Taking 20 Podcast - Ep 78 - Tips for Scene Descriptions

Episode Date: June 20, 2021

Do you struggle describing what the characters see?  Do you need a magic method to instantly make you better?  I can't help with that but I can provide a couple of formulas I've used to describe scenes for my players.  Thank you Trevor for the topic idea.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for tuning in to episode 78 of the Taking 20 podcast. This week, all about tips for scene descriptions. This week's sponsor is Larry and Frida's Lawn Service. They're there for you when you just can't cut it. This week's topic was suggested by Trevor in Indiana via email. Thank you so much, Trevor, for the topic idea. If you have a topic suggestion for me, please feel free to send it to feedback at taking20podcast.com. Who knows? I might be reading your name at the beginning of an episode

in the near future. Scene descriptions are the paintbrush with which you fill details in for your players. Scene descriptions turn a drawing of a five-foot-wide corridor on your player map into a claustrophobic walkway with bare sheet metal walls. The words free candy are written in an unknown reddish-brown liquid that is still wet. First really doesn't evoke any sort of reaction at all, whereas the second hopefully evokes a sense of fear and probably dread. I mean, let's contrast You Walk Into the Small Town's Local Tavern with The heavy front door swings open to reveal a disgusting, soot-covered dark interior with low ceiling covered with a fatty grime. It lends a claustrophobic feeling to the entire room. The smoky air and feeble table lights do little to push away the gloom of the encroaching night,

nor do they add any warmth to the atmosphere. The bartender pours a drink for a customer and doesn't even acknowledge your existence. What few patrons do look your way respond with a grunt as they turn back to their mediocre food and hushed conversations. With the first brief description, the characters know nothing about the room they're entering. It could be a potential bar fight or one of the faux pubs at Disneyland. With the latter, the characters know there's a decent chance of gastrointestinal distress, whether it's from the food or a dagger to the gut. Good scene descriptions bring life to your campaign and can show the wonderful variety present in the various locations throughout your world.

It's so important to accurately and succinctly describe what the characters see in an area. If you just say you enter a tavern, you're leaving a lot of gaps for your players to fill in, and you and your four players may have five different thoughts about what's going on in the tavern, even with the door still wide open and your characters barely over the threshold. Players depend on you, the DM, to describe what they see. Battle maps help with a cold, calculating overview of the tactics needed regarding battles, but it's your job to provide them the details. Focus on what the character's senses tell them. Leave it to the players to tell you what the character is thinking or feeling.

Now let me start this off by saying not every scene needs a major description. Save your good scene descriptions for important locations and important interactions. You don't need to write a paragraph when your PCs are performing mundane tasks or making a one-off stop to a random magic shop, apothecary, or ripper dock. When you describe unimportant interactions in too much detail, you actually rob your important locations of their impact. If you take five minutes to describe every random market stall, the PCs might not pay attention when they actually have an important moment. So if it's an unimportant location, throw in one or two phrases and just be done with

it. The old woman at the market stall with the name Greta's Wetworks looks up from oiling a pistol and sets the barrel down carefully on the workbench. Oh hello dearies, you look like you might be in the market for some better tools. So important locations like places the PCs will frequent, locations that will feature prominently in the plot, or areas that you want to showcase need good descriptions. Similarly, important moments of plot development, or NPCs even that are crucial to the plot, I would take more time to describe the area around them and the NPCs themselves.

But even for important places and people, be judicious in your descriptions. The very first time they interact with it, yes, be very descriptive, effusive, loquacious, grandiloquent, all talky-talky about it. Further interactions, maybe just tell the PCs what's different. Maybe the first time the PCs enter the Great Hall, you describe it by what it looks like, how drafty it feels, how high the ceilings are, the warm light given off by the large chandelier hanging from the middle of the ceiling. But the second time they return, you don't need to go into all those details.

They don't need a repeat of the detailed description. They just need to know what's different from the last time they were there. Maybe give them a brief reminder of what the area looks like, and then just say, now banners are hung in the Great Hall in anticipation of the Conquest Day celebrations tomorrow, where vows will be renewed to destroy the heathens of the St. Wall Empire. When it comes to descriptions, it's really easy to go too far overboard, and there is a balancing act you have to find. Sometimes less is more. Even important descriptions should be maybe three to five sentences.

That's it. Your initial description shouldn't strive to answer every question the PCs may have about the spaceship that you're trying to describe. Allow the player's imaginations, preconceived notions, and questions to fill in the gaps. Now here is the bad news, and I don't want you to turn off this episode prematurely. Good scene descriptions are more art than science. Now stick with me. While I'm going to give you a couple of formulas that you can follow, each gaming table is different about what's important to them and the scenes that they need described. Once you become comfortable with the formulas that I'm going to give you and your gaming table,

you can adjust your style to what your gaming table needs in a good description. Good scene descriptions not only describe an area, but they allow you as the DM to change the focus for the players. When you watch a movie, there may be a hundred things going on in the picture at any given time, but the director points the camera where he or she wants to and emphasizes what he or she needs to show the viewer. Similarly, an author focuses on just what he or she wants the reader to focus on. So you as the DM can do the same thing. When you describe the scene, draw focus on what you feel is important. Do you have the PCs focus on the undead fiends feasting on the hapless goat that happened to wander into the room? Or the blood pooling on

the floor that's taking on the symbol of a dormant god? Which one is more important for the players to know? What just sounds cool? You can focus the scene and on the action that's important to the plot and to that particular moment. I pride myself on running horror adventures and horror one-shots. Scary adventures feel like a time machine to me in a lot of ways. Good descriptions in horror adventures are even more crucial than just standard run-of-the-mill adventures. Because scene me in a lot of ways. Good descriptions in horror adventures are even more crucial than just standard run-of-the-mill adventures. Because scene descriptions in a horror adventure convey the overall mood of what the characters are experiencing. That's how you make the players realize that the world isn't what they think it is. There's something much more powerful and much

more sinister at work behind the moment or behind the adventure. A ghostly classroom becomes a spectral instructor silently communicates something important to a room of ethereal students. They are in various states of paying attention. In the back row, notes are being passed. One girl teases another girl's hair, and a book falls on the floor with a loud slam. In perfect unison, every head snaps into place in your direction with unnatural speed and all movement in the room ceases. You get the distinct impression that your presence is very unwelcome here. I highly recommend that if you want to get better at scene descriptions, practice, practice, practice. But how do you do that? Well, I'm glad you asked, fictional person in my head. Here's five ways that you can practice scene descriptions. One,

understand that it does require practice and a commitment to get better. Practice doing descriptions in your mind. I'm not sure I'd go around narrating everything out loud. That's how people start looking at you strangely and you develop a reputation. But when you have downtime, you're sitting at a doctor's office, you're on the subway, you're in a parking lot. Imagine how you would describe the scene that you are seeing to the players around your table. The more you do that, the more it hones this skill and it makes it easier to do it in the moment. So, look out your window. How would you describe it in three sentences to someone who can't see through your eyes?

Second tip, start simple. Don't try to describe the entire restaurant you're in as your first description practice. You'll get overwhelmed. Narrow focus to only the broad details. Look at the entire room, not all the way down to the type of linen that's being used for all your tablecloths. Third tip. When you get comfortable describing what you see, start bringing in the other senses. Good descriptions engage at least two senses, preferably three. The sound of crunching snow,

the smell of the air that tells you that rain is on the way, the feel of the sand underneath your character's bare feet. Bring those other senses into your descriptions as well. Fourth tip. When you need to improvise a description, use what you've experienced as a basis. The places you've been and are familiar with. Movies you know by heart. Steal from those descriptions. Stuff that you've read in a book.

A picture that you've seen. Or even maybe a piece of art that you've seen online. Borrow from those and use those as a basis for what you're describing. The players don't have to know that you're using a fantasy version of Jean-Luc Picard as the basis for your description. Fifth tip, fucking read to expand your vocabulary. Not just Reddit and IG. Read novels, and it doesn't have to be Anna Karenina.

When Tolstoy said all happy families are alike, I think he meant it doesn't have to be that. It can be fantasy novels, science fiction novels, short stories, anything. Get used to how authors describe scenes, areas, people, and use their formulas, use their descriptions. Give yourself stories in your mind to draw in at the gaming table. Another thing that you can do is make your descriptions more subjective than objective. Objective descriptions are devoid of feeling. The grass is there. There are stars in the sky. Some of the stars are brighter than others.

Subjective descriptions draw players in. The lush grass feels soft beneath their feet. Some of the stars are brighter than others. Subjective descriptions draw players in. The lush grass feels soft beneath their feet. The stars seem like they were woven in a certain pattern. They flicker like they're trying to speak to the character. Aim for subjective descriptions. Try to tell the characters what they are experiencing, but remember, leave it to the players to tell you what their characters are feeling. Okay, enough rambling. Let's get to the formula and playbook. What are some tried and true methods that you can use to describe scenes for your players?

You'd think I'd start with a method that I usually use or that I learned, but nope, I found something better while researching for this episode. User Kcon1528 had a great method that he put on the D&D behind-the-screen subreddit. I reached out to them and told them how much I really enjoyed the method that they used and asked if I could include it in this particular episode, and they were very happy to let me do so, so thank you so much. Their method uses the acronym EASE. Environment, Atmosphere, Senses, and events, and you describe as seen in that order. Environment. Describe the plants, the structures, the lighting, and the weather. This information

may be a bit generic at times, but it helps set a base template to layer other descriptions on top of. The atmosphere. This is less about what is seen and more about what is felt. It's the emotion that's evoked by being in the setting. Be careful here not to tell the players how they feel, but rather focus on how most people would likely feel if they were here. Senses. Use your description to engage all of the senses. Sight is easiest, but use a bit of flowery language to evoke the other player's senses of smell,

hearing, touch, and maybe even taste as applicable. This will help the characters get more viscerally into the setting. Lastly, the events. Now that the stage is set, you can talk about what's happening now. Here you will describe creatures, NPCs, and general goings-on. If nothing of note is currently unfolding, talk about what may have happened recently. This is especially great time to engage your hunter-tracker characters who may pick up bits of information that others may miss. Now you may be asking, why describe important events last? You may be thinking, well wouldn't it be good for the PCs to know immediately that the room is full of toxic fumes or that a burly oak with a laser cannon is about to shoot their head off?

The reason you don't lead with an imminent threat is because once the PCs hear about the likely encounter, they are going to shut everything else out, and that is going to be their focus. They're not going to focus on the ionic columns if you tell them there's a rhinoceros in the room that's looking to charge. The columns may hold the key to solving a centuries-old riddle to open the tomb of Ruzagud, but the PCs won't hear you describe it if you lead with the fact that there's a purple worm coiling around the destroyed throne. So one consistent piece of advice I would give you, regardless of your gaming system and regardless of the formula that you use. To improve your scene descriptions, anything that could be an encounter should be saved for the last part of the description.

Make your players accuse you of burying the lead, so to speak. All right, let's briefly talk about the methodology that I learned and something that I still use. I call it SISLEM. S-S-L-E-M. Size, Senses, Lighting, Events, and Mood Size Give the players a rough idea of the scale of what they're looking at. Are they in a 20x20 room with a low ceiling? Or are they staring outside at an entire cliff face? Are they in a high-arching cathedral?

Or are they going into a trailer park at the end of the bad side of town? Senses. This is my reminder to include non-visual senses in my description. Sounds, smells, feeling, movement. Sounds and smells are the most important to include besides sight, but make sure you include those senses as well. Lighting. What lights are present? How bright are they? What is able to be seen because of it? Do they cast shadows? If so, how big and prominent are they?

Events. What's going on and who's doing it and what can the characters observe? And then lastly, the M is for mood. This is optional, but you can describe what a typical person would experience or feel seeing the scene that you're laying out before them. Is it ominous? Is there a sense of urgency? Is it jovial? And so forth. If you'll notice, both methods work big details to small, describing the first impressions of the area, the character's sensory

experiences, and only then get to the finer details and current goings-on. Which, by the way, this is remarkably similar to how scientists have revealed that we experience new spaces. If you walk into a formal ballroom, you'll first notice the size of the area, the ambiance, and the way it makes you feel before you start noticing finer details, like that the china has a governmental seal on it, and then finally noticing what's changing over time, like your country's vice president is currently doing the cha-cha slide. This whole technique, by the way, is best demonstrated by examples. I'm going to use stills that I found from movies that you can go search for online as sample scene descriptions. I found from movies that you can go search for online as sample scene descriptions.

The large black double doors open silently to a large, naturally lit but cold marble room containing a pair of columns running the length of the room east to west. Between these columns are eight caskets lined up perfectly and draped with the Union Jack flag. An older woman in black looks up from the farthest casket, returning from her thoughts, a forlorn look on her face. This, by the way, is a scene from the movie Skyfall. Sighs. You know it's a large room. Senses. You know it's naturally lit but cold and the doors open silently. Lighting. I cheated and used naturally lit here as a cheat for the lighting description as well. Events. The woman in the caskets. Possible questions for your players.

Who is she? Who's in the caskets? Why do they all have the Union Jack draped over them? Why is she forlorn? Is she their mother? Their boss? A relative? How will she react to being intruded upon like this? Obviously, the mood is forlorn. I'm preying on preconceived notions by the players that generally people looking at caskets are doing so in a reverential way. Did I say that? No, but I'm assuming the players will know that. Another example. You feel the hard rooftop crunch under your boots as you emerge through the stairwell door. The cloudless night sky is lit by multiple large fires burning throughout the city,

evidence that the water riots are still not under control. A lone woman sits in a railing smoking a cigarette. Her red coat and fur collar swallows her tiny frame. She turns to face you and smiles. By the way, this is a scene that I paused from Hotel Artemis that I happen to be watching. Sighs, you're outside on a rooftop on a cloudless night. Senses, the sound of your walk and the sights that I described. The lighting, the rooftop being lit by huge fires burning throughout the city. The events, a lone tiny woman in an oversized coat smoking a cigarette on the railing. And then the mood, she smiled at you. Does this indicate

friendship, amicability, or is she smiling because she's a predator who just spotted potential prey? If you'd like to get better at scene descriptions, I have a homework assignment for you. After you finish a movie at home, go back to a spot in the movie that shows a wide shot of a scene or large portions of a room. Hit pause. Practice describing that scene to someone who couldn't see it. Say the words out loud and try to paint the picture. Pick your description method. Ease, sizzle them, or come up with your own. Do this over and over again until it becomes second nature. Scene descriptions are a key skill to develop as a DM or GM. It does require work and commitment on your part,

but it can turn a plain blasé dungeon into an ancient overgrown crypt covered in undisturbed grime and dust. This has been episode 78, tips for scene descriptions, suggested by Trevor. I hope this episode helps you, Trevor, and I hope all of my other listeners in the future. If you wouldn't mind,

please give us a like, subscribe, or rating and tell us how we're doing. Tune in next week where we resume the Monster Series, this time focusing on one of my favorite topics, demons, devils, and the blood war. I once again want to thank our sponsor, Larry and Frida's Lawn Service.

They do trimming too, and they don't beat around the bush when they're doing it. My name is Jeremy Shelley, and I hope that your next game is your best game.