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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Pbartender" data-source="post: 4653639" data-attributes="member: 7533">Absolutely prevalent...  It's how I like to set the mood.Perhaps my best example was from an adventure I ran many years ago.  In the midst of a jungle, the characters ran across "A towering step pyramid, draped in vines and lianas, and with a temple an alter perched at its peak.  It's construction is cyclopean, being made of immense greenish-gray blocks of stone that are so perfectly joined that the seams between them are almost undetectable."  At the top of pyramid, they found, "An enclosed temple, with a large, flat stone block serving as the altar. Grooves and channels, stained black, run down the sides of the altar and along the floor to a well nearly ten feet in diameter.  The well is circled by three concentric rings of intricately carved hieroglyphics." When they try to look down the well...  "The light doesn't penetrate deep enough to see the bottom.  The flame of your lantern flickers in time with a periodic, cool and gentle breeze that pulses out of the well, as if the whole temple were breathing."By the time I got done with that, anyone at the table who had read Lovecraft was nervous and on the edge of their seat.  Without knowing anything else, they were reluctant to descend into the dungeon.Sort of...  I usually do it by picking picking no more than a half dozen basic facts or stereotypes to help guide me as I DM.  For example:The Tanaroan natives are:<ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Similar to the stereotypical Pre-Columbian tribes of the Amazon jungle, unless otherwise specified.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Generally superstitious, with the exception of the Chieftain and the Shaman.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Revere a God of Death, and the spirits of their ancestors.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Have no taboo against "mindless" undead, and so often use zombies as menial laborers.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Are typically wary toward strangers, but are always more willing to make friends than enemies, given the choice.</li> </ol>Sometimes yes, and especially so when it comes to the more unique items or the treasure of interesting or powerful opponents.Once, amongst the treasure of a powerful defeated demon, my players found several bloodstones as gems and a purse full of coins.  Practically speaking, it was just basic treasure, worth a bunch of money that they could spend.  No special magical powers, however...I described the gems as being lukewarm to the touch, and faintly beating in sync as if the stones themselves had a common heartbeat.There were several hundred gold coins in the purse, and each one had the profile of a head stamped into it, like would usually see of Emperors, Kings Queens and Princes.  The likenesses on these coins, though, were intricately detailed faces, and the face on each coin in the purse was unique -- no two were alike.In addition, the stones and the coins radiated a very, very faint aura of evil, to the party paladin and cleric...  After I was done with the description, no one wanted to touch them.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />In the Games I run, there's usually just the right amount.  I'd like to have a little more flavor and description within combats, but that can be tough to do without becoming repetitive.More often for me, it's less about how much flavor, as opposed to how the flavor is applied.  I prefer having less detailed background information in most aspects of the game, while saving detailed information and descriptions for the actual gameplay at the table.</blockquote>

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