Tabletop roleplaying games rely on description. Whether you're providing description of a character, a place, a scene, an action, your players need you to describe things in a way that makes sense. There are keys for describing combat, but what about the larger world of the game? There are certain guidelines you can use to make sure that your game is rich with easy-to-understand descriptions that enrich the game for your players.
There are three keys to description: detail, clarity, and momentum. Each corresponds to a key concern within the game. Detail provides the players with the information they need to make informed decisions. Clarity helps prevent misunderstandings from ambiguous descriptions. Momentum keeps the story moving so that you're not bogged down in details. I'll cover each concern with examples of how to implement them.
Detail is perhaps the most important consideration with descriptions. You want to convey a sense of a real world. You can do this by enriching the world with details that make it more vivid. A good detail provides a sense that the players are learning about what the world is like, even via small indications. When you introduce something new, be it a character, place, scene, or action, it should include a few details that make it distinct. Let's consider some examples.
The players are at a tavern when they are approached by an NPC. The NPC wants them to investigate a burglary at their home. This could be enough to run the situation as part of your story. But you want to describe the NPC so that the encounter has some flavor to it. A good guideline for description comes from comedy's rule of threes: you want to provide three details for any given idea you introduce. So we'll come up with three details about the NPC. (1) They wear tattered clothes that were once fine in quality. (2) Their body language is defeated and dejected. (3) They look over their shoulder as they speak, apparently in fear of being snuck up on.
This is all information that the party would have access to while encountering this NPC. These details paint the portrait of a character who is down on their luck, someone who desperately needs help. These details tell the party who this person is without having to have dialogue where the NPC explains that they are those things. As you can see, the details don't need to tell the players a lot--you just need enough information to create an impression. The goal isn't to affect the bottom line of the story, just to explain what's going on with specific details so that our scene is more complete. Let's do description again, this time with a place:
The players are on the road and emerge into a large clearing in the woods. We want to suggest that this place was the site of a large camp until only recently, so we add a few details that hint in that direction. Again going for three pieces of description: (1) The tall grass is trampled in certain areas, rectangles of flat grass suggesting that something was laid on top of it. (2) There are tree stumps nearby at the edge of the woods and firepits dug in three locations in the clearing. (3) Offal and gutted animal corpses lie at the edge of the woods, all of the meat of the animals cut away.
This gives the players a pretty clear impression of what this place is like. It is somewhat obvious that a large camp existed here until recently. These details also suggest questions: Who camped here? Where did they go? What made them leave? You can use these questions to your advantage by spinning them into a sub-story (tracking down the former campers) or just use it as a pitstop on the way to answering bigger questions (the campers were fleeing from a monster that lives in the woods, and that monster is responsible for other changes in the area). The important thing is that for the players, this place is distinct--it stands different than the other clearings they have seen in the woods. Let's try a scene:
The party enters a big city and finds the city guard lining up a number of laborers. We want this scene to be chaotic because it reflects the negative effects of the guards' interference. Our three details: (1) The laborers, lined up, are shifting nervously in place and looking to the party with pleading eyes. (2) The head guard is yelling angrily about regulations regarding who is registered to be hired for general labor. (3) The families of the laborers are standing by, calling out in pained voices about allowing the laborers to work and support them.
This scene is complex. It involves the interests of multiple parties. To give a detailed picture of what's happening, we need to provide specific information about each of them. This scene may be part of a setup to tell a story about the laborers and their conflict with the guards, or this scene could just be an interesting moment that has little to do with the main plot. But either way, it should include details like this that express what's going on in the scene. Finally, let's write details for an action:
The party is fighting the BBEG, who pulls out a magical weapon they use to fight the party more effectively. We want this moment to be extra dramatic, so we provide details on what the action is like. Our three details: (1) The BBEG reaches into their robes and removes a silver mirror with fine etching around the outside. (2) The BBEG raises the mirror to their face and suddenly a head identical to the BBEG's emerges from the mirror's face; an entire copy of them has come out of the mirror. (3) The mirror duplicate pulls a knife from their boot and throws it at a party member while the original BBEG withdraws from combat.
This action has multiple parts, and we want to describe them all. By providing details for each significant part of the BBEG's action, we have provided the players with enough information to make what they've experienced relatively unique and much more interesting than a simple note that there is now a duplicate of the BBEG to deal with. What matters is that when you describe the details that make up an action, you give a clear idea of what happens. Which leads us into our second consideration: clarity.
Clarity is vital in a tabletop game. You're relying on your ability to communicate an idea clearly to your players without the aid of a visual reference (even the most specific physical representations of a place will have breakdowns in communication). You need to make sure that when you describe something, it's what your players are actually hearing and imagining for themselves. And to do that, you need to rely on your ability to clearly manifest what is in your head into something recognizable to others. There's a simple tool to do that: use your imagination.
When you're describing something with clarity in mind, you should be picturing it in your head. Think about every detail you can conjure: Where are the people? How far from each other is everything? What visual details are they able to notice? What colors and shapes are things? One of the most important considerations here is whether your description of something will suggest conflicting information. For instance, if you say "the door," which door are you talking about? If you're describing an enemy, which enemy are you referring to? How are they different from the other enemies? When you ask these questions, you refine your mental image of what's happening, which is vital to communicate it to your party. Let's consider a couple of examples.
Let's pick up with our character example from above. The unfortunate, destitute person who needed help is being taken seriously by the party. We may have only basic information pre-planned for this character, but they have all the specifics of their own situation. To paint the best picture of this NPC's involvement in the story, we need to address these descriptions with clarity. Let's say that this NPC has been thrown from their family home by a ruthless baron. Now we're dealing in the world of specifics that will affect the plot, so it's time to be specific and clear.
So now, using our imaginative image of what's going on and the direction we generally want the story to head, let's fill in some description. This NPC says that they were evicted by the baron and now their home is being used as a headquarters for guards. We should be imagining this situation from the NPC's perspective. What would their concerns be? They want to get their house back--that much provides the party a quest to complete. But they would also be concerned about how well the house is treated by its new residents. The NPC may have been ousted from their house without being able to pack, so perhaps there is a family heirloom (maybe a magical one) hidden somewhere in the house. Perhaps the NPC tried to gain entry to the house again but was roughly handled by the guards. These ideas provide clarity on the situation. It's not enough that the NPC has lost their house--we need a description of specifically how that affects them. This will motivate players more than any amount of telling them "this is the quest." Players will get involved in causes their players support, so you can use clear description to get them invested.
We can use clarity of description with other examples as well. Let's go back to the mysterious clearing in the woods, and we'll say that we want them to discover what happened here as part of a larger story. What clear details can we provide that advance the players along their investigation? We've established that the grass is trampled in rectangular shapes across the clearing; we can add the specific details that most of the flattened areas are in circular shapes around the firepits that have been dug out. We've said that there are tree stumps at the edge of the clearing; we can add that the species of trees cut down are the type best suited for fires and building small structures. We've written that animals have been killed and cleaned nearby; now we can establish that these animals are boars and elk, which are not plentiful in this area, but are about 10 miles to the south. With these details, we have the impression that whoever set up this camp were seemingly nomads who have moved from the area to the south through here. This also suggests that the party could search to the north and find the nomads. What matters is that the information here gives specific information which you've considered, and it should allow the party to proceed without getting bogged down in misinterpretations (which you should be prepared for anyway--parties always get caught up in theories that don't play out unless you adjust what you're doing to agree with their hunches, which can be a great way to GM).
A final note about clarity: if you find that your players are having a hard time imagining a scene, provide more details. If you have to choose between under- or over-describing, err on the side of over-describing. You're trying to overcome the disadvantage of presenting an entire world to your players, so offer as much in the way of clear details as possible. Only if you're trying to obscure a mystery should you provide few details, and even then, it's a good idea to allow the players to tune into what's going on enough to have theories.
The final ingredient to good description is momentum. This is especially important in a roleplaying campaign, but it's still very important in a combat campaign. What I mean by momentum is keeping your descriptions of things in tune with the narrative ups and downs of the game. I suggest above that three details are sufficient to describe most things, but that can change given certain conditions. Here's a guide to shortening or lengthening your descriptions depending on momentum.
Let's say that you're running the story with the NPC whose home has been repossessed as a guard headquarters. When your players first arrive at the house, momentum is low. You want to provide extra description here to get things going. Instead of the three details suggested above, go with more--let's say five details. So when the players arrive at the house, we give five details to establish the scene:
(1) The house is in good condition but is starting to age. Its shudders are in need of paint and the windows are frightfully dirty. (2) The front door of the house is solid and strong; it makes a deep sound when the players knock on it. (3) The players can see candlelight moving through the windows as the guards inside move to open the door. (4) The guard who opens the door has a scar on his left cheek; he announces that the house is not open to the public and moves to close the door. (5) The sound of drunken laughter from within the house reaches the party; they could estimate that as many as ten guards are inside.
This amount of description fits the occasion. We want our players to have a good sense of what's going on, and the moment is not action-packed, so we can add more details without threatening to disrupt the momentum the party is building. But other moments will move at different speeds. Let's consider what happens if the party convinces the guard to let them into the house, this time with three details because the scene is more tense than before:
(1) As they enter the house, the party notices that the house is underlit; torches rest in holders throughout the room, but they are not lit as the guards are using candles. (2) A table with six guards sits in the back corner of the main room. They have a handful of liquor bottles on the table next to a deck of playing cards. (3) The guard who let the party in explains to the seated guards that the party is here to investigate a claim by the former owner of the house; the seated guards laugh at this but do not resist it.
This scene has some tension--the party has entered the belly of the beast and now the scene has some momentum. We don't want to spend a couple of minutes telling the party about this scene. We want to provide the information required and keep moving. The players will isolate specific parts of the information you've given and act based on it, which will allow you as GM to create new details for them to respond to. You're improvising the action using good "yes and" guidelines, which allows you to guide the story by what the players want. And using the guidelines for momentum, you're also keeping the action moving without overwhelming your players with description. But for even tenser scenes, you want to keep giving slightly less description. Let's consider a later scene in the house with appropriate description--two details now to provide enough information but abbreviated so that it flows more quickly:
The party enters the attic of the house via a ladder. (1) The party emerges into near darkness and smells a decaying body. (2) The sound of a person shifting their weight makes the floorboards creak from the corner of the attic.
We've introduced information that's going to make the party act--they're going to want to do something about whoever is in the attic with them. We could provide more description--the wind blowing through cracks in the house's frame, the clusters of covered belongings scattered throughout the room, the shape of the cramped attic. It's not a bad idea to include this information right away. But if the players emerge into the attic and notice the lurking person there before they notice the blowing wind, they're not likely to take note of the blowing wind at all. So we can save these details for descriptions later in the scene as the players deal with the important information they initially learned. This is intended to make the players' experience more like what their characters are experiencing. And importantly, restricting detail allows the players to remain exciting about the tension and drama without getting bogged down in all the minute details about the scene that won't matter until that tension is resolved.
One of your greatest challenges as a GM is striking the right balance with description. Remember that you can't tell a story at all without describing it, so make the most of what you can do by considering these tips for description. The more you tailor your descriptions to what your players want and need, the better your game will be. So develop some skills adding details to your game and your players will benefit greatly from it.
Coming soon: how to succeed as a roleplayer, how to deal with player issues as a GM, and a one-shot based on the movie Con Air. Until next time, happy gaming!
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