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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Crimson Longinus" data-source="post: 8091927" data-attributes="member: 7025508">Based on this thread I have no difficulty believing that reading implicit communication or being able to decide which situations call for lengthy and detailed description and which for brevity so that the story can move on are not your fortes. So by all means keep doing what you're doing, I don't care.+ + +Now relating to actual topic, I'd like to mention one very basic thing that I think many GMs still overlook. The players choose the skills for their characters for a reason (this naturally applies to any choosable trait or feature.) So when designing and adventure, actually look at the character sheets of the party. Note what skills and other traits they have chosen, and try to come up with ways those things actually could be relevant for the adventure. Such things of course need to feel organic, you can't just place a random singing contest on the middle of the dungeon so that a character can use their performance skill (or can you?) And often this can actually give you ideas for the adventure and it becomes more nuanced and interesting for it. And whilst you cannot shove every skill in every session, you should try to avoid a situation where the player starts to wonder why the hell they picked 'animal handling' when there is never any situations where the characters could meaningfully interact with animals.</blockquote>