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How to force emotions down your players' throats?
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<blockquote data-quote="Imaculata" data-source="post: 6902629" data-attributes="member: 6801286"><p>I agree. It's fine when players ask questions. But, I think you want to prevent the most obvious questions by providing a clear description. After my initial description of a room, I want the players to have an understanding of the scale and lay out of the room, where they are in relation to it, how many doors there are, and where those doors are. That's it. This gets most of the more obvious questions out of the way.</p><p></p><p>I may mention that there are barrels in the room. But I leave any details regarding those barrels till the players decide to investigate them. Those are the finer details, and it's fine if the players want to know more about those things. But they aren't relevant for their basic understanding of what the room looks like, which is in my opinion the most crucial aspect of describing any room. The players should have a clear picture in their mind of what their characters are looking at.</p><p></p><p>Take for example the afore mentioned cistern. If I just tell them that:<em></em></p><p><em><strong></strong></em></p><p><em><strong>"there is a cistern in the western part of the room, and the walls are lined with barrels"...</strong></em></p><p></p><p>..Then they still don't have any clue where the cistern is exactly, what it looks like, and where the barrels are exactly. They also have no idea how far away they are from any of those things. Are they close to the cistern, or far away? Can they walk around the cistern, or is it up against the wall? And what does it mean that the "cistern is in the western part of the room". As the DM I can see what it means on the map, but to the players it means next to nothing. </p><p></p><p>What I would say instead, is that:</p><p></p><p><strong><em>"There's a cistern; a small reservoir filled with shallow water, -in the back of the room. And on either side of it, are barrels stacked up against the wall. To the left of the reservoir, the room ends in a dead end, while on the right it leads to a door."</em></strong></p><p><strong><em></em></strong></p><p><strong><em></em></strong>A little more wordy perhaps. But it is accurate, and it paints a far better picture of the lay out of the room, and where things are in relation to the party.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Imaculata, post: 6902629, member: 6801286"] I agree. It's fine when players ask questions. But, I think you want to prevent the most obvious questions by providing a clear description. After my initial description of a room, I want the players to have an understanding of the scale and lay out of the room, where they are in relation to it, how many doors there are, and where those doors are. That's it. This gets most of the more obvious questions out of the way. I may mention that there are barrels in the room. But I leave any details regarding those barrels till the players decide to investigate them. Those are the finer details, and it's fine if the players want to know more about those things. But they aren't relevant for their basic understanding of what the room looks like, which is in my opinion the most crucial aspect of describing any room. The players should have a clear picture in their mind of what their characters are looking at. Take for example the afore mentioned cistern. If I just tell them that:[I] [B] "there is a cistern in the western part of the room, and the walls are lined with barrels"...[/B][/I] ..Then they still don't have any clue where the cistern is exactly, what it looks like, and where the barrels are exactly. They also have no idea how far away they are from any of those things. Are they close to the cistern, or far away? Can they walk around the cistern, or is it up against the wall? And what does it mean that the "cistern is in the western part of the room". As the DM I can see what it means on the map, but to the players it means next to nothing. What I would say instead, is that: [B][I]"There's a cistern; a small reservoir filled with shallow water, -in the back of the room. And on either side of it, are barrels stacked up against the wall. To the left of the reservoir, the room ends in a dead end, while on the right it leads to a door." [/I][/B]A little more wordy perhaps. But it is accurate, and it paints a far better picture of the lay out of the room, and where things are in relation to the party. [/QUOTE]
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