Ok, I’ll admit it, Mark lost me with this last one. It took me four times to get through Bridge. I just kept zoning out. I could get up to:



“Let us suppose that you’re holding the Ace, King, and Jack of Spades, but you know that one of your opponents has the queen; and let’s suppose that…”



…and that was it. My mind wandered off and before I knew it I’d skimmed to the bottom of the article without really reading a word of it. Determined to read through it I tried again with the same results. Fourth time was a charm and I was able to get through it. After I finished it, I tried to look for an article idea. That wasn’t working at all.



As anyone who visits GO can tell I normally like Mark’s stuff. I’ve built my series around Mark’s articles. However, that doesn’t mean that everything he does is golden in my eyes. That, plus my experience with Bridge, lead me to my idea.



In fairness to Mark I’m sure that if he and I were discussing Bridge together over lunch I’m certain he would notice that I wasn’t with him. My blank stare would give me away. I’m sure he would either abridge things (a pun I couldn’t resist), or he’d find a different angle to approach his point from. When writing you can’t always tell if you’ve lost your audience or not so I don’t blame an author when this happens. It’s much easier when we’re in the same room so I cut authors some slack when it happens.



Occasionally I’ve lost my players. Not just one or two, all of them. And with as many as 13 players in one of my groups that’s a lot to loose at once. We’re all having a good time gaming and a great session is being had by all when suddenly they’re gone. I’ve lost ‘em. Eyes are glazed over, the focus is on making dice pyramids or fighting over who gets the last of the chip dip. At this point I shift my focus to getting the players back into the game and wondering what I did wrong.



It does seem that there’s something about RPGs that blocks us from noticing we’ve lost our players even though we’re in the same room. I notice it most when GMs read from scripted text in a published adventure, or when a GM has unwittingly belabored a point they are trying to make (e.g. mood, setting, feelings).



With scripted text I find the root cause is that not many people read well in public. Reading in public is a much different skill than speaking in public. I’ve been to poetry readings where some of my favorite poets have read their work and witnessed this fact first hand. It was a tragic learning experience for me to learn that Carol Arnet is a terrible public reader who can’t seem to add the passion to a public reading that I get from his work. Scripted text can work the same way in RPGs.



“You see a large 30’ x 60’ room. The walls are covered in a rich tapestry which betray a hint of neglect as if they had not been tended to for quite some time. The floor is covered with a thick layer of dust and debris and you can see small piles of concentrated rubble in the corners. It is apparent that no one has been in this room for a very long time. The ceiling…..”



When we read these scripted texts for the first time they can sound good to our internal reading ears. The descriptors sound nice and seem like something that will help envoke the setting or mood, but when we try and read them aloud it seems to come out in a monotone voice that puts everyone to sleep.



The problem with the traditional shaded text in our adventures is that it is difficult to write a description which is meant to be read aloud. We want to get out the details – the room is 30’x60’, is dusty and has old tapestries on the walls - but we feel that some flavor text is needed for the GM to use to help spice things up. We want to make sure that the GM knows what kind of setting/mood we had in mind when we wrote the adventure so they can share that with the players. From what I’ve seen over the years at game tables, this flavor text doesn’t work well.



I think the best thing for a GM to do is to improv a bit. This is a very easy way to work on your improv skills, or to try it for the first time so don’t worry if you’re not a big improv person. Take the basic idea from the description and setting/mood – 30’x60’ room with tapestries and dust that’s very old – and make it your own.



Every GM has their own style of describing things so use your style and make the description yours. Just because it’s written a certain way doesn’t mean you have to read it that way. You will not be judged on your accuracy to the original text. By making the description your own you keep the tempo of your game up, and your players will be more interested in something that doesn’t sound like your reading from an auto repair manual.



The other problem I’ve seen, and that I’m guilty of as well, is to belabor or force a point or description. Anytime a GM tires to force mood, feeling or setting we run the risk of over doing it.



Two years ago, while running a horror game, I thought I noticed some of my players weren’t in the right mood. I tried to explain it to them by restating the setting and mood of the moment in different ways. I did this four or five times. It was obvious to everyone but me that I was trying to force it.



Finally, one of my players looked at me and said: “We get it.”



At first I was a bit hurt. After all, I though I was doing what I should be doing – I was getting them into the game. Once I realized I was forcing it I could see that it appeared to the players that I was talking down to them. I was acting as if they couldn’t get into the game without my holding their hands.



As a GM we do what we can to get the players into the mood/setting/etc, but sometimes we can’t quite make it work the way we want to, or the players may not give us the visual or verbal clues that we are looking for. When you see the eyes glaze over, hear the heavy sigh, or even if your just not sure if it’s working, move on. You can try again later. This won’t be your last description of mood or setting so you’ll have plenty of other chances to grab them.



That’s it for me this time around. Let me know what you think and I’ll see you in the forums!