Your Description Matters

    So, you're about to lead another TTRPG game. You've done your preparation and you've got some great ideas. Now comes the slightly harder part, and that's translating your world to others and letting your players interact with it. Given the way all TTRPGs work, how you describe your world impacts the game greatly. So, let's talk about some do's and don'ts. 

    What type of things do your players need to know about the setting? The most important are a general layout, distinct features, awareness of other people and the tone or "vibes" around them, a detailed awareness of a 6 foot radius around them, and a chance to pick up special interests around them. This sounds like a lot, but let me provide an example: 

    You step into an L shaped tavern. The bar follows the inside wall from entrance where you stand to the other around the corner. This is the type of place you would never eat food you dropped, you may shine your own mug, and don't count on making friends. It has a typical layout of booths along the outer wall, a few tables in the middle, stools full of real drunks around the bar. The chatter is low and composed of many deep hushed voices to the point you feel the vibration in your chest. Few patrons look up at you. The bar wench seats you at a booth not far from the entrance. The next booth to the north is filled, but the other is empty. The nearest table is at least seven feet away. Through the moderately lit tavern, you can see a man in a booth across the bar shake someone's hand and smile mischievously."   

    This isn't much to say and it gives the basic necessities players need to form a picture in their head make decisions about how to behave. To the player this is the most important factor, being able to make informed decisions how to act and what their next move should be. So, here's a big don't for everyone: don't give such a vague description that you need to keep adjusting it as the players make their actions. You don't want to have to stop players during their role play to keep tweeking what they can do. Let me give an example of what I mean: 

GM: You enter a dirty bar and the wench seats you at a booth. It's a pretty typical bar. 

Player 1: Do I see the guy?

GM: Yea you see the guy across the bar. 

Player 2: I'm going to place my field generators in each corner of the bar.  

GM: Oh, it's an L shaped bar so there only 3 corners so they can't directly connect their lasers. 

Player 1: I'm going to march right up to the guy's booth and let off my shotgun while he's trapped in the corner.

GM: He's actually at the bar so you would hit a lot of bystanders. Why don't you....

    This is a brief example, but hopefully you see what I'm getting at. If you have to make these corrections constantly through your game it becomes frustrating and tedious. It's always better to give a detailed description up front, so be as precise as you can. At the end, I added an "why don't you..." In my experience, sometimes GMs that aren't detailed in their descriptions tend to lead players by telling them what will work. This may seem like a nice and helpful thing to do, but the problem is that if you're doing this because you haven't given your players enough info to come up with a good idea then you're ruining the fun for them. They are losing their agency. No one becomes a player so you have the GM tell you what to do step by step. If you find yourself doing this in your games, take a step back and think of what information you need to give to your players so they can make their own decision. 

    Here's one more big don't. When you are leading your players through an encounter of any type, they are bound to get themselves in trouble. I've seen a lot of GMs that are always afraid of things not going the player's way. Some so much that every time the player is in a poor position, whether it's their fault or not, they rewind, change the events, or alter the whole description of their surroundings to benefit the player. Again, this can seem like a cool thing to do for you players, but if you're taking all the danger out of the game then it's not good. Also, the constant back-pedaling and changes can be frustrating as well. Don't change your descriptions or adventure just because your players are having a rough time. 

    When should you change your descriptions or alter the environment? Sometimes you do need to make changes and it can happen on the fly. With practice and experience you will learn to see these problems coming before you tell your players. The biggest reason to change something is if it puts your players in a position for automatic death. Common reasons are because you realize an enemy is too powerful or a trap is too dangerous. This may just be a mistake during prep, or not realizing how beat up they would get along the way. That's okay, we all make these mistakes. You can tone down the enemy's power or make the trap malfunction. You never want your environment to insta-kill anyone. You also might want to back things up if you've made a big plot mistake. It's always preferable if you can keep going and change things in the future, but everyone will understand if it's really important. 

    In my opinion, these are the only times you should back the game up and alter your descriptions. Remember, the better description you give in the beginning the less you'll feel the need to alter what you've already put in front of players. Remember to give them all the info they need to make good decisions, let them keep their agency by making informed decisions, and let them feel some consequences from their actions. That's part of the fun!

    As usual, you can contact me if you have any further questions. If you'd like to see me write a post on a specific topic. I am now writing general TTRPG supplements and creating maps. You can find them on my Ko-Fi page! 

You can find me on Twitter @flayer85

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