Resources for better Environment Descriptions ?

[Rofltrollcopter]

Hello Playground,

I've just started GMing a Kingmaker-inspired game, and I've found that I've had trouble describing the environment in an interesting way to my players. Whenever I'm on the spot and need to think quickly, I tend to fall back to basic descriptions 'e.g. it's a forest/ it's a wood building about 8 ft tall' etc. Does anyone have suggestions for techniques or principles for describing the environment in a way that engages the players? Or the location of a collection of pre-written box text that's hidden away somewhere on the internet?

[Vitruviansquid]

In the internet age, maybe you could find pictures much alike the scene you are describing.

If that isn't available and your problem is that your descriptions are too spare, maybe give yourself a minimum of points to describe about any location.

For example, when your players come across the "wood building about 8ft tall," force yourself to come up with 3 points to elaborate. They might be something like, "It feels quaint and homey, there is a small chimney on the top of this building that isn't smoking, there is no door, just a person-sized opening in the wall."

[Knaight]

The big thing with description quality is that better descriptions come from more familiarity - becoming more familiar with the outdoors and with architecture would help a lot. Camping, hiking, and canoeing are all solid ways to get a better grounding in the outdoors for source material, but there are also ways to get somewhere just with reading. I'd suggest looking at some of the dicegeeks stuff at Drivethru RPG. Forests, Wetlands, and Mountains (three different short .pdf files) are particularly useful.

If you use a GM screen, one of the things worth putting on it is just lists of environmental features that may or may not show up. I'd do this by campaign - have a few tables characterizing different types of settlements (maybe some that break it down by size, maybe some that are culture specific, etc.), a few more for natural environments that show up, a few more for character descriptions. Then have lists of descriptive words. You'll have a bunch of nouns, some particularly well fitting adjectives, etc. by the time you're finished with the tables. Glance at them as part of the descriptive process, and the words just being there can spark creativity.

[Darth Ultron]

Well for pre-written box text, you want adventures. You can find them online or used book stores (live by a Half Price Books?) Also This website has 83 free adventures: http://www.dungeonmastering.com/campaigns-adventures/83-free-dd-adventures (Free)

National Geographic...the magazine and website are great.

Novels are the best places for descriptions, or even places like Writing.com.

[Martin Greywolf]

Write the descriptions out beforehand - not just bullet points, write out exactly what you'll say aloud. Coming up with a good description on the fly is very much an acquired skill.

If you have trouble coming up with those, I'd go for FATE approach - pick 1-4 short phrases that describe it, phrases that players could pay you meta currency to get a +N bonus to rolls. This phrase will have a core ("forest") and some adjectives ("lush", "dry", "thick") and possibly a possesive descriptor ("of the Duke") or a twist ("cursed", "blessed"). Then you'll have more specific descriptions, like "Lots of dry deadwood", and those especially, a clever player can use. To set the forest on fire in this case.

[Knaight]

National Geographic...the magazine and website are great.

I'd go with older material here - Nat Geo took a quality dive a few years ago, and just hasn't been up to its old standard.