I'm a new dad and my son is just now 6 weeks old. One of the things you notice from the start is how they're discovering their whole body for the first time. So basically, they have zero experience with any of the five senses.
So how does that make a better Game Master?
When describing things for PCs, come up with a 5-senses checklist for each new environment they enter (not for every room). Always deliver sight and smell first, because that is usually what people notice first. You'd think sound would be first but most environments have ambient sound which is harder to pick out. Even if you don't do it so eloquently, just describing the feeling the PCs would normally get from what they observe is key.
The Dungeon:
Sight: The blackness hangs in the air like a withering corpse.
Smell: A musty smell of ancient bones lingers.
Sound: A dead silence.
Touch: (if the characters touch walls, coffins, sarcophagi...) A lifeless coldness.
The City:
Sight: The great stone walls of the city seem thick with opportunity and mystery. Most of the buildings reach three stories high and the decorative stonework is a marvel to behold.
Smell: Several strange smells mix in the air from horse manure to fresh roasted lamb.
Sound: Shouts of vendors, strange accents, and the far off ringing of temple bells.
Touch/Taste: as needed.
The Forest:
Sight: A green twilight fills the landscape before you as the tall trees filter out the sunlight.
Smell: A fresh smell of dew and treebark.
Sound: There is a quiet stillness that makes you aware that a hundred little forest eyes are observing you.
Touch/Taste: as needed.
When you try to describe something, never describe it as "good" or "bad". For example, never say "it smells bad". Always try to describe what it smells like and let the PCs realize, "yeah, that's bad". The same thing is true when describing good things, always compare it to something else, especially good feelings. Experiencing good things usually brings up happy memories.
Hope that helps someone's game.
This is totally true! We always try to remind our writers to be conscious of elements beyond sight in their descriptions. The smell of a crypt, the chill of a dark night, the sound of creaking chains, these are all powerful tools that far too often go overlooked but can really drag players into a scene. Can't wait to hear how trying this out a bit goes in your game!
It doesn't need to be beautifully said, but it does need to be accurate.
Example:
#1 You walk into a tavern. The tavern is lit by lanterns at tables and wall sconces. The tavern smells of roasted lamb and stale beer. Several patrons are sitting at tables and chatting quietly. One patron is ranting loudly at the end of the bar about the high ale prices.
#2 You step into the tavern cautiously. Lanterns decorate the tables illuminating faces engaged in hushed conversations. The scent of spiced lamb cooks the air amongst the yeasty smell of days old ale. An energetic patron at the end of the bar is spewing anger out on the barkeep over a five copper piece mug of ale.
Essentially the same, and the second one is nicer to listen to, but if you're not so good with words, your PCs will appreciate the effort of the first description just as well.
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This is great advice Veector.
I've been GMing for a long time and often times when describing the "scene" I use only sight and sound. So when I used smell the Players notice it and are in "kill it" mode.
Sometimes we take for granted everything that a real person would be taking in and ignore the other senses.
Trent
This makes for a good GM checklist. Thanks a ton, veector, I've only recently started DMing again and really needed the little refresher course! :)
Don't forget the power of taste. Cramming weird dungeon stuff into the PCs mouths is sure to get their attention and make the dungeon memorable....
Don't forget the power of taste. Cramming weird dungeon stuff into the PCs mouths is sure to get their attention and make the dungeon memorable....
Sounds like an episode of Iron Chef! :)
You can also evoke some other interesting sensations with your descriptions.
#1 In port. As you clamber on deck, a wave of stagnant heat slams into you. Your chest clutches as you fight to breathe the air that has been baking over the harbor since day break. The oily reek of dead fish, decaying sewage, and a large bloated bunyip corpse burns in the back of your throat. The deck pitches beneath you on the wake of an outbound Chelish cog and you regret that the Varisian cook spiced last nights’ meal. Above wheel countless gulls and cormorants against a sky bleached of all color by the relentless sun.
#2 In the mine. A hundred thousand pounds of basalt and granite looms above you pressing down on your shoulders and your spine instinctively curls in upon itself. The smoky pitch of your torch stings your eyes and its flickering light offers scant hope against the near perfect blackness before you. Centuries of water seeping through the cracks in the mountain rock have coated the walls with sparkling patches of crystalline needles, rusty blotches of lichen, and globules of glistening ebon mold.
I find that it is the little things that make the most impact.
#3 In the forest. Ravens fill the branches of the lightning blasted oak. Their eyes track your progress. They make no sound.
CJ
*wanting to say something ... wanting to say something ... not allowed to say anything ... not saying anything*
Senses are great to use in conjunction with one another, or even better at odds with one another.
We do first and foremost identify the world visually. Our hearing and sense of smell are not nearly as developed and often act more as a warning system.
Smell is the sense that tells us that something is amiss more than any other I think. Sights can be gruesome, sounds can be startling or annoying, but nothing makes your brain come to life like a foreign smell...be it rotting vegitation or sweet perfume. If you walk downstairs in the morning and in the living room something smells like dead animal...well you may not panic but you instantly know something is wrong and the smell is instantly recognizable even without a visual.
Sound gives us the most warning...it's easy to startle or creep somebody out with sound especially when there is no visual. I think sound has the most impact when used on it's own. The sound of chopping and breaking or a wet, squirming noise behind a locked door or down in a dark pit you can't see is always startling. This works because everybody has woken up in the night from hearing a foreign sound comming from the darkness outside.
Touch and taste are the most personal. If you want your players to feel calmed, aroused, or violated nothing works as well as these two...visual or no. Touch and taste also work great to describe any kind of foreign particles in the air be it dust from ferrous metal, hot sand, smoke, or some kind of vapor.
My favorite is to use these things in conjunction when they cannot logically go together when describing something alien. A beautiful woman who smells like rotted meat, a slimy horror that makes noises like little girls laughing, a giant creature that should thud and vibrate the very earth that instead makes soft-damp noises as it moves...these are always my favorite.
This is totally true! We always try to remind our writers to be conscious of elements beyond sight in their descriptions. The smell of a crypt, the chill of a dark night, the sound of creaking chains, these are all powerful tools that far too often go overlooked but can really drag players into a scene. Can't wait to hear how trying this out a bit goes in your game!
Smells are very powerful in evoking emotion. I have used some tricks over the years in GMing including opening up a bottle of a special scent when the party was near to "the big bad guy."
They could not quite put their fingers on it, but it made the players more alert when the scent was in the air.
I have a series of articles and presentations on GMing at
In service,
Rich
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When describing things for PCs, come up with a 5-senses checklist for each new environment they enter (not for every room). Always deliver sight and smell first, because that is usually what people notice first. You'd think sound would be first but most environments have ambient sound which is harder to pick out. Even if you don't do it so eloquently, just describing the feeling the PCs would normally get from what they observe is key.
Excellent topic, veector. You even got Sean K. to come out of lurk mode and stop buy (an Vic too, I see.)
I have to agree 100% with the OP. I used to use the same logic to quite good success in my Ravenloft game in 2nd edition 10 years ago - where especially the sense of smell really worked to freak em out.
Psychologists agree that it is the sense of smell that gives us the biggest mind-spin of any of our senses. Someone succinctly mentioned that it is that sense that alerts us to danger the most.
Similarly, it is the sense of smell that sparks our greatest memories.
A brand of cigarettes that a loved one use to use. The mustly old smell of the sofa at grandmas house. The scent of cinammon rolls in the morning when visiting family. The smell of bacon in the morning reminding you of mom's cooking on Sunday morning, Turkey or pie in the oven at thanksgiving. The smell of fuel or burning tires for race fans, the snack bar at little league, the locker room at school after a big game, or a certain fragrance of perfume, or lotion that someone close to you used. The smell of a certain flower than you mother use to have in the living room. We all know when someone has a dog just by the smell of their house or clothes. We all know that "hospital" smell and can identify it immediately. The smell a new car. Anyone we're ever truly intimate with has a unique smell that we can recognize. One of the most amazing smells - the smell of a newborn baby. Anyone who has ever had the pleasure of that sensation knows exactly what I mean. And nothing compares to it. The memories associated with that and my own children is very powerful.
Essentially the sense of smell provides us the biggest connection and memory to something. If you can describe it well enough - especially in a way that is relateable it will make far more impact than any other visual description you can provide.
If you can take time to remember just how powerful memories can be affiliated with smells, and to apply that mindset to your DMing descriptions, it will turn on a world of imagination that your players will undoubtedly take notice and respond to with gusto.
Robert