{"id":223,"date":"2010-08-15T10:40:11","date_gmt":"2010-08-15T18:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gm.sagotsky.com\/?p=223"},"modified":"2010-08-15T10:40:11","modified_gmt":"2010-08-15T18:40:11","slug":"show-me-dont-tell-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/gm.sagotsky.com\/?p=223","title":{"rendered":"Show me, don’t tell me"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gnome Stew linked to this post<\/a> on showing detail rather than telling it.\u00c2\u00a0 I quite liked it, especially the part on figuring out which details to show.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Well, I agree that you don’t need to show every detail.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 I thought it left a little to be desired on how to figure out which details are worth expanding.\u00c2\u00a0 Thankfully I’m opinionated and you’re reading, so here are my thoughts on showing detail.
\n<\/p>\n

The example given in the original article was pretty good, so I’ma copy paste that instead of thinking up something of my own:<\/p>\n

Tell<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

He was\u00c2\u00a0obese.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Show<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

There walked a man, heav\u00c2\u00adily breath\u00c2\u00ading as if every step were a quest. Eyes mov\u00c2\u00ading fast, head hang\u00c2\u00ading low try\u00c2\u00ading to spot those who would silently laugh at his body and, at the same time, if it were indeed pos\u00c2\u00adsi\u00c2\u00adble to hide its huge, amor\u00c2\u00adphous\u00c2\u00a0shape.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

First of all, this glut of information will draw attention to the fat man.\u00c2\u00a0 Players looking for hooks will assume there’s something there.\u00c2\u00a0 Wherever the GM concentrates details is usually where he expects you to go.\u00c2\u00a0 Players who read into this will look at the fat man and hope for more game.\u00c2\u00a0 This isn’t a good or bad thing, just something you must be aware of.\u00c2\u00a0 If you’re describing a throwaway NPC in this manner, the players will expect more from him.<\/p>\n

More importantly, all this information does is tell people the facts.\u00c2\u00a0 Showing off this NPC’s obesity can be done as show or tell.\u00c2\u00a0 It may build a vivid image, but doesn’t change the player’s perception of the fattie.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 However many words you use to say it, this guy is fat.<\/p>\n

So where would a vivid description hold more weight?\u00c2\u00a0 Opinions of course.\u00c2\u00a0 Use your descriptions to shape your players opinions of the game instead of to tell them the cold, hard, facts.<\/p>\n

Let me back up into an example.\u00c2\u00a0 Let’s say your GM is running a spelunking expedition into some long forgotten tomb.\u00c2\u00a0 As you set camp and encounter happens.\u00c2\u00a0 Incorporeal ghosts rise up from the ground and attack your party.\u00c2\u00a0 The GM describes these ghosts as “scary.”\u00c2\u00a0 What’s your reaction to being told something is scary?\u00c2\u00a0 Mine would be “no it isn’t.”\u00c2\u00a0 Especially if I play a bold adventurer, I’m gonna be defiant and run right up to “scary’s” face.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe I’ll form an image in my head that’s a collage of things generally considered to be scary, but there’s no way in hell my character will be scared.\u00c2\u00a0 It just doesn’t work that way.<\/p>\n

Instead, what if the GM described the stale air taking a sudden chill and the torches winking out one by one?\u00c2\u00a0 Tell the players what happened and let them come to the conclusion that “that’s scary.”\u00c2\u00a0 They’ll take that conclusion to heart.\u00c2\u00a0 They may even act scared.<\/p>\n

(And yes, I had this opinion before I saw Inception :-P)<\/p>\n

Basically what I’m getting at is that you can’t tell your players what their opinions are.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re in charge of their characters, not you.\u00c2\u00a0 You can tell them what the facts are and they’ll react to those facts.\u00c2\u00a0 Even if it were okay to tell a PC their opinion, they’re not obliged to believe it.\u00c2\u00a0 If you want to shape the players’ opinions, show them some compelling facts.\u00c2\u00a0 They’ll draw their own conclusion.\u00c2\u00a0 If you picked the right facts, it’ll be the conclusion you wanted.<\/p>\n

So back to the original topic.\u00c2\u00a0 When do you show details instead of telling them?\u00c2\u00a0 When you’re trying to help the players form an opinion.\u00c2\u00a0 Details about the NPC’s weight and hygiene can be left out (although if you’re trying to convince them that an innkeeper is trustworthy, showing them his saggy mantitties and cheetoh dust encrusted sausage fingers ought to work nicely.\u00c2\u00a0 Trustworthy is an opinion – use details to arrive at it.\u00c2\u00a0 Fat is a fact.\u00c2\u00a0 Just tell them he’s fat and move on.).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gnome Stew linked to this post on showing detail rather than telling it.\u00c2\u00a0 I quite liked it, especially the part on figuring out which details to show.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Well, I agree that you don’t need to show every detail.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 I thought it left a little to be desired on how to figure out which details are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,7,8],"tags":[73,63],"class_list":["post-223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gm","category-links-and-articles","category-observations","tag-descriptions","tag-details"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/gm.sagotsky.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/gm.sagotsky.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/gm.sagotsky.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gm.sagotsky.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gm.sagotsky.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=223"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/gm.sagotsky.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":224,"href":"http:\/\/gm.sagotsky.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223\/revisions\/224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/gm.sagotsky.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gm.sagotsky.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gm.sagotsky.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}