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| Article : General Descriptive Advice: Indoors |
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How well can you describe let's say a tavern?
A stone building with thatched leaky roof, a creaky door and a "Prancing Ogre" sign? That won't do will it?
Almost every starting DM I knew wanted to create his own setting very soon after starting DnD, myself not withstanding. The lure is obvious enough - unlimited possibilities, a chance to implement all the great ideas and so on. However the first attempts to describe even simple things are often comical...
Example #1:
DM - You are inside an enormous pyramid.
Player - Why?
DM - Well you are, all the world is, as far as you know...
Player - How do we know it's a pyramid then if we haven't been outside...
DM - Um...
Player - Ok, nevermind we are inside where?
DM - Right in the middle, in a huge stone hall, adorned with reliefs.
Player - Is there anybody else?
DM - *Rolls a dice* You can't hear them....
No comment
Example #2:
DM - So you came into the forge to get your reward, but the smith is not there. What do you do?
Player - Look around for him
DM - The doors and windows suddenly shut
Player (fighter) - I try to force the door open, Take 20
DM - You fail
Player - But it is just a wooden door!
DM - You notice a hatch in the ceiling
Player - Why is there a hatch in the ceiling?
*After making sure the smith is not there the players try to get to the hatch, amazingly there isn't a ladder*
Five minutes later
DM - *Rolls a dice*You notice a wad of rope in the corner
Player - What sort of rope?
DM - It is your bog standard fabric rope, nothing special
Fighter - Can I prop the elf up so she ties the rope to the hatch
DM - Your cumulative height is not large enough....
Again no comment needed, the above conversations are translated from Russian to my best ability to preserve the unique "atmosphere".
It is as simple as hell, but the setting/campaign/adventure is as good as the DM. Often people forget that to buy a fancy book is not enough. Of course it does not apply to English speaking people, but sometimes observing how a starting DM reads the suggested descriptions from the module book, translating as he goes can be physically painful. Before the session, make the notes about the area that the players are in, general notes about the overall backdrop and specific description of every remotely important building/feature/item that the players may encounter. After you made those notes read them, read them again and again for good measure, a DM reading of a piece of paper during the session is a painful sight. In the article I'll try to give some advice on how to describe various things/people.
1. Describing Indoor Areas
By far the most important and frequent description you will have to give - taverns, inns, smithies, caves, temples, tombs; all of those really do make up the game and are very important. There are some important rules to follow. Never give measurements! A 10ft by 10ft room produces a picture of a prison cell, sometimes appropriate but not often. Why are measuruments "bad"? Well look around, you are porbably in a room now, estimate..no, not the length or width which you know well, but lets say the large inner diagonal - the distance between the top right corner in front of you and bottom left behind you. Now check with a tape measurer - apply the wonderful Pythagoras theorem twice and you will have the result, I bet you will be surprised. Estimating distances correctly is a rare gift and even though your PCs are by all means special they are not superhuman. Secondly measurements always produce images of ordered straight lines, completely inappropriate in a cave for example. So where to start? Well firstly tell the characters how they got in by means of a door or was the room just a cul-de-sac at the end of the corridor. Now how do the characters perceive the room? Try yourself, close you eyes, open them - what is your first impression? It's likely to be the light or lack of it, first thing we notice is whether the room is dark, bright, whether the light is fledgling or constant and where does it some from. Right what's next? Before you start picking out detail it is useful to state the overall color scheme - the color of the walls, furniture, etc. Take into account your light source. Then summarize the interior by naming one predominant feature eg. heavily furnished, crowded or barren of any sign of civilisation. Then it is good to mention any sound or lack thereof. Then you can go on and start describing separate items, first the large, impressive ones that go into more and more detail. The amount of detail is determined by a Spot check, which should be done on entry, before description, interrupting your monologue by dice-rolling is a bad habit. Another thing I believe to be important - do not make conclusions for your characters - if the room does not have 'Barracks' written on its door, then do not say that it is the barracks, your description has to be good enough for your characters to make that conclusion themselves. Taking the above advice into account I will describe the room I am now in. The light wooden door swings in easily on the hinges and you enter into a brown room, well lit by a large lamp, hanging from the ceiling. The room is surprisingly quiet, only the sound of dropping water is heard from the left. The room is heavily furinshed, the right wall cannot be seen, hidden by a line of large wooden wardrobes and cabinets, in front of you stands a massive wooden desk, topped with red leather, another cabinet with a glass door is to the left of it. Various books with multicolored covers occupy the shelves, a stationery set and a desktop computer are on the desk. Partly hidden from sight by a large bed is a chest of drawers with an old-style phone on it as well as several books. Finally a half-open door leads to a dark room, several switches are on the wall next to it.
Now I don't pretend that this is a wondeful description, but I am not a professional writer, but if every room in your setting is described at least at that level, the sessions would be much more immersive. Some more general advice - do not use words like normal, usual, average, nothing special. Every thing is distinct, unless it is exactly the same as another thing seen by the characters, if so tell them. "The bowls on the table have the same peculiar ornament that you have seen in other houses" sounds better than "there were a few bowls on the table". Especially if the player asks about an item never say "you don't notice anything special", say what he does notice. If an elf examines a wall, do not for the love of god say "you don't find the secret door", say "the walls in the room are made of well laid, virtually uniform carved stones, however several cracks appear in the masonry and some insects made nests in them". Onto the general building design. Buildings are usually built with some consistent stylistic features that repeat themsleves, so make sure that while the players are in the abandoned temple of Gi-Parl the various rooms that they visit all contain frescoes that tell the story of Gi-Parl from birth to death, and the tiles on the floor all follow specific geometric patterns. If the room is inhabited, describe the marks that are left by the inhabitants, if the players continiously return to a tavern make sure that there are few "trademarks" that remain and that there are things that change and don't forget to mention both. Well that's all my advice on indoors, hope that helps, will be back with NPC descriptions.
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