Help a Newb DM on setting the mood

[Ed Cha]

Use the five senses: sight, smell, sound, touch, and less often taste. Don't feel you have to use them for every encounter, but when the PCs are entering entirely new terrain, for example, they should get a good idea of the surrounding environment.

Here's something I wrote up for a marsh encounter:
((Paraphrase Text)) The air begins to hang unnaturally thick and heavy as you move deeper into the marsh. Slow-moving lines of mist obscure your vision only to melt away and expose the twisted limbs of stunted black trees that seem to claw at you. Stagnant bogs fill the air with the cloying stench of death and decay. It is obvious these deranged woods abound with creatures of a darker nature. Many strange-looking insects thrive here, but you see few, if any, animals—natural ones at least. ((End Text))

So you don't have to use all five senses, but it's good to have at least two or three in your description.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

Thanks for the suggestions. How do you guys actually go about giving these descriptions in game? Do you read them from a card, try to memorize them, or just organize your thoughts before hand and adlib it?

I usually write out the first descriptions of an area or scene in detail. I will usually read it (them) again before a session to refresh my memory. In game I refer to it, but I usually don't have to read it word for word as my memory of things I have written myself are pretty good, and I often make changes and improvements on the fly.

One day I'm hoping to have gained enough DM xp to get the "Off the Cuff" feat and not need quite so many detailed notes.

 

[kamosa]

Down and distance information very useful

What I try to do with my descriptions is give the players a sense of how far away the danger is, how much of a threat it could be to the players, what kind of threat it could pose to them, and the relative cover and disadvantages the players are presented with in the scene.


IE: Saying you hear a roar can have lots of intonations that would be immediately apparent to the player. If you say "You hear what sounds like the roar of a crowd greating a hero to the combat field" vs "You hear the roar like an angry lion chasing off a rival" you get a much different feel and a much different reaction from the players. Also, is the roar getting closer or farther away? Are there any places to hide, or are they doomed to wait for the beast to catch them?

Even walking through a swamp can have lots of different flavors. Are the players on ground, or wading through water. Is the path relatively open, with a thick canopy of trees blocking out light far over head, or are the players chopping their way through inch by inch of thick swamp brush and vines?

Remember as well, if a scene isn't working for you or your party, you aren't a slave to keeping it this way. If it is annoying and lame that the party can't see and it is ruining the fun of the game, have them break out into the open and enjoy the sunlight. Unlike the players, you have complete control of the enviroment and that swamp passes as quickly or as slowly as you the GM decides it does. If you think it's lame and you don't have a good way to make it spicey, move them to ground and game styles that you can make fun/describe in a better way.