From the article archive
Writing Practice, Jan. 5 2002
You know the scene, some critter wanders on in where the PCs are, and they automatically know what it is. Never mind they may never have seen it before. Never mind any stories they may have heard about it could be incorrect. Never mind the players are confusing their knowledge for their PCs' knowledge. They have some arcane connection to an infalliable source of knowledge that let's them know what they are facing. Wouldn't this be nice if it happened in real life.
Trouble is, it doesn't. The real life you sees a new animal and has no idea what the heck it is. All you can go by is what it looks like. Maybe you'll find people who can tell what it is by your description, but that's not guaranteed. You may never find anybody who know's what it is, and some may decide you made a mistake, or even saw some kind of phantasm.
Why doesn't this happen in our games? Simple, GMs are lazy slobs. Which is easier, describing the subject and hoping the players recognize them, or telling them what it is? You got it. Though it isn't always the GM's fault. All too often he has no idea as to how he should describe something.
How do you describe something? How do you describe an animal for example?
You start with the most obvious feature.
Example: Three manlike figures step out onto the path before you.
You've established they are manlike, but they may not be men. The rest of the description is where you established whether or not they are men.
Expanded example: Three manlike figures step out onto the path before you. They wear no clothes. Squat bodied and barrel chested, they stand on bandy legs and carry rough hewn weapons. Their hands are large and their arms are long and heavy with muscle. They have pebbled skin of mottled green, pocked with sores and warts. It's doubtful they've ever bathed in their lives. They have a hungry look on their faces. The one in the lead grabs at himself, leering at good lady Elsworth with a different hunger than his companions.
Can you tell me what the three are? You can tell they aren't human. You can even tell they're not friendly. But what are they? What are their abilities and skills? What their powers and potencies? Perhaps one member of the party has some idea as to what they are, but can he identify them correctly?
Not knowing automatically what something is can add a lot to an encounter. Take the next example for instance.
Another example: It once was human, but now the thing that shambles towards you is a rotting wreck of its former self. The skin is loose on the withered flesh. Its movements are clumsy, abrupt, as if it were being manipulated by some macabre puppeteer wielding strings that keep sticking to his hands. A sputtering moan escapes its lips as it reaches towards you with hands spotted with fruiting mold. The wrinkled, clouded eyes look into yours, into you. You have to embrace it, and you don't know why.
Can you tell me what I just described? I can tell you. I can tell you what those three manlike figures are, but I'm not going to. That's the fun of describing a thing rather than telling the players what it is. The mystery. They may identify it later. They may never identify it at all. But at that moment they have no idea what the heck it is at all. How do they deal with it? How do they fight it? Could it be an ally? Would it be a better idea to just let it go?
The bad part is, it takes longer. Telling the players their PCs face an ogre takes less time than describing the squamous beast. But telling them it's an ogre removes a lot of the power the beast holds. It's known. What it can do and what it can't do becomes knowledge open to all. Thus much of the power of the game is lost.
RPGs are about exploration, learning. Going forth to puzzle out mysteries, cipher conundrums. Describing what the party faces rather than flat out telling them could add a lot. Later on, when they've learned something of the world they adventure in, you can start telling them what they're facing. But at the beginning, when the PCs are callow and ignorant, describe instead.
Last example: It looks like a winged lizard. Not the sort of gliding lizard you've seen before back home, but a lizard with real, bat-like wings. It spots you, gives you an indignant hiss, and flies off for all the world like an iguana crossed with a crow. Before you can gather your thoughts it has disappeared into the forest.
*****
Coming up: I came up with something for today, I'll come up with something for tomorrow. I may even get it published earlier. (Won't that be a switch?:)) Of course, you are welcome to send in ideas and suggestions about what I could write about. See you later.
Alan
Trouble is, it doesn't. The real life you sees a new animal and has no idea what the heck it is. All you can go by is what it looks like. Maybe you'll find people who can tell what it is by your description, but that's not guaranteed. You may never find anybody who know's what it is, and some may decide you made a mistake, or even saw some kind of phantasm.
Why doesn't this happen in our games? Simple, GMs are lazy slobs. Which is easier, describing the subject and hoping the players recognize them, or telling them what it is? You got it. Though it isn't always the GM's fault. All too often he has no idea as to how he should describe something.
How do you describe something? How do you describe an animal for example?
You start with the most obvious feature.
Example: Three manlike figures step out onto the path before you.
You've established they are manlike, but they may not be men. The rest of the description is where you established whether or not they are men.
Expanded example: Three manlike figures step out onto the path before you. They wear no clothes. Squat bodied and barrel chested, they stand on bandy legs and carry rough hewn weapons. Their hands are large and their arms are long and heavy with muscle. They have pebbled skin of mottled green, pocked with sores and warts. It's doubtful they've ever bathed in their lives. They have a hungry look on their faces. The one in the lead grabs at himself, leering at good lady Elsworth with a different hunger than his companions.
Can you tell me what the three are? You can tell they aren't human. You can even tell they're not friendly. But what are they? What are their abilities and skills? What their powers and potencies? Perhaps one member of the party has some idea as to what they are, but can he identify them correctly?
Not knowing automatically what something is can add a lot to an encounter. Take the next example for instance.
Another example: It once was human, but now the thing that shambles towards you is a rotting wreck of its former self. The skin is loose on the withered flesh. Its movements are clumsy, abrupt, as if it were being manipulated by some macabre puppeteer wielding strings that keep sticking to his hands. A sputtering moan escapes its lips as it reaches towards you with hands spotted with fruiting mold. The wrinkled, clouded eyes look into yours, into you. You have to embrace it, and you don't know why.
Can you tell me what I just described? I can tell you. I can tell you what those three manlike figures are, but I'm not going to. That's the fun of describing a thing rather than telling the players what it is. The mystery. They may identify it later. They may never identify it at all. But at that moment they have no idea what the heck it is at all. How do they deal with it? How do they fight it? Could it be an ally? Would it be a better idea to just let it go?
The bad part is, it takes longer. Telling the players their PCs face an ogre takes less time than describing the squamous beast. But telling them it's an ogre removes a lot of the power the beast holds. It's known. What it can do and what it can't do becomes knowledge open to all. Thus much of the power of the game is lost.
RPGs are about exploration, learning. Going forth to puzzle out mysteries, cipher conundrums. Describing what the party faces rather than flat out telling them could add a lot. Later on, when they've learned something of the world they adventure in, you can start telling them what they're facing. But at the beginning, when the PCs are callow and ignorant, describe instead.
Last example: It looks like a winged lizard. Not the sort of gliding lizard you've seen before back home, but a lizard with real, bat-like wings. It spots you, gives you an indignant hiss, and flies off for all the world like an iguana crossed with a crow. Before you can gather your thoughts it has disappeared into the forest.
*****
Coming up: I came up with something for today, I'll come up with something for tomorrow. I may even get it published earlier. (Won't that be a switch?:)) Of course, you are welcome to send in ideas and suggestions about what I could write about. See you later.
Alan
Recovered from the Gaming Outpost database backup. Original wording is preserved; damaged punctuation and presentation markup have been repaired. Historical links without a local match point to the Internet Archive.