Questions tagged [narration]
For questions primarily about narration, the act of describing the events that unfold in the game world, either as player or gamemaster.
90
questions
8
votes
4
answers
493
views
How do I narrate a failed damage roll?
When you hit someone and then roll for damage, you cause damage, which should be narrated, such as "You cut him in two with a single strike! He falls down and is going to die soon!", "You chop his arm ...
- 45.1k
45
votes
3
answers
7k
views
How do I respond to players who keep asking powerful NPCs to help them in ToA?
I'm playing Tomb of Annihilation(ToA) with my group right after playing Waterdeep Dragon Heist. The group have met powerful characters like Vajra Safahr, the open lord Laeral Silverhand, Mirt, Artus ...
- 50.1k
7
votes
4
answers
2k
views
How do I deal with long travels?
My group has faced a lot of just traveling; so sometimes I just say it's been 3 days since you started traveling, because I don't really have anything big planned on that particular road.
However in ...
7
votes
4
answers
12k
views
How can you describe a character with low Constitution but high Dexterity and Strength?
I just rolled up stats for a new campaign, and ended up with the following:
15 Strength
13 Dexterity
6 Constitution
18 Intelligence
8 Wisdom
6 Charisma
I'm going to be playing a wizard, but I'm ...
- 50.1k
13
votes
4
answers
1k
views
What are the techniques for writing descriptive posts in a timely manner as a game master?
To clarify, especially after Covid I have become an exclusively text based game GM and I am looking to improve my description of events (and maybe add a bit of an artistic flare) but that results in ...
- 37
15
votes
3
answers
2k
views
Can you safely assume that Beholder's rays are visible and audible? (based on rules / lore / novels / famous campaign streams, etc)
Some context:
We're running Dragon Heist and the party is facing Xanathar himself. This question actually was caused by this discussion about the tactics of a party trying to distract the Beholder and ...
- 40.9k
13
votes
7
answers
8k
views
How big is a gemstone in the DMG gemstone table?
Context
The DMG treasure tables (DMG p134) describe six categories of gemstone: 10gp, 50gp, 100gp, 500gp, 1000gp, and 5000gp. What does this mean? An agate can be worth anywhere between 10gp and ...
- 144k
12
votes
2
answers
4k
views
Can I use a trap that will kill a character, if the party can either find a creative solution around it or cast Revivify?
We're running a series of one-shots with differing DMs every session, keeping the same characters and only swapping out the person who is DMing. The party is a little overpowered, and I wanted to do a ...
- 4,243
13
votes
3
answers
430
views
How to improve the variety of narration in my text-only game of D&D?
I, and one of other players in my play-by-chat group, have expressed a desire to improve the narration of our character's actions.
When they brought this up, I noticed the sort of unvaried ...
- 45.1k
14
votes
1
answer
20k
views
Are there specific descriptions of what each of the racial languages sound like?
Running adventures with varied races of NPC, I run into a lot of times where I simply say "It sounds like they're speaking Elvish/Orcish/etc etc". I'd like to know if perhaps there are descriptions of ...
- 1
46
votes
9
answers
18k
views
How to improve my descriptions of the health status of monsters
A bit of background; I'm a new GM to two players, one of whom played a bit of 3.5e and 4e while the other is a complete newbie. The veteran is used to knowing when creatures are "bloodied", as per 4e, ...
- 65k
8
votes
3
answers
3k
views
What information does the GM provide players when dealing with a monster? What do they have to roll for?
A monster may have similar stats to a PC, e.g., Armour Class 10, Spear as a ranged weapon, etc.
When an encounter occurs, what part does the GM actually tell to the players? I suppose something like "...
- 35.3k
3
votes
4
answers
2k
views
Should I immediately tell players when a monster dies?
I have noticed that my PCs can dispatch a hoard of high health things pretty quickly, and as soon as they have put enough arrows/swords at one thing, they move onto the next. That makes me think, ...
- 3,566
11
votes
3
answers
495
views
How do I keep the narrative alive during combats?
For years, I've had trouble keeping the players engaged in the narrative of combat and what happens during their turns.
After the first 4 turns or so, it becomes hard to imagine what everyone does and ...
- 41.2k
8
votes
2
answers
826
views
How does a low Strength stat translate into the narrative?
I'm having trouble with something. In a ADnD 2e campaign how should a low Strength translate into the narrative/roleplay of the campaign? It's easy to figure out how high Strength would work when ...
- 1,731