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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Gorgon Zee" data-source="post: 7620022" data-attributes="member: 75787">It almost goes without saying that this is a good thing -- people preferring different styles. But then this thread would be quite pointless, so I'll elaborate a bit. However, I do think the biggest effect is what you like. Outside of roleplaying, I like lyrical descriptive novels. So I read LOVE IN THE AGE OF CHOLERA and MOBY DICK, and loved both of them. My wife, an English Lit. major, dislikes MOBY DICK for the same reason I like it, and I'd never recommend the former book to her. In poetry it's the same. I don't see any reason to believe it's not the same for role playing games -- people like different things.However, I do think that genre has an effect of what people expect. It might be that it's just that people who like more evocative descriptions prefer some genres, but thinking over my experiences, I think it's also the game style and genre. Let's take the following example description:You've never seen a room with so much furniture and so many hues, nor a room you could love so much. Most of the rooms have clean lines, simple and mostly white; but these walls are all burnt orange and reds. The furniture is rustic and dark, sprinkled liberally with vibrant cushions. There is a table in easy reach of every seat and the walls are more paintings than paint. Every one is of a happy memory, a smiling child, a birthday, a new baby. There is lively music in the background and the scent of cilantro in the air. You feel like you want to sink into the couch and never move - adapted from an excerpt from Angela AbrahamIf I was playing in a game of BLUEBEARD'S BRIDE, where room descriptions are a central experience, this would be perfect. The game is about emotion, feeling, safety (and lack of) and sensuality. I would be delighted to hear the above, if slightly worried about what it hid underneath ....On the other hand, i also play in a regular online D&D4E game, focused on tactical combat. Very much a GAME; numbers, actions, rolling, success, fail, damage, consequences, status, conditions, target -- we mostly speak technical language to make our tactics clear and lean towards in-game jargon rather than narrative description. In that genre, I'd be a lot less excited about the above. I'd be all "how many seats? tables? are they blocking terrain? should I just assume all movement is halved?"So I don't think it's entirely about the players. I think it mostly is (some people just plain dislike evocative descriptions, for example), but the genre and tone of the game come into it also. As with most things, by the time you are into your third session, you should have a good feel for how the group likes to work. If you are running at a con, match the default tone. If your running for Indie Games on Demand, it's going to be different than if your're running DDAL. And be prepared to switch!</blockquote>

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