Don't let boxed text hold you back!
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- Опубликовано: 9 сен 2024
- Don't put your players to sleep! I'll show you how to keep everyone engaged with compelling descriptions that appeal to the senses!
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Do you need some D&D description tips? Dungeon Masters have a hard job of describing every scene in their Dungeons & Dragons game. Sometimes boxed text is available to read out loud, but that doesn't everything, and sometimes the boxed text isn't all that good! In this video, we show you how to take a bad description of a D&D scene and turn it into a good one using sensory imagery! Sensory imagery is a narrative tool where you can use specific words to create mental images by appealing to the senses of the reader or listener. This video will take an example D&D boxed text and make it better by adding in sensory imagery, and give you tips on how to make better descriptions for your Dungeons & Dragons game!
#rpg #dnd #dungeonsanddragons
You watch the video, sultry tones caressing your ears. Compelled, you see your mouse being drawn to the like button, like a moth to flame.
Some of the boxed text are boring, some have the opposite problem: using the occasional vocabulary word that no one understands/I can't pronounce (Curse of Strahd has a love affair with the word sepulchre)
So true! My prep work always seems to include looking up pronunciation for archaic/uncommon vocabulary... or subbing in synonyms when there's something I have a hard time pronouncing.
ruclips.net/video/jIAVTsRbcBQ/видео.html
This video uses the word "sepulchre" a fair bit and should hopefully give you a sense of its pronunciation, if not meaning.
SEP-ull-ker. Same u as in bull
Sunlight filters in through the dirty window, illuminating the motes of dust as they drift through the air. The viewer sits in the creaking chair, their coffee steaming in front of them on the desk. They watch as LBH imparts excellent advice, painting word pictures like Rembrandt.
The phrase me and my friends use is "Paint me a word picture" And we try to imagine describing a painting to somebody who hasn't seen it, you wouldn't just say Van Gogh's Starry Night was "A town with stars in the sky"
One thing I found interesting is that my first thought was "why spend the time and effort on describing some unimportant place?" and this immediately spawned two responses to my own question in my head. One was, of course, the typical "so lengthy, meaningful descriptions don't serve as big 'important thing here' neon signs for the players." But the more significant one, I realized, was the point that, if I feel like it's a boring waste of time to describe a place, then why is that place in the adventure at all? RPGs are supposed to be about having interesting times role-playing adventures, and if there's a part of the game that prompts the response, "yeah, whatever, let's just move on," then it really doesn't have a purpose. That first meadow's description prompted the reaction "let's just move through it to whatever exit we pick, maybe keeping an eye on the deer and the tree to make sure that they're not really monsters or an illusion concealing a hazard or something" whereas the longer description made me think that something interesting--not necessarily a combat encounter, just something interesting--was going to happen there, or that it would be a fit setting for later events down the road (sure, the party's just walking through it now, but it's where the local villagers will hold the big wedding between their chief's daughter and her Mysterious Wanderer fiancee). If some part of the adventure makes you not want to spend the time to describe it properly, then that's a clue that there may be underlying design issues to address.
Love how you include smell so well even when it is not something you experience much.
Descriptive text engaging all the senses is the way to go. Great vid, LBH! Hopefully everyone who watched this remembers that sometimes "less is more"...describing everything with such superlative descriptions can stretch into a lot of time describing and less time playing. I will definitely be practicing some of what you preach, but do it in a targeted fashion. Thanks for this!
An advanced tip! Consider the genre of your adventure and inject your description with the stylistic tropes present in other stories of that type, even if such memes are old-fashioned for those stories! What’s trite in a modern horror novel can serve as an excellent point of “I know this!” for your players to connect with in your own verbal tapestry.
Example: To amplify the gothic horror of Curse of Strahd, personify objects and environments: “grasping trees, whispering winds, and starved hallways thick with clinging cobwebs”. Also include subtly-subversive juxtaposition, where evil things are actually good, good things are actually evil, and youthful appearances betray ancient origins: “the angels soft eyes plead for mercy, but his wicked mace hungers for blood”.
You're a life saver LBH. I used every single one of your guides for Curse of Strahd and this is great too!
Have a note on the back of your DM screen that simply reads "See Hear Smell Touch Taste" Really helps to get the most vivid details from a scene
This had great timing. Its something I need to improve on and in my CoS campaign tomorrow, I'm fairly certain that we're going to have our first party member death.
I just did session 0 last week and starting into CoS this week. I don’t think my players are ready for the high chance of death despite telling them specifically sometimes it’s better to run than fight.
I cannot count the times that I have felt like I was just droning on and on, trying convey all the detail of a scene. Good video!
Interesting. I've been trying to get better at descriptions without going overboard and this ended up being really handy
Happy to help!
I always look forward to new LBH posts and have seriously improved my Curse of Strahd campaign with your colorful additions. This particular content is incredibly valuable and relevant to a much wider audience of DMs looking to tickle the sensory inputs of their players. I'm already noodling ways to spice up my battle-weary party's inevitable encounter with Wintersplinter next week!
5:18 The funny part is bees do dance. That’s how they communicate.
This really helped. Some of the boxed descriptions are really dry and stale. The way the original text changed really highlighted the difference between ways of using words. Great vid!
This is a great way to drag out your notes if your players are moving faster then you thought
"It was a hairy bear. It was a scary bear. We beat a hasty retreat from it's lair . . . and described it with adjectives"
I'm always quietly impressed when someone is good at using descriptive text. I should stop being quiet about them and give them the flowers they deserve
I've been playing with writing my own one-shots lately, this is a huge help for condensing those boxed text for the pertinent information!
I'll send this to everyone I know that works with texts because it's just that helpful. Thanks for your amazing work!
Great as always!
I’m running a game of cos tomorrow and I’ll use some of your tips. my players just fought baba lyzaga (or how ever you spell it) and lost, (3 lvl 5 players and ireena)instead of killing them she sent them to kill the night hags of old bone grinder because she thinks their a threat to strahd( it’s a long story but basically our barbarian is hooked on dream pastries and baba noticed and decided to use it to her advantage)
Im a new DM and I've been doing this since my start. Thanx for the positive reinforcement.
This channel is just a god sent...!!
These descriptions are going to help a lot to intensify my current curse if strahd campaign. My players are already living the tension so let's put some more dread into up..😜
Thank you for all the content. COS was my first module and game as a DM. I started about 6 months ago. I'm loving it and you are a big part of it.
This is so helpful. Often the box test describes too much/progresses too fast anyways
Great video! I've always had trouble crafting box text, but the absolute worst is when the modules don't include them either!
Thank you for all your videos!! I borrowed your vision of Van Richten’s tower and I had a party member send me a message on how this session was on of the best he’s ever had!
I hate boxed text just because it's so obvious when I've transitioned to reading something vs when I just describe stuff on the fly. It tells everyone "ooh, this part's important 'cause he's reading it from a book" and that they can ignore the rest (which, considering all the homebrew I'm throwing in, and all the lame rooms that get boxed text, is *not* a good indicator). Of course, whenever I write over the boxed text myself for important stuff? They don't go to that spot -_-
Love how you went into depth with appealing to tge senses. If I know the PCs well enough, i even give short descriptions of how the feel and react to the environment based on their personalities.
This is helpful, the boxed text in the modules often doesn't do a good job
Yupyupyup!!! I’m a DM as well as a Literacy Teacher (was BC) and I nearly always rejigger text boxes. They ARE usually dull.
I love sensory imagery description. I've been doing it for years!
Listing larger, more obvious item in a description is a fantastic idea, I’m definitely gonna use this:)
Got a session tonight in a hellishly frightening forest, paying very close attention!
I just want to say your guides to CoS have been invaluable. I have definitely borrowed your takes on things and have sculpted them into something unique for my own vision of CoS for my group. I love this exercise you're suggesting and I will be doing some extra writing for the Masquerade that my players will be attending at Castle Ravenloft. They are bringing Ireena too. 😈🧛♂️💃
I'm convinced anything you touch turns to gold. High-five!
Hey that didn’t work out so well for Midas
I’ve been running curse of Strahd recently and your videos are always helpful I’ve been using some of your ideas and adding a little bit of my own.
I love your videos, running Curse of Strahd right now, thanks for all the inspiration
Your CoS videos have been a great help to my campaign. Thanks so much
I found this very interesting and helpful. I've been trying to get away from box text, and this really helped.
Keep growing LBH! You're doing great! I hope you get your 1,000 likes in 24 hours soon.
I have a general rule of trying to use at least two senses in the scene. Works wonders for me and my players.
I loved your CoS videos. We recently finished it, and yours was one one the best resources I found. I'm glad you didn't stop there. Keep up!
I love this, so often I miss a crucial part of the mental picture and this helped me realise how I could avoid that!
Very good advice and example of how to improve boxed text!
Boxed text is always hit or miss for me, some of them are quite good, while many suck big time.
The boxed text in official modules is terrible oh my god thank you for this
Lol welcome to DMing
Oh geewilikers!! I’m so excited to describe old bone grinder using sensory imagery!!
I have to say, your videos really help me with my games. Thanks so much...and keep up the good work!
Repetition! Repetition is the best technic for a good description! Mark the characteristics that you want to be hammered in your players head, and put it right in front of your phrase! Alone! Repetition is all about that! Give them a little more information and then... REPETITION! This that first description again! With emotion! After you handle all information you should give, finish your point, explain! Make then all understand why the text is all about... repetition.
I always try to fix the boxed text to make my players feel emerged. But this really helped a lot!
I'm not an English speaker, but ussualy have no problems with youtube videos - including this channel(it is very usefull, thanks!)
But this "sensory" words...)
I haven't ever heard too many of them)
I understend the meaning from context, but that feels like I'm listening to some Shakespire's piece or something)
And that's great)
Thank you for new words, as well as the advices)
Haven't watched the video yet, already know it's going to be amazing and helpful
Really good , I love the sensory imagery descriptions concept ❤️
This is good advice for writers, as well, not just DMs. Thanks for the vid!
"As you jig your way through the smell of old wood, you are smacked upside the head by a cascade of warm, welcoming light. You approach, and flowers of every conceivable color spray their sweet, soothing odor into the air, like an octopus desperately trying to evade a predator. An old oak tree looms comforting over a pair of deer. They shelter together in the darkness from the fresh light of a placid day, a tableau almost as heart-melting as drinking from the false grail at the end of _The_ _Last_ _Crusade_ ."
Am I doing it right!? 😀
Aww shucks! 😁
One mistake I always make is, whenever there is an NPC whose name I forget in the middle of something I just replace it with "the man" or "the (insert race or gender)".
I might be using this to replace that mistake by giving them more context of how he or she or it wears the clothing or wears the expression.
Thank you.
I love this video (and all your CoS videos). Really good advice about setting the scene!
Nice video, love the techniques! Personally, I find myself improvising most descriptions on the spot or before a session, also to fit with the characters experiences so far, which makes the shorter more consice descriptions easier to consult or digest midgame. Regarding your before and after examples however, I sit somewhere in the middle. I pick 1 or 2 more important things to describe better so it's less wordy. Suddenly there are not only deer, there are bees, flowers, things that could provide a distraction from the game focus and double up the game time.
I do enjoy your podcasts...tubecasts...er, whatever they are called. I don't agree with your opinions on how to liven up text though. I feel this is great for a new GM who may be having trouble with imagining it and describing on the fly. I prefer to keep that simple text and then let my players decide what else they see or hear or sense by asking pointed questions. "Are the deer acutely watching us, poised to jump up and run?" "I see flowers and bees buzzing is there flowers and bees?" Then as long as it does not effect where the story is going or the mood I want set I say, "yes, the deer are intently watching you but don't seem to feel you are a threat just yet." "Yes there can be bees and flowers, in fact the bees have a hive they are going to and from at the southern side of the tree line." Let them feel like they are part of the story.
This is all really helpful, adding it to my notes to improve my descriptions to the players, thanks.
You know, I never realized how bad some of those boxed text things were until now lol
Hey man, found your guides on how to run CoS and watched your guides for each chapter. Love your content and your community! Keep up the quality videos dude they help experience and new dms like me and my girlfriend
Happy to help. Thanks for watching!
Good video
Since I write most of my own boxed text this is helpful.
Thanks for the opportunity
Thanks for the ideas, not only in this video but all your other content also. Keep up the great work!
As someone for who English was their 2nd language and who plays with people who all have English as their 2nd or 3rd language and all come from countries that use the metric system, pre-written boxed text was never an option
Oh, this is going to come in useful. Thanks a bunch!
Glad to hear it!
Man this hits home, been feeling like my descriptions lack sometimes lately.
I play mostly in swiss german. I have to do this all the time as not all my players are great at english.
Great video as always LBH! Oh and some bees DO dance, look up the Waggle Dance; its used to communicate how to find food sources. :)
I appreciate the reminders and the examples. Thank you! Please make more videos like this one.
Great advice! I like language that evokes sentences. It's immersing.
Always providing what's needed, as always. Thanks for this video. Immensely helpful 👍🏻
Great video, always helps to keep players attention, keep them from drifting off in their mind completely on the game.
Also, many people can "hear" that you are reading rather than using your own "voice". While some people are good at reading out loud, if you are not, you should use your own words or practice the box text prior to the session.
I tend to shudder when a dm reads the boxed descriptions sometimes, though that's probably due to monotone voice lol. IL have to point him to this video..
Good info here. I’m looking forward to your next video.
Thank you so much for this! I am a new DM and this is really helping me out!
This came at the perfect time! I just started writing my first original adventure!
Good video, I have always struggle to improvise description.
This helps so much. Thank you
As a non-native English speaker I will stick to the boring descriptions for now. First time DM'ing this weekend! Those are good tips and will use some sensory imagery on prepared text. But improvising with it has to come with a little experience.
Do you have any suggestions on making good descriptions on the fly? These techniques are great, and they’ll help you get good descriptions with a few minutes of prep, but how do you get them ingrained enough in your head that something you improvise will still have the same qualities?
Watching this on my lunch break. 😋
I’m a newer dm and found this very helpful, thank you!
Describing the How always informs the what
I have a tendency to massively overdo my box text. Your advice - which is great by the way - is only going to make things worse! But this is purely a me problem - I probably don’t need to describe *every* pot & pan in the kitchen…
Thank you for making all of your videos, they have been very helpful.
I’m all for help on descriptions for boxed text!
Another ace video once again, Steve! 🖤🦇💀
Personally, I try to practise something similar - but I also always try to user fewer words. If you choose your words carefully, you can conjure pretty vivid images with only a few words.
Try to restrict those long descriptions for the things that really matter, that way they are also more impactful.
I’ll be trying a few of these tips, thanks!
Thank you for this!
I have troubles with describing scenes in my current game, as English is not my native language and I really need to work on it.
Helpful thank you!
Thanks for the video!
Wow this has opened my eyes
Great topic
Fun fact : Bees actually dance.
Great video as always!