Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Drawmack" data-source="post: 3269810" data-attributes="member: 4981">In your first post you mentioned that you usually slow down play as you stop to look stuff up. I would bet that this is the largest problem. If you're stopping to look things up then it looks as if you are not prepared for the session. If the players percieve the DM as unprepared you cannot expect them to prepare. I sit down about three hours before the game and freshen up on the things the PCs are likely to encounter in that session and the shops and stuff the PCs constantly interact with. If the players do something outside of this I wing it.All five senses should be used in description, but you also need to use them in the order they would become important in the scene. Also involve the players in the description.(smell/Sound) "You push open the center hinged, pivot style door and your nostrils are assaulted by the stench of deadfish and salt water, you hear water dripping." Stop talking and call for a fortitude save (DC 10 or so). Anyone who fails steps 10 feet away or throws up"As you place a torch into the whole the sound of water dripping subsides and is replaced by the sizzling of water dripping onto the torch. Looking into the whole reveals all sorts of small sea-creatures stuck to the walls and floor." Stop talking and call for a wisdom check (DC 10 or so)(If the wisdom check is passed) "You surmise that this crevace must be filled with water when the tide, which just receeded, comes in."(Not dependent on the wisdom check) "As you gaze down the whole you see a pool of water sloshing about approximately 20 feet below."I find that dispersing a couple of rolls into long winded descriptions really keeps the players attention. When you first start using this you'll often have to repeat the last section of text as the PCs were not all listenting, so keep the sections short to facilitate this.</blockquote>

Verification