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GM DESCRIPTION: NARRATION OR CONVERSATION?
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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 7625486" data-attributes="member: 4937"><p>Jumping into this late, but why not "Both"?</p><p></p><p>I strongly prefer a short boxed text to frame a scene, and being an advocate for the idea that gaming is an art, I prefer that the short boxed text be literary in quality and suitably evocative of the setting. In a fantasy that likely means a certain amount of archaic language and words and a certain floridness whenever something is especially ugly or beautiful. In a detective story, that might mean that stark staccato language of a Noir mystery. Or, if you are really a genius with words, you could create your own style.</p><p></p><p>The reason I prefer to have a short boxed text is that if you have a less organized description, then it's very easy to forget something important in the scene or else accidentally blurt out something about the scene that the player characters could not yet have perceived. </p><p></p><p>One possibility that I find works pretty well is an outline style layout with bullet points. You can have a short introductory text and then as the PC's attention wanders to other features of the room you have a one or two line description of other things. If there is something immediately important about the room, you can preface the boxed text with an ALL CAPS note so that you don't forget. And then the hidden dangers of the room can be just following the text description, followed by any stat blocks you need, followed by any secrets that can be discovered. But however you are comfortable organizing things that it plays out smoothly, I'm good with. One thing that annoys me is how badly organized encounter descriptions still tend to be in published modules, something that the novice GM that is currently running a game for me keeps pulling his hair out over. You'd think a publisher with as much experience as Paizo could edit their crap better.</p><p></p><p>None of that however is to say that you can't also and at the same time have a casual conversational tone, and in particular as the PC's start asking questions ("What's a brazier?", "Which side of the room is the armoire on again?", "How high is the ceiling?", "Err.. what's an armoire?") - as they should no matter how good your description was - then you can begin replying in language appropriate to the questioner and the tone of the game.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 7625486, member: 4937"] Jumping into this late, but why not "Both"? I strongly prefer a short boxed text to frame a scene, and being an advocate for the idea that gaming is an art, I prefer that the short boxed text be literary in quality and suitably evocative of the setting. In a fantasy that likely means a certain amount of archaic language and words and a certain floridness whenever something is especially ugly or beautiful. In a detective story, that might mean that stark staccato language of a Noir mystery. Or, if you are really a genius with words, you could create your own style. The reason I prefer to have a short boxed text is that if you have a less organized description, then it's very easy to forget something important in the scene or else accidentally blurt out something about the scene that the player characters could not yet have perceived. One possibility that I find works pretty well is an outline style layout with bullet points. You can have a short introductory text and then as the PC's attention wanders to other features of the room you have a one or two line description of other things. If there is something immediately important about the room, you can preface the boxed text with an ALL CAPS note so that you don't forget. And then the hidden dangers of the room can be just following the text description, followed by any stat blocks you need, followed by any secrets that can be discovered. But however you are comfortable organizing things that it plays out smoothly, I'm good with. One thing that annoys me is how badly organized encounter descriptions still tend to be in published modules, something that the novice GM that is currently running a game for me keeps pulling his hair out over. You'd think a publisher with as much experience as Paizo could edit their crap better. None of that however is to say that you can't also and at the same time have a casual conversational tone, and in particular as the PC's start asking questions ("What's a brazier?", "Which side of the room is the armoire on again?", "How high is the ceiling?", "Err.. what's an armoire?") - as they should no matter how good your description was - then you can begin replying in language appropriate to the questioner and the tone of the game. [/QUOTE]
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