are all the same, etc. and i hate reading "text blocks" to describe a scene.

any suggestions, advice, tips you guys use when describing your world?

-PJ

Don't try and go into too much detail.

Your players all have imaginations. The important thing is your players pick up the function of what you're describing.

Don't be scared of telling your players how their characters feel about a locale, or at the very least, the kinds of mood invoked.

e.g. "...you get the feeling that the townsfolk only drink here because it's the only public meeting place in town..."

 

[Pbartender]

any suggestions, advice, tips you guys use when describing your world?

"If this were a movie..."

That's the mindset I try to get into. If this were a scene out out of a movie, what would it look like? How would it sound? And so on...

Once I've got that image in my head, I describe it.

I've found a nother thing that helps is visceral elaboration... Especially with descriptions that aren't based on visuals. Relate them to other things that the players (not necessarily the characters) might have experienced or can imagine. Especially if it's something that will get a gut reaction out of them.

The floor of the cavern isn't just slimy... It looks as if a collosal slug took an evening stroll through the cave. Or... It looks as though someone dropped a truckload of raw eggs on the floor, only without the eggshells. Or... The floor looks about the same way you might feel after taking a swim through the city sewers, and it smells almost as good. Or... It's slick in only the way that raw meat gets after it's been left our too long.

 

[Paka]

I like to go with what folks see and one other sense, tossed in for some flavah.

If the setting is kind of alien and odd, I'll use similes to make it understandable. Once there was an odd city of monsters on the back of a giant turtle who lived in coral towers. Everyone immediately got it when I said, "The towers are clustered too closely together at odd angles, like an ashtray stuffed with too many cigarettes." BAM!

Hope that helps.

 

[pjrake]

No need to be original.

that's very reassuring! sometimes i try too hard to be original, unique, whatever. thanks!

Don't try and go into too much detail. Your players all have imaginations.

another great advice. i feel like i have to paint this big budget, high cinema image, and it probably robs the player of their own imagination!

The floor of the cavern isn't just slimy... It looks as if a collosal slug took an evening stroll through the cave. Or... It looks as though someone dropped a truckload of raw eggs on the floor, only without the eggshells. Or... The floor looks about the same way you might feel after taking a swim through the city sewers, and it smells almost as good. Or... It's slick in only the way that raw meat gets after it's been left our too long.

a practical suggestion i will use at my next game. thanks!

-PJ