The DANGER of Descriptions in Dungeons & Dragons

how many times has your mind just gone blank when you attempt to describe a scene or you get so into the details only to realize that most of your fellow players have stopped paying attention well one of the best tips i can give you as a player or a dm to avoid these dangers of description is to leave gaps you can leave gaps in the information by just sticking to the essential elements of that scene what you perceive to be the core pieces that your fellow players need to understand to get a sense of what's going on and just keeping it simple is really easy you walk into a blacksmith shop everybody playing a fantasy game has some idea of what that blacksmith shop looks like without you saying another word but you can also leave gaps in your physical speech just a moment of silence to build the tension to actually scan your players faces to see if they're still interested and to let them fill that time or that space with their own ideas so in this video we're going to expand on that tip and cover four more easy ways that you can use description to bring your game to life instead of killing it but if you would rather leave descriptions to the professionals check out our lovely returning sponsor describe describe is a cultivated collection of scenes for places monsters spells and more categories on the way with new descriptions added all the time they're easy to search on the fly when your players surprise you and easy to save during your game prep saving you time join for free through the link below so they know who sent you or unlock more scenes through the coupon code bob to save 10 and start your next adventure with describe hi i'm bob this is my sick new animated intro thingy and this is where we learn how to have more fun playing d d together so leaving gaps in your descriptions is a great way to help you avoid overdoing it as a fan of critical role matt mercer is known to be a freaking genius for just improvising a scene totally off the bat and really bringing it to life with rich sensory detail and by the end of this video you're going to feel more confident giving those rich immersive details but just know that at least for me and i assume many others sometimes matt seems to go on for a little bit too long just keeping it simple takes a ton of pressure off of you as a dm one if you're thinking you need to emulate that style because you totally don't but two because it's just information overload for your players most of the time and you don't want to be that one player whose turn in combat takes like five minutes because even if you know all your abilities really well you just love to get into the nitty-gritty on every single attack and so for players and dms really considering the amount of information you need to deliver to get your point across is crucial it not only saves you prep time but it keeps you from spilling too much information too early and will make you more confident in your delivery of clues whether that be about the secret of your player character that you don't want to reveal until later in the campaign or of those clues that will link your players to the bad guy potentially too early if you go overboard and start spinning into the details that you wanted to hold on for longer and this is also why leaving pauses in your speech can be really helpful take a breath really think about oops was that too much information or hey is this enough information for them to figure out what i need them to next and you can scan your fellow players around the table to really see who likes these details who finds it boring and maybe give them an opportunity to jump in and actually engage with the scene those pauses serve as the perfect passive invitation for collaboration the more you leave out the more the group will fill in so point number two is to call on your fellow players to take an active role in describing the world beyond just their character asking for little details about an npc or a monster prevents boredom and gives them a stake in the world building but this shouldn't just come from the dm if you're a player ask your fellow players for details every now and then when you're all participating you form this imagination mastermind that is far more powerful than the sum of its parts and some of you might remember that i gave this tip in my video about how to keep your players attention during a session and you'll also remember that one of the potential dangers of description here is that some players who think they're very comedically inclined will make some silly names or silly descriptions that may become part of the world so players don't abuse this opportunity but dms lean into it every now and then because those elements of the world will be the most memorable for that group because they really feel ownership of it even if it's kind of a joke and another crossover tip from that video is to focus on the action and even perform a little bit if you feel like it this can be so crucial for online dnd when we're all just zombified staring at a screen for way too long but even in your descriptions always be thinking about the movement its speed its direction its cadence and how you can use those details to bring it to life of course this makes a lot of sense for combat but you can even use this to describe an npc coming down the street towards your characters or a scene in nature where they get to observe some wildlife and whether or not you feel like you struggle to find the right words in your descriptions i encourage you to read more i'm sure you've heard this one before so i'm kind of lumping it in with a bonus tip to really make sure you get your bang for your buck on this one and the bonus tip here is that they say one of these things is worth a thousand words but you know what else is worth a thousand words like five words remember tip number one keep it simple because seriously be very selective with your terrain or visuals that you use in your game because i'm kind of on the side of believing that they can kill the imagination rather than help it along once you show that map everybody has the same image of the room with these same three barrels in the corner and door by the other side with a little window next to it and there's very little room to improvise from there on now if you didn't plan for those barrels to be there maybe they are helpful because one of your more creative players might think oh we can use that for cover or hey i wonder what's inside but just from a game preparation perspective it's way easier to skip the visuals and stick with theater of mind that's my style and part of the reason i don't like using visuals is because vision is probably the most vanilla of our senses when it comes to dnd descriptions so yes you should always be talking about movement and always thinking about a light source in a room and maybe how it can play off everything in it and what colors are created but what you cannot display on any map or terrain piece is the smell coming from those barrels or the taste and texture of its contents and the sound coming down the hallway this is the difference between you walk into the blacksmith shop and as you walk into the workshop area you feel the rush of heat from the furnace and now the sharp pinging in your ears of the rhythmic hammer and actually another sense that comes up here that you should always be leaning into is the temperature whether it's really hot or really cold or somewhere in between or really humid outside or really dry air that's choking you these extra senses of temperature humidity pressure and pain are really things we need to be leaning into to bring our worlds to life so excite the senses focus on the action call on the players leave gaps and check out our sponsor describe to take care of all of that for you please give this video a thumbs up if you found it helpful and consider subscribing and joining patreon like ken lee jason tom david nicholas robert chris duncan david and juliana just did thank you for your support and keep building

Channel: Bob World Builder

Views: 45,882

Keywords: d&d describing combat, dnd descriptions, dnd boxed text, dnd narration tips, dnd character description, dscryb, matthew mercer narration, critical role description, d&d, d&d 5e, how to play d&d, d&d player guide, dungeons and dragons, bob world builder, dungeon master guide, dnd 5e, d&d player tips, dnd 5e player tips, Dm tips dnd 5e, dm tips

Id: fhNPclQeojQ

Length: 7min 48sec (468 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 07 2021