How do you visualize your gameworld?

[Tinker Gnome]

Okay, I was wondering how everyone visualized how things look like in their gameworld. I am mainly speaking about DnD here, but other examples are welcome. So, do you tend to imagine melee combat as being very realistic and is it something you could see happening in the real world. Or do you imagine it as more over the top, such as a character using their greatsword and physically blocking the blows of a 50 foot tall Giant? Do characters with a very high dex move so fast that others have a hard time tracking their movement?

For magic, well magic is by default going to look like...well magic. Do you picture a spellcaster having swirling arcane energy gather about him as he casts? When he casts Stoneskin on himself, does he physically block the opponents sword with a finger when he would have been hit to show that he can not be harmed? Do you picture a caster, when casting Time Stop then multiple Delayed blast fireballs as rapidly shooting out the fireballs, or do you imagine a more slow approach to things?

How do you imagine your PC's manner of dress? For DMs, how do you try and portray you world?

How do YOU imagine your gameworld?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Combat is unpleasant and brutal, more The Shield than John Woo. It's not beautiful, and no one feels ennobled once it's over.

Magic changes things as little as possible. No one is of a level to cast stoneskin yet, but the biggest magical effects happen in a flash, with normalcy returning as soon as possible.

The Barony of Midwood is a mix of Appalachian and Alpine communities, split along racial lines, with clothes, food and culture to match. (Dwarves are more Appalachian than Alpine, and will chew tobacco, go around barefoot -- although not near a forge -- and raise shaggy mountain ponies and hound dogs. Gnomes are neat, yodel and enjoy lots of hikes in the woods and in the mountains. Humans are mostly fastidious and bureaucratic compared to the other two races, more Northern German than anything.)

 

[Eltharon]

Combat is semi-realistic, like the Lord of the Rings movies, but since the playing field between players and guards is more even, there's no "Sir Bob hacks his way through 12 orcs!" (Even though there are no orcs in my setting). There's alot of blood and death and player characters going unconscious. and almost dying, though no-one's died yet.
Magic is fairly subtle. People don't float, or have motes of energy dance around them. There's only one source of magic (I use GURPS, not D20), and its undectable until you unleash it in a detectable way. So, a fireball would be a wizard pointing his hand and saying something, and flames would leap out and explode. Its direct and to the point, but not boring. I really can't explain it when I'm this tired, actually.
Dress is what most people think of when someone says "medieval". Historically, its 14th century-ish, though the armor and weapons are more like 1290 AD. No plate armor, no rapiers. Just good old mail and broadswords.
How do I imagine it? Like a quasi-realistic medieval fantasy setting with low magic and few magical beings (foreshadowing!). I always pictured it in greens and browns.

 

[Trench]

Theoretically, I DM in the same world as Whiz- but the setting is so different it demands a different style. I'm running a crime investigative campaign and take inspiration from shows like The Wire and Homicide.

Comabt is also as gritty as I can make it. I prefer a swashbuckling "cool" moves type, but I spare those descriptions for natural 20's or if a villain really outclasses the party. We just had a redcap put the team through the paces by running up walls. And when he was commanded to drop his weapon, he just up and punched our factotum in the knee and crippled him (reduced to 0 HP). All of these descriptions I base on the rolls. The consequences of violence are very apparent. I once traumatized a PC by my description of him eviscerating a mugger with an enlarged greatsword, which radically altered the direction of the character.

I use Ptolus as a setting. The setting is urban, high magic. Magic is a given. Detect magic wands are used in the Prison to screen visitors. There's a floating condominium in the Noble's Quarter. The city is cosmopolitan, with various races mixing freely and cultures blending. There's even a gay neighborhood. Technology is around, but declining. Guns are used and pocketwatches are expensive, but not unheard of.

Adventurers are looked down upon as over-eager frat boys with too much magic and weapons that get drunk, loot tombs, and get the local girls pregnant.

 

[Shades of Green]

Combat for me is a bloody affair, especially when crits and/or massive damage are involved: kill someone by a normal hit and there would be quite a lot of blood around in most cases; kill someone with a crit and things would be far more gruesome (depending on the weapon and my mood at the moment). Combat is also semi-realistic, though some swashbuckling tricks are always welcome unless they are too far-fetched (of course, magic trumps the cards in this regard). Combatants more, act or attack in unrealistic ways only when magic/special abilities/high superheroic levels are involved. Don't expect a level 1 Rogue with DEX 19 to fight MATRIX style, but a level 10+ Rogue affected by a high caster-level Haste might do so.

Firearms are around but still haven't pushed crossbows or even normal bows out of the playfield. The advantage of a musket over a crossbow is in higher damage and a thundering noise which might frighten war-horses (and even people) who aren't used to it; but this is offset by a higher price (both musket and ammunition/powder) and a longer loading time. Dwarves favor firearms as their smithing-oriented magic and advanced knowledge of alchemy work very well with them; elves use longbows instead; kobolds use repeater crossbows; and everyone else uses either crossbows or shortbows with an occasional firearm being a rare exception to this.

Magic looks differently depending on the caster:

- Wizards make small but complex gestures and utter incantations in a low but dead-serious voice. No magical effects appear around a wizard who isn't casting a spell (except, of course, for spells already active or magical items); but the process of casting some spells might gather magical energies around the mage (for example, fireball gathers small flames in the caster's palm, then uniting into a globe of flame). The effects of spells look differently for different wizards - Mage Armor, for example, might look like an energy field for one and an insect-like shell for the other. Witches (a homebrew divine spellcaster) cast their spells in a similar manner but with more emotional overtones and more use of material components.

- Clerics pray for their gods when casting, but the exact kind of prayer depends on the religion at hand. Dwarven clerics of the Forge-Father loudly call out to their god; Human clerics of the Moon-Lady and similar deities hold their hands together and utter an almost-silent prayer; Goblin clerics of their unspeakable pagan god usually scream their prayers and add promises for later sacrifices (usually of enemy prisoners).

- Celiran priestesses of Meya Enna (not clerics but rather spontaneous divine casters with some druid features) cast spells by 'channeling in' their goddess' 'song'. This usually starts as rhythmical whispers, which later turn into a sound more similar to that of the wind going through dry leaves; the priestess' eyes slowly turn dark-green and pupil-less as they are filled by the 'song' and then return to normal when the spell is discharged. Spell effects tend to have a look related to plants in general and vines in particular - Cure Light Wounds, for example, when cast by a priestess of Meya Enna, looks as if small vines grow from around the wound and close it shut, then slowly merging with the flesh around.

- Sorcerers rarely have external effects for their magic before the spell is cast other than a concentrated look; their magic is mostly an innate result of their Draconic, Fey or Spirit blood rather tan an invocation of an external force.

- Shamans (my version of Druids) dance in a ritual fashion, waving their totem (i.e. divine focus) and singing out loud in most cases. Bards, similarly, sing their spell.

 

[TarionzCousin]

"How do you visualize your gameworld?"
It's flat.

Actually, I DM Planescape. Sigil is a donut.

 

[DragonLancer]

I visualise everything in a realisitic manner. Combat is realistic, it's only the nature of the rules mechanics that make it appear not so.

 

[Imaro]

I like to use the movie 300 as an example of how I visualize the battles in my game.

There are times where the PC's are fighting inferior opponents and it plays out like the scenes where the Spartans are fighting the stock persian troops. I give my players the time to give description after the damage die is rolled and they see how much damage the actually did, if it kills an opponent I tell them automatically and let them describe how he/she was dispatched (this usually induces my players to elaborate teh kewlness of almost anything within reason they could pull off.).

Then there are times where the opponent is a true challenge and it plays out more like the battle with the giant(I think that's what he was, even though he looked more like an ogre) against Leonidas and a handful of his men. It gets dangerous, desperate, gritty and no hold barred.

For magic I stole shamelessly from Exalted and decided that all spellcasters have an aura that flares about them whenever they cast a spell. The aura is a symbol of their power and it is individualized for each caster depending upon his personality and type of magic. So a necromencer could have an aura of moaning skulls and forlorn faces that swirl about him as he casts his magic growing faster and louder depending on the level of the spell.

 

[el-remmen]

The Lord of the Rings films is probably a good representation of how I visualize combat in Aquerra, excepting Legolas' bad-assery, of course (where is the roll-eyes smiley when I need it? )

There's no leaping flip and the like, unless someone is playing a monk or something and is using special abilities.

As for magic, it really depends on the flashiness of the spell, but generally things tend to be more low-key magic-wise than not. For example, stoneskin would not be described as having skin of stone, but an absorbed blow might be described as feeling as if "your blade struck solid stone and did your foe no damage."

 

[Varianor Abroad]

How do YOU imagine your gameworld?

This is a textbook disguised as a question.

1. Combat varies. Often bloody, but fantastic. I imagine it like a cross between Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter generally - vast, amazing vistas and backdrops with amazing, magical things happening. People get bloody and die though. I like lot of flair and "big movie moves".

2. Magic can be obvious or subtle. It varies from person to person, spell to spell, and effect to effect. A stoneskin makes your skin take on the appearance of stone. I like it when casters have some unique effects (stolen blatantly from Monte Cook). Ever person's magic missile looks a bit different. Magic effects sometimes happen around people when they cast that are appropriate to the moment. Example: You cast a fire spell, and your eyes appear to light up and the air gets warm around you.

3. My PC's dress depending upon their whim. I am playing a caster now - he's a "grad student" at the Imperial University in Ptolus. So his stuff is clean, but patched. His magister's staff has a collection of bits of things from prior adventures glued to it. Another character I just started in a Kalamar game is a young rogue. He's got an entertainer's outfit because he's not a noble, but he wants to look nice. Yet his arms have scars from manacles - he's an escaped slave.

4. I don't know how to answer this quickly, except to say that I like to portray my world consistently with the theme and tone established. It may be fantastical, or it may be gritty, or something else.

5. How do you imagine your gameworld? Ah, differently every time. I imagine it's a place where I (were I a character) could walk down the street like it were real. I would take in a breath of air, and smell the salt from the seaport, then the smell of roasting vane from a nearby tavern. Overhead, a great cloud castle's shadow lazily sends shade down upon me, creeping along. The back of my neck itches for just a second when I hear trouble around the corner.