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I consider it useless and tedious to represent what exists, because nothing that exists satisfies me. Nature is ugly, and I prefer the monsters of my fancy to what is positively trivial. Charles Baudelaire (1821–67), Poet. “Salon of 1859,” sct. 3, published in Curiosités Esthétiques |
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GAMES MOVIES
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| Suspending Disbelief | |||
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The best and easiest way to draw the Players into the game world is with the words you use. The game mechanics often become the language around the table. This puts the game system at the forefront and the game world in a secondary position in the mind of both the players and the GM. Some GM's are good at doing voices, some are given to theatrics and act out the part of many of the encounters. These are good ideas, but they often become parts on an empty stage. The thing that many GM's forget is staging of the scene. I have developed a system to remind me as a GM what needs to be said. I call this method the VFAST System TM. VFAST TM stands for the five senses in order that most people will observe a scene. Visual, Feeling, Audible, Smell, and Taste make up the VFAST System TM. Sighted people normally will take in what they see and feel first, then sounds and smells, and finally taste. If you think about this it is true and if you use the correct words, you can describe most scenes with one or two sentences for each sense. The country road in the spring on a sunny day becomes.... You are walking down a narrow rutted cart path that is dappled by the sunlight filtered through the budding branches of the trees that threaten to take over the road one day. The cool breeze reminds you that winter is not long past, but the warming of the sunshine on your back makes you sweat under the heavy armor. The birds sing their songs of courtship as small animals scurry around in the leaf litter beneath the trees. The scent of the damp and decay of the woods is mixed on the breeze with scents of early blooms and wood smoke from the nearby village that you are approaching. The taste of the road dust along with the acidic smell of the wood smoke makes you reach for your waterskin. This same scene could be described differently to give a different affect. You are walking down a narrow rutted cart path that the sunlight struggles to reach through the tangled mass of branches that envelope over the road making a tunnel of shadows slowing your pace to check your footing and avoid ruts and deeper holes that may be hiding in the shadows. The chilled breeze sends a shiver down your back where you sweated under your heavy armor when the sunlight did find a way through the canopy. The birds hop about chirping an occasional warning as you trudge down the path, small rodents make noises that defy their size as they dig in the rotting dead leaves that cover the ground. The smell of the rot and decay assaults your nose along with a strong smell of burnt wood coming from the direction of the village that is suppose to be along this trail. Breathing through your mouth to avoid the worse of the smells has left your mouth dry and tasting of dust making you fumble for your water skin. Both are the same scene, but with your words you have create to different feelings. The Village at the end of the path could be fine, or it could be gutted by fire from some unknown raider. This is true regardless of which description was used. One will set the players at ease, while the other will make them suspicious. As a GM there may be times you want them on edge, when nothing is afoot and other times that you want them relaxed so the impact of the next encounter is greater. The words you choose you can manipulate the feelings of the Players and influence their actions. You do not need to do this for every room or every ten feet of the trail, but if you get into the practice of describing their approach to towns, a change in the terrain, the first room in a dungeon , the cargo bay of the derelict space ship, each severe change, etc... you will help them immerse themselves into the world you have created. |
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