How flowery/dramatic/illustrative is your game talk?

[ThirdWizard]

Is the Cant flowery/dramatic? It's in character, so I'm assuming it goes along with the spirit of the poll. Also, consider that some of us play low-lives, and speaking in proper olde English would be very very strange (ignoring for the fact that the characters probably aren't speaking English anyway).

So... assuming that, probably around a 7 or thereabouts.

 

[Fishbone]

When appropriate or setting the scene as a DM I'll bust out the 5 dollar words. Out of character stuff is in full on northern Wisconsin "Ya-Der-Ay" mode. In character an accent might be appropriated, but usually an easy one. We don't talk in a medieval thee-thou way ever.
Edit:Only gave myself a 3, figured that asking "I take 'ow much friggin' damidge!" is a -2.

 

[The Shaman]

Flowery, dramatic, and illustrative are three different things.

Flowery? Not so much.

Dramatic? Maybe, once in awhile.

Illustrative? I hope so.

 

[Sejs]

For my DM-speak, I tend to be about a 6 or 7. But more on the embellished side of things, in the interest of giving my players a feeling of connection to the world and what's going on in it. You're in a ruin? I'll try to describe more than just what it looks like... the smell of the still air, the whorls of dust your movements are kicking up playing in the weak sunlight, how the sounds of you and your companions are the only noises penetrating this dead place.

When it comes to actual NPCs speech, I do what I can to keep it honest to the character speaking.

 

[Agback]

It is a mix...the DMs try to spend some time on scenery and atmosphere, but the player to player conversation tends to be modern.

Same here. A bit of effort goes into description and dialogue, but we make no attempt to speak in archaic English. And not just because our characters are almost never early modern English speakers.

 

[Gentlegamer]

I don't think the phrase "it was a dark and stormy night" etc. belongs in the best category:

http://www.abc.net.au/centralvic/stories/s904089.htm

Perhaps you coyly intend to cast aspersions on the style of the Authorized Bible/Tolkien/Gygax . . .

 

[the Jester]

Moderately illustrative. I gave us a 7, though from feedback other players have given us, I'm already wondering if I should have voted 8.

 

[Melan]

i have in the past gamed in Klingon for a Star Fleet Battles scenario. and so did everyone else at the table. 8 of us

Mein Gott!

As for myself, I go for the casual conversation style, although my NPCs tend to talk in Vancian - not quite as flowery as the Master, but definitely not in street lingo.

 

[Illirion]

I'd give my group a 5 in that department. I DM for mostly newbies and there tends to be a lot of metagaming. I try to give a nice description everytime they encounter something important, but I notice that their attention spans fade when I'm starting to get too descriptive.

Also I must add (something I'm struggling with a lot), we're all dutch. So I can't just copy the monster-descriptions out of the MM and I find that dutch language doesn't lend itself to evocative descriptions quite as well as english does. All the stuff I read about D&D and fantasy adventuring is in english, so (though it's really inspiring) it's kinda cramping my ability to provide the same effect in my own language. I therefore often have to make up descriptions on the fly and because I'm constantly searching for the right words to describe a situation it sometimes comes over dull or clumsy.

(edited for typos)

 

[I'm A Banana]

I won't waste breath describing something in a way that doesn't make sense to my audience.

They're evocative descriptions, but they rely on simple tactics. Repetition, "spinning", comparisons, lots of wierd noises and strange actions.

Me: "It goes RAERAfafaerjawerAERafanckaja!" *twitch twitch*
PC: "Uhm, my character freaks out and screams. AAAAAAAH!"

But then, my games tend to be light on the dramatist flair. I'm not composing a sonnet, I'm rollin' dice around, and as long as there's some verisimilitude, it's all good.