Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Chumchurum 02-25-08, 06:06 PM	One of my players approached me after my third session being a Dungeon Master. He informed me that my descriptions are very vague and that it made it very difficult for him and the other players to imagine the world around them. I took note of this and in the next session, I recorded myself DMing. I have to say, I was terrible. I fumbled around a lot with a lot of Umms and pauses or I just couldn't find the words to describe the imagery in my head. It did not matter what it was, be it an NPC they were interacting with or the description of a cavern or room they are in. This disappoints me greatly and I'd like to find a way to alleviate this problem. I feel that one of the main purposes of the DM is to weave a story and to bring his world to life. What can I do to make myself better at this? Any tips I can use? tl;dr: I can't describe things while I DM. What can I do?
iserith 02-25-08, 06:09 PM	What campaign world is it? Published or homebrew?
Chumchurum 02-25-08, 06:16 PM	Homebrew I suppose. A lot of the cities and people my players visit or interact are things that I've made up. The world is set in Forgotten Realms though.
Captain_Madrick 02-25-08, 06:25 PM	I had the same problem. I was playing Forgotten Realms, and my players said they just imagined "a regular fantasy setting". The key to it all? Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting. Using the FR lore in there, I wove together a story involving many epic characters (Red Wizards, Khelbun Blackstaff, Manshoon, etc.), Many exotic locations (Waterdeep, Chult, Calimshan, Western Heartlands, etc.) and even FR history (Dragon Rage, Time of Troubles, etc.). Using the FR campaign setting allows you to have pre-made fluff for your stories.
Sinfire Titan 02-25-08, 06:34 PM	tl;dr: I can't describe things while I DM. What can I do? Wow, I didn't know there were people who used that meme on these boards. I only see it on Deviants.
Chumchurum 02-25-08, 07:02 PM	Wow, I didn't know there were people who used that meme on these boards. I only see it on Deviants. I tend to ramble quite a bit. I find it useful for those who just want to get to the gist of the message. I know, I should just change my writing style.
Etarnon 02-25-08, 07:22 PM	So you slow down. Your voice is the screen, your player's imaginations are the camera eye. Don't be in such a hurry to "Rush" the story, savor it. When you DM, you are in effect writing a story, describing a scene, except that the players get to interactively choose what pages to read next, and what dice to roll. Your descriptions flavor the whole thing. "You stand upon a cliff. It's a 200 foot drop to the bottom." "As you look out from the 200 foot drop at the edge of the sheer cliff, the river below winds its way from Gallowglass to the Sundered Plain, just visible now to the west." Some players like minimalist writing, and adventures. Some like more flavorful. Pick a style and go with it. Your players are saying that they want more than the bare bones. Suggest more with a few choice words. If it takes you a minute to describe the scene, take that minute. Good luck.
Sinfire Titan 02-25-08, 08:12 PM	I tend to ramble quite a bit. I find it useful for those who just want to get to the gist of the message. I know, I should just change my writing style. I'll have a good response to this thread in 30 minutes or so.
Sinfire Titan 02-25-08, 08:28 PM	SiFir’s Guide to Bringing your Campaign to Life Step 1: Gather your players in a room appropriately decorated for the theme of the setting. Step 2: Proceed to pass around the character sheets. Maybe include some homemade props to give it a little more oomph. Step 3: Bust out the ritual sacrifice. Ensure that the victim is unconscious or well gagged/inebriated beyond the safety zone. Step 4: Grab your dagger, and begin the chant while your PCs are busy painting with blue ink on the victim’s flesh intricate markings and odd runes. Step 5: Plunge the dagger solidly into the victim’s vital points in the following order: Throat, Heart, Abdomen, Left Thigh, Right Thigh, Back of Left Palm, Back of Right Palm, and finally both Eyes. Step 6: Hail in the dark patron of your campaign setting/Summon the BBEG of the game. Step 7: Have the players use the homemade props/guile, wits, and snarky rebuttals to defeat the villain. Step 8: Loot the Corpses.[/Joking] You know, it is posts like this that prove what an Adventurer is: A homicidal kleptomaniac with cool toys.
Evra_Telin 02-25-08, 08:56 PM	My suggestion, that always helps me, is to write down everything you can. Write down descriptions of EVERYTHING! (time permitting of course) I would always write down at least a brief description of major NPC's and monsters and the main settings they are traveling through.
Loftower 02-25-08, 09:02 PM	You made a good step in recording yourself. Listen through it again. Don’t worry about how bad you were, focus on what you meant to say or should have said. Record the next session and do it again. The descriptions become a habit eventually. Etarnon is correct: don’t rush it. The other piece of that is don’t penalize your players for letting you get through the descriptions (“While you were standing there gawking, the BBEG summons a …”). I usually go from gross information to more detail as I speak. This allows the players to interrupt me when they have had enough. I noticed that Etarnon described the 200 foot cliff just as quickly in his verbose text as in the brief text. The description that follows could be optional. One other thing that I do is try to break down everything that the PCs experience. If it is “in frame” say something about it. This is a very brief synopsis of what I described in my last session. I might have taken 15 minutes to describe it, with player’s questions interspersed. The ground is wet. There is water everywhere, but most of the watercourses are small enough to step over. A fog has settled about four feet off the ground, limiting visibility for the taller characters. The vegetation is green and very much alive. The tree roots stick out. The trees have thin trunks and course bark. The leaf canopy is nearly complete; only a few rays of sun are visible through the leaves and into the fog. The bugs are massive and annoying. The birds are small and actively feeding (on the bugs). Floating vegetation forms bogs that will hold a person’s weight. Other floating vegetation forms rafts in the slow moving river. The water is brown, thick with organic matter. There is a river about twenty-five feet across. The river is slow; it takes patience to discover which direction that it is running. The river bank is inverted: sturdy vegetation grows over the river’s surface making it seem narrower than it is. The air is humid and stinks of rotting vegetation and something else. The air is much warmer here than it was outside the swamp.
WereForged 02-25-08, 09:14 PM	Here's a little trick i like to use. If you have an artist in your group have them draw out NPC's, Locations and whatnot. I personally just describe to the best of my ability and he translates onto paper. it works. The Player's always have A idea of what the thing looks like. Unfortunately that only works for major things. For everything else just try to have an idea ahead of time. That generally gets the job done.
CmdrCorsiken 02-25-08, 09:56 PM	I usually go from gross information to more detail as I speak. This allows the players to interrupt me when they have had enough. This is also a technique I have to use. Only for me, I have the opposite problem -- I tend to take too much time giving out too much detail. By making sure to go from general to specific, the players most assuredly will communicate when they have enough information to go on. Another key is to include some bit of info for each of the senses (as applicable to the situation). For example: The sun rises, bright and clear, again illuminating the low, grassy hills. Despite being nearly ten miles from the coast, the easterly breeze brings with it the faint salty odor of the sea, as well as the squawking calls of several gulls. As you set out northward, the sandy ground shifts slightly beneath your feet, just enough to require attention be paid to walking. My weakness is playing NPCs. I can't do many voices and completely suck at accents. It takes a lot of thought and even rehearsal to make sure my NPCs don't all sound the same. A way to work around this is to at least state what the NPC sounds like. The stranger seems to be speaking carefully, slowly, pausing frequently to choose just the right words. It is as if this isn't his native tongue. [insert a Knowledge check here] By his accent, he could be from the far northern reaches, and the grit and grime imbeded in his rough-spun, fur-lined over cloak seem to confirm he has been on a long journey. Take heart, Chumchurum, the fact that you're asking for help with this is testament to your desire to be the best DM for your players. That already puts you a step above many DMs (excluding those who are offering their aid here).
Chumchurum 02-25-08, 09:59 PM	I appreciate all the help that was given (including the rather morbid, but hilarious one). I'll definitely start taking more time to describe the area or person. I did feel rushed to get the story moving as to not bore the players. I'll also start writing some descriptions ahead of time, but that seems rather tricky considering that the players might want to go somewhere that I didn't write down and have to prepare a description on the fly. Other than reading books and some of the D&D manuals, are there any other sources I can get sample descriptions? What kind of things do you normally describe on important NPCs or locales? Demeanors? Size and shape? Clothing? Hair?
Chumchurum 02-25-08, 10:07 PM	Wow CmdrCorsiken. Those are some amazing descriptions. Thats exactly the type of things I wish I could describe. I will definitely use your examples to aid in my research. I also appreciate the compliment. My players are new to roleplaying and D&D. I want to really show them the best roleplaying experience that I can offer like how my old DM introduced me to D&D.
Malcaor 02-25-08, 10:32 PM	I definetly suggest focusing on hitting different senses. Another I try to do is make a few notes about description for an area before the game.
Etarnon 02-25-08, 11:26 PM	The method that Loftower describes is a very heavy on the narrative side. Perfect for writing adventures, if you think in visual image terms. I'd suggest read that whole post and slowly, line by line, visualize it. Then take in that whole scene, then describe it as if you were a DM from memory. When you can describe that scene, at that level of detail, that's master level narrative style DMing, or sufficient to write fiction. It seems, OP that you think that the adventure is the action, and the dice rolls. In fact the adventure is your descriptions, the player's descriptions of their actions, and your judging the outcomes and results fairly and impartially, always challenging the players, and making it interesting with plot twists and whatnot. To me, that's what RPGs are D&D, Traveller, Mechwarrior.. system doesn't matter. It's not all the dice rolls suspense...
FarSouth 02-25-08, 11:49 PM	Although it may be too time-intensive to write down a detailed description for every area, you can certainly do it for some of the major points in your adventure. You can then just make some brief notes for other areas. I really recommend having a written description at hand, particularly if you're not confident with articulating it on the spot. Consider what the characters would notice or sense first - it might not be a visual thing, but a sense of temperature or overpowering smell or noise. But your descriptions will be better if you can really put yourself in the place of the characters and think of how they would experience the situation through all of their senses. Here's a description I'm using for a current adventure (they will have been teleported to this location): You appear in the centre of a medium-sized hemispherical cave, about 70’ across at its widest point. You are standing on top of a pillar of rock that projects about 10’ above the gently lapping water that fills the lower part of the cave. This rocky outcropping is around 15’ in diameter and at one side rough, uneven steps of stone begin to circle downwards in an anti-clockwise direction, making their way halfway around the pillar before continuing beneath the surface of the water. The water itself appears to be quite clear, and you can just see the bottom of the cave floor as well as a single 7’ wide submerged tunnel that leads out of the cave at a slight downwards angle. The rock walls of the cave are smooth and moist, with lichen and moss growing in large patches. Some of this lichen emits a soft greenish glow that reflects on the damp stone surfaces and the water below, but most of the light in the cave is provided by the large hourglass structure that is suspended from the roof 20’ above the rocky pillar. Held in place by stone supports and a pivot, the hourglass is about 10’ tall and appears to be made of transparent and translucent shells that have been joined together by some invisible means. The bottom half of the hourglass is filled with brightly luminescent pale green sand that seems to have just started to trickle upwards into the top section. The air is warm and humid, and the only sound you can discern is the gentle slap of the water against the rock. For some other areas I've provided a brief description that fits what the characters will initially take in before something happens almost immediately. That's to avoid the old joke of the DM describing the room in intricate detail for about 3 minutes before concluding with "There is also a huge red dragon in the room." Once the players have dealt with the immediate event (such as an ambush/attack), I then have a more detailed description that I can read out when they have time to look around more closely. Again, think of sights, sounds, smells that your characters would notice, and add in tactile sensations (or even taste) if appropriate. If you can prepare detailed descriptions for the important locales, your players will forgive you for painting less detailed pictures at other times.
themocaw 02-26-08, 02:16 PM	Try this method: three levels of depth. Basically, come up with a one sentence description, then fill it out a little more, then a little more again, and then a little more yet again. Broad Strokes: "You see a cave leading into the darkness." First Level: "The cave is dark and dreary, and water drips from the ceiling. It appears to be made of limestone. There are stalactites hanging from the ceiling and stalagmites rising up from the ground." Second Level: "The ground is undisturbed, and you feel as if no one has been in here for a long time. The stalactites hang overhead like the teeth of some vicious animal, making you feel uneasy. The limestone walls are covered in small glowing insects that cast a dim green light over the entire scene, making it seem surreal and bizarre." Third Level: "Up above, among the sharp, threatening stalactites, you can hear the flapping of leathery wings. Along the walls are small colonies of glowing insects that crawl about as they cast their dim green light over the entire scene. The fragile limestone structures under your feet crunch as you walk over them, and the sound echoes off into the distance along with the sound of dripping water. Other than that, silence." Then go as deep into the description as you need to go for each scene. If you start off with the cave and the players immediately start talking about walking into it, then pause there, let them move. As they walk in, go into a slightly deeper layer of depth. If something about it interests them, then go deeper and point out the details. How much work you put in? About five minutes of thought. But it will come in so much more alive for the players, and then they might start getting ideas to use the environment. "I don't want to waste our torches. Let's take our empty potion bottles and fill them with the glowbugs and make lanterns." Or "You mentioned water, so the ground is kinda slippery, right? And no one's been here in a long time, so we don't know what's coming up ahead. I tie myself off to my friends in case I slip and fall down a hole or something." "Bats? Are they hostile? I draw my sword and look up and make sure they don't attack us." Then run with it. :)
toucanbuzz 02-26-08, 02:46 PM	For on the fly descriptions, just pick 2 or more of your senses and describe something in the area affecting those senses. You have a 10x10 dungeon room with 2 hobgoblin guards. Or, you have a damp (touch), mold infested (sight) barracks that smells of rotting meat (smell). A low growl challenges you (sound) as thick gauntleted hands of a pair of hulking, leathery-skinned humanoids crunch around crude morning stars encrusted with the blood of their last victims. Rather than tell your PCs what the monsters are, go with something about it that affects the senses. You don't have to cover all 5, but a few will do wonders!
DavesWorld334 02-26-08, 04:04 PM	I took note of this and in the next session, I recorded myself DMing. I have to say, I was terrible. I fumbled around a lot with a lot of Umms and pauses or I just couldn't find the words to describe the imagery in my head. tl;dr: I can't describe things while I DM. What can I do? Roleplaying (or RP DMing) off-the-cuff is definitely something one either knows how to do, or one must practice. There's never anything wrong with practice; Bruce Lee practiced his whole life to become, and then stay, Bruce Lee. Everyone's the same. So to practice your RP creation, the best thing would be to start writing. Sit at a computer, or with a pad of paper, or even a tape recorder, and start by thinking of a simple scenario or scene. Consider it like you would if you were at a movie, watching it, and describing the scene to a blind friend sitting next to you. Then type, write, or say what you come up with. Examples are endless and obvious. It doesn't matter what you use for your scene (practice or in a real game), only that you describe it. Think of it like a real person entering the scene; what would they see, hear, or smell first? Are there certain colors, sounds, or scents that come to notice initially. What is the layout of the room (table against the wall, chairs stacked atop it not underneath as normal, etc...) As this person enters and notices a few things, what else would they notice. Describe detail for things worth giving it for, use simple notation for other (a plain room with four walls and a floor, but for some reason you don't see a ceiling, and the wind is howling past the wall tops...) It's easy to do, but less easy to learn how to do. Books or websites on writing will probably give you a LOT of tips and suggestions that will assist you as you figure out and practice these methods. Preparation ahead of time will also ease your sessions. If you've seen pre-written adventures, then you've seen the little room descriptions and such in the modules that say "DM read this to the players". That's the kind of preparation needed; just write out a short paragraph, or maybe only some notes, as to your descriptions. For example, one of the key rooms in your adventure is a torture room. There the players will find the kidnapped cleric they've come to rescue. You certainly should spend a few seconds talk, at least, describing the room itself; perhaps it's horrific to the eyes, smelling thickly of the blood splattered across every surface, rusty iron chains adding their own tang to the salty smell, with a table off to one side full of terrible instruments of pain. Or perhaps the room is antiseptically clean, marred only by the bruised and almost unrecognizable form of the cleric strapped down to a painfully clean torture rack. Etc.... If you are in the game and you get confused, don't panic. You're the DM. Covering is a classic stage skill, and it goes double in DMing. The same imagination that births the dungeon can fix something you messed up in the descriptions. Say you mess up and mention a door on the north wall, but your predrawn map has it on the south. Don't panic! When the party tries that door, it's a fake door maybe. They search again, and find a secret door where it should be. Problem solved! One very easy, and very good trick, writers use when creating people, places, and things in their books and scripts, is to use unique traits. This means the character, place, or thing has something that is so unusual and out of the norm that it bore mentioning. The unique trait can be ANYTHING, and is an extremely easy and colorful way to distinguish important bits for your players. This suggestion works on a simple rule: "If you want your (audience/players) to remember something in a (story/script), give it a reason to stand out". Examples: Ted Striker from the Airplane movies had a "drinking problem", Indiana Jones is a man almost entirely without fear (or at least fear-born hesitation) but is terrified of snakes. Even Rambo wasn't just a damaged ex soldier; he was a damaged ex soldier with a knife so distinctive to his character one may still order replica copies of it today. If your players meet "a tall innkeeper with brown hair and a heavy stare" they likely forget him almost as soon as they 'meet' him. If, however, they meet this: "A painfully tall man stands behind the desk of the inn. He's so tall his head scrapes the ceiling. Make spot checks." Party rolls, you listen for anyone reaching the right number, then add "He's so tall he must be the reason you see canvas wrapped bundles of rags across the tops of all the doors; so he doesn't smack his head if he forgets to duck." Well, all I did was make the innkeeper so tall he has to duck constantly, and that he's fixed his inn to ease his pain when he forgets to duck. But that is still one more unique trait than the first innkeeper got. The innkeeper my party still remembers better than any other remains, to this day, the innkeeper I decided was even less intelligent than our half-orc fighter and couldn't count past six. When they asked for rooms and stuff that would total to 12 silver, my quarter-witted innkeeper announced it would be 2 sixes of silver. They asked if he meant twelve; he replied no it would be six, and then six more, like he said. When they paid him with twelve silver coins, they watched bemusedly as he counted the silver into two separate piles of six, then visibly nodded to himself before making the cash vanish. I did it on a lark, following the rule of unique traits. My player still talk about that innkeeper, and joke about going back to see if they can buy him a Headband of Intellect like they did the half-orc fighter. As far as your umms and verbal stutters/pauses, writing practice to train your off-the-cuff-imagination, and your preparations ahead of time, will help you eliminate or reduce them. You can do what actors do and practice your elocution and delivery in front of a mirror. You can read your notes ahead of time to familiarize yourself with them. I think I spotted this suggestion above; slow your delivery down some. Turn your pauses into a chance to stretch the drama; practice looking meaningfully at your players, while you're really struggling to remember the next detail. Most importantly, relax! You're only doing it wrong if you're not playing. If players are playing your game, it can't be all wrong. Don't be afraid to ask them for help; maybe one of your players is a DM or ex-DM, or is a really talented roleplayer; ask the same question of him as you did here.
Dan Hemmens 02-26-08, 04:42 PM	My personal advice for this kind of thing is pretty much the opposite to everybody else's (I'm contrary that way). Rather than preparing descriptions in advance, or keeping detailed notes of What Stuff Looks Like, treat the game as a *conversation*. Don't think to yourself "how should I, as DM, describe this to my players", think "how should I describe this to my friends." Use in-jokes, use personal references preface important segments of description with the words "you know how...". Learn what *isn't* important as well. If the players are on a woody hillside in the early morning, they can imagine that perfectly well for themselves. If you want to be *really* outre you could even take actual prompts from the players encourage them to add their *own* details to the scene.