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Mar 8, 2013 -- 2:34PM, Sir_Joseph_the_Crowe wrote:

Don't let my (notoriously?) long posts on the forums fool ya, when I DM, I found it is very important to keep everything BRIEF. The longer your descriptions, no matter how well-spoken or intriguing, the less it becomes about the player characters. Get to the point where the players make a decision as soon as possible. Then resolve the situation as quickly as possible, describing to the players what their characters experience/find out from their actions and then get back to a point where they can make a decision as soon as possible. Rinse and repeat.

Assuming everyone at the table gets the concept of role-playing (not sure how new your players are to the game), that's why they want to play.

Take some notes. Make sure you learn what you can about the heroes the players are playing and try to take something from every session into the next session... paying particular attention to things the players were most interested in.

Your pace will set the pace of the game for the players as well. Remember, the less time you spend talking/describing, the more time the players have to entertain you with their antics/speeches/actions/descriptions.

In my time in entertainment, I got this good advice "Don't hold the audience captive". If they are giving you a 'get on with the show' look... get on with the show. In all things, pay attention to the people paying attention to you (that's my addition).

Yes, good advice. Conciseness of language isn't a lack of details, it's simply hitting the details that matter or are particularly memorable. A Twitter-length description full of possibilities that raise questions is much more interactive than three paragraphs of boxed text the players aren't likely to fully recall. This goes for PCs, too. Few are going to remember the fine print of your questionable lineage in your backstory, but they sure will remember that your character really likes plums. Or hates half-orcs. Be brief, and more details can come out later.

If you really want to try something neat, enlist your players in coming up with details. For example, everyone knows what a haunted house looks like right? So don't tell them what they see... ask them what they see through framed questions that reference your prepared materials. Instead of "The scene is horrible because the walls are dripping with blood," try "The scene is horrible and truly makes your skin crawl. What gruesome detail do you see in the parlor that is particularly disturbing?" Players that establish their own details will tend to interact with and remember them more because they're choosing things that really are disturbing - to them - which is easy to miss the mark on if the DM comes up with everything himself.

Well... Finally! My local library hosted a Dungeons & Dragons group this week (thanks to your's truly)!

Although there were only 3 of us, we had a blast!

For now, I am not the Dungeon Master. The library found someone to play that part. Probably a good thing for now, as I have not played since 1983!

Thanks for your encouragement!