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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jgsugden" data-source="post: 8568891" data-attributes="member: 2629">Watch your players.  If they're interested, you're doing fine.  If they're wandering, you need to spice it up, either by cutting the fat, or by adding evocative storytelling techniques.I've been rivted by 'Robert Jordan' style DMs that spend 5 minutes using a description of the weave in a carpet we're walking across to set an environment and feel for the game (actual example), and I've ... struggled to follow ... DMs that were using modules and flavor text written by professionals.Some options to learn how to better capture interest can be found in Matt Colville videos, watching Critical Role, acting videos, and communication videos.  The quick list I'd work on first:1.) Eye contact - Practice getting your eyes off the paper so that you're looking at players more often than at your notes.2.) Use silence and pacing - We often worry far too much about what we're saying and not enough about how we say it.  Slowing your speech, or inserting pauses at the right time, can take a description from sounding like a shopping list to being evocative.3.) Incorporate all the senses - Talk about sights, smells, sounds, temperatures, etc... Is the humidity making PCs sweaty?  If possible, augment the descriptions with lighting, smells, etc... a bit: but don't feel a need to go overboard - use what is handy.  When my PCs went to a location with some influences from Morocco, I made a Moroccan snack and fed it to them as they roleplayed a meeting in a tavern.  That was likely overboard, but it really set the mood.4.) Personalize - Keep the PCs in mind and relate the descriptions to their knowledge.  If you have a PC with a sailor background, consider where you can relate things to their sailing experience.  If the PCs once fought Troglodytes, say that the trash heap reminds you of that smell, although not as intense.  If a PC went to 0 hp after a fireball, then remember that when you describe fire and tell them that they have to control an involuntary impulse in response to seeing a big fire as they recall the fireball.  Note that what I describe does not take the agency from the player - you give them control of their voluntary responses and the ability to bypass involuntary ones, but it does give them some deeper immersion with emotional attachment.</blockquote>

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