Don’t Tell-Show.

Get into the habit of creating brief descriptions for most of the scenes in your adventure. Include sensory details such as colors, smells, textures, sounds, and the like. The sensory information helps make your world more believable and tangible to your players. Once you become skilled in describing your world in sensory terms, it is easier to slip subtle clues about the adventure to your players.

The same rule applies to spells. Instead of telling the player what he sees with his detect magic spell, explain the varying hues and colors associated with the magic he is viewing. Detect undead could produce nausea, and that immense globe of fire hurtling toward the party could be either a fireball or a delayed blast fireball.

Adding sensory details also makes it much easier to control the mood of the adventure. Not only do players feel the sense of urgency building, they are able to smell the ozone from the last chain lightning spell that tore into them.

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