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GMing: Descriptives

Started by Spike, November 08, 2007, 01:42:19 PM

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Spike

This was supposed to be a big gaming weekend for me, run my players through something friday night, the play in the other group saturday.

Sadly, one my players is gonna be helping a buddy start the divorce thing this friday night. Another...

... well, lets just say Friday night is free for FF XII and leave it at that.

But this does give me time to work out the details of an expirement of sorts.

I'm a lazy GM, I am indeed. I mostly say stuff like 'the caravan continues across the plains' and that's it. Sometimes I describe stuff that is 'mechanical' so the players can get ideas on how to interact with it...

'The cave is a cul de sac, one wooden wall with a door in the middle of it, the rest is stone.'  

Something along those lines.  

On the other hand, I fancy myself pretty keen on wordsmithing. Ego? Maybe, maybe not.

I have a pretty interesting mix of casual players, and it occurs to me to try tossing out a few extra lines now and again and seeing what sort of reaction this creates.

You know instead of telling them its a 'busy market place' telling them 'the smell of cooking food and a thousand types of incense compete with an omnipresent buzzing chatter of countless people all talking at once. The muddy ground squelches around your boots as you step onto the trampled feild'...

Or whatever. Mostly I'd aim for smaller things. Give an NPC a hairlip, describe the satiny smooth finish of the banister under their fingers as they walk up the stairs.
For you the day you found a minor error in a Post by Spike and forced him to admit it, it was the greatest day of your internet life.  For me it was... Tuesday.

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Werekoala

I try to add a little bit more to my descriptions. Sometimes its something as simple as "You remember those haunted houses where they hung wet yarn from the ceiling, and in the dark it felt like stringy moss dragging across your face? Its just like that - except this moss is trying to eat you."

If you can relate the sensations to something you know they've experienced in Real Life (tm) it works best, I think.
Lan Astaslem


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