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<blockquote data-quote="Afrodyte" data-source="post: 4289873" data-attributes="member: 8713">I'm of a different mind on this. I love description, but I hate rambling. If you're going to use description, I prefer it to be evocative more than verbose.My general rule of thumb: What would the average person pick up on within 10 seconds? Anything more than that would call for appropriate checks.If there's one thing I hate as a player, it's sitting on my thumbs. If I'm spending more time waiting than I am doing interesting things or participating in interesting interactions, I get bored. Really bored. Boredom makes me fidgety.That brings me to one of the most common GMing &quot;mistakes&quot; I come across: not making the plot personal. Too often, GMs use generic motivators for PCs, which doesn't often make for compelling protagonists. As a result, it often takes me longer to engage with what's happening. I go along with the plot because that's what the group's doing and what the DM wants, rather than because it's what either myself or my character cares about.As far as worst mistakes?Every party being some variation of, &quot;Your mission, should you choose to accept it . . . &quot;It goes back to what I said above about being too generic. Parties almost always begin as professional relationships. What I'd do for something a bit more personal. Why not have the PCs be members of the same family? Or be from the same city? Maybe they could have been abducted and experimented on by the same aliens. Y'know, give the PCs a relationship or experience to link them together aside from working for the same guy. Better yet, let the PCs think of it and do some work for a change.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Afrodyte, post: 4289873, member: 8713"] I'm of a different mind on this. I love description, but I hate rambling. If you're going to use description, I prefer it to be evocative more than verbose. My general rule of thumb: What would the average person pick up on within 10 seconds? Anything more than that would call for appropriate checks. If there's one thing I hate as a player, it's sitting on my thumbs. If I'm spending more time waiting than I am doing interesting things or participating in interesting interactions, I get bored. Really bored. Boredom makes me fidgety. That brings me to one of the most common GMing "mistakes" I come across: not making the plot personal. Too often, GMs use generic motivators for PCs, which doesn't often make for compelling protagonists. As a result, it often takes me longer to engage with what's happening. I go along with the plot because that's what the group's doing and what the DM wants, rather than because it's what either myself or my character cares about. As far as worst mistakes? Every party being some variation of, "Your mission, should you choose to accept it . . . " It goes back to what I said above about being too generic. Parties almost always begin as professional relationships. What I'd do for something a bit more personal. Why not have the PCs be members of the same family? Or be from the same city? Maybe they could have been abducted and experimented on by the same aliens. Y'know, give the PCs a relationship or experience to link them together aside from working for the same guy. Better yet, let the PCs think of it and do some work for a change. [/QUOTE]

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