Referee Skill: Description Procedures

So while OSR places a great deal of value on player skill. I don't believe I have seen much written about Referee skill aside of how to make rules and rulings. I don't remember seeing mention of "communication/description skill" outside one explicit mention and one implicit mention. Veins of the Earth, as well as thealexandrian, emphasizes communicating non-visual sensory information to players. Referees are urged to mention the smell, sound, texture, and even taste of the encountered denizens of the veins. HackSlashMaster has a post on writing room fills, which uses organizational principles to sort room contents in levels of perception. Implicit in this method is a flow chart of giving information to players as they explore the room. But I don't think I have ever seen a unified method on how to present information to players. The following is an explanation for set of OSR description procedures and principles.

A while ago, I read the following quote and was struck by how potent of a heurisitic it was.

“Attention to visual details that don't communicate easily or even matter in a verbal game is FOE*”

*False OSR Enthusiasm: Unintentionally engaging in new-school RPG design principles which damage and limit the exploration and emergent gameplay of OSR

So the most basic gameloop of OSR (or any RPG) is Referee communicates context then Players request further information or take action within context then Referee communicates consequential context. The procedures would need to be consistent across the varied contexts presented in an OSR game but still be robust enough to be applicable to all. So one would start with, what information is needed by players to make meaningful choice for exploration and emergent gameplay.

Let's consider an empty room, a wandering monster encounter, and a treasure carried by the corpse of the encounter and note if there are any similarities between the descriptions.

Consider the following room:

Consider the following encounter:

From this wondrous dungeon

Consider the following treasure:

French ceremonial mace, 18th century

Take a moment and write out how you would describe each to your players. 

Each may be described differently, and likely referees have a different procedure for each, but a single method can be used for communicating each.

The order of adjectives in English is as follows
1. Quantity or number
2. Quality or opinion
3. Size
4. Age
5. Shape
6. Color
7. Proper adjective (origin or material)
8. Purpose or qualifier

This may be reduced to the following:
1. Quantity
2. Size
3. Shape
4. Color
5. Material
6. Action

We return to the room and immediately notice an issue, a room is defined by it's contents. So we would need to apply describe each as well



The room has the following contents: Door1, Door2, Crack in the wall, Altar, Circle in the floor, Frieze1, Frieze 2

Thus the description of the room would have to be the room itself and then it's contents in order of visual importance:

Room
1. Quantity: Not applicable
2. Size: 30 by 30' with 15' ceiling
3. Shape: Square
4. Color: Dark Grey
5. Material: Roughly hewn stone
6. Action: Holds contents

You enter a 30 by 30' room with a 15' ceiling above it. The room is square shaped made of dark grey roughly hewn stones. Inside are CONTENTS

The squareness of the room is implied, and shapes are largely mentioned in cases where dimensions of the room are hard to describe, further there is some wordiness which could be rewritten to make it flow a little easier.

You enter a 30' by 30' room with a ceiling 15' above you. The room is dark grey in color* and constructed of roughly hewn stones*. Inside are CONTENTS

*I would say that this information would need to be given at the entry into a ruin, and emphasized every further turn of exploration instead of emphasized.

Now we are ontu the contents which gives us

Doors 1                              Doors 2                              Crack in the Wall
1. Two                                1. Two                                 1. One
2. Height of a man             2. A head taller than man   2. 3/4ths of the way to the ceiling
3. Rectangle                       3. Half-dome atop a box     3. A brush stroke of seizure victim
4. Brown                            4. Greyish                           4. None
5. Rusted metal                  5. Wood                              5. None
6. Opens easily                   6. None                              6. Thin cracks stretch outwards

Frieze 1+2                                      Altar                                      Circle in the floor
1. Two                                            1. One                                      1. One
2. 3 by 3'                                        2. 3 by 3 by 3'                           2. 5' in diameter
3. Man wearing a crown shouting 3. Cube                                     3. Circle
4. Pale white                                  4. Crimson Red                        4. Sickly yellow                 
5. Carved Stone                             5. Blood drenched Stone          5. Chipped paint
6. None                                          6. None                                     6. None


Writing these into sentences gives us:
The double doors the height of a man and rectangular, it is made of a brown rusted metal and opens easily.
The pair of doors are a head taller than a man, a half-dome atop a box, it is made of greyish wood. 
The crack in the wall stretches 3/4ths of the way up to the ceiling reminiscence of the brush stroke of a seizure victim, thinner cracks stretching outwards from it.
The two friezes, each 3 by 3', both depict a man wearing a crown and shouting, each is made of some pale white carved stone. 
The altar is a 3' cube, the crimson red of  blood drenched stone.
The circle is 5' in diameter and crafted by sickely yellow chipped paint.

However, something absent in our list of 6 adjectives is their spatial relationship to other objects. We can amend our adjectives to now be:
0. Location
1. Quantity
2. Size
3. Shape
4. Color
5. Material
6. Action

Finally our room description becomes:

You head forwards, through the double doors the height of a man and rectangular made of a brown rusted metal which open easily, and enter a 30' by 30' room with a ceiling 15' above you. The room is dark grey in color and constructed of roughly hewn stones. 

You see in the center of the room is altar which is a 3' cube and the crimson red of  blood drenched stone. Surrounding the altar is a circle 5' in diameter crafted by sickely yellow chipped paint. Past the altar is a pair of doors, both a head taller than a man in the shape of half-dome atop a box both made of greyish wood. To your right a crack in the wall stretches 3/4ths of the way up to the ceiling reminiscence of the brush stroke of a seizure victim, thinner cracks stretching outwards from it. On either side of the crack are two friezes, each 3 by 3', both depicting a man wearing a crown and shouting, each made of some pale white carved stone. 

Now this is a whole lot of information, and most rooms are simpler, but it is a good way to work through room descriptions. It is important to note that light sources may not reveal all of this information, and had this room been larger or some objects standing in front of the others certain objects would be only described in silhouettes.

Now we return to our encounter

From this wondrous dungeon

Going through our adjectives list we get:

0. Before you
1. One
2. Five times the height of a man
3. Naked and eyeless, his mustache and beard hanging long, a crown of gold on his brow
4. Almost shining ivory
5. The taut flesh of an emaciated beggar
6. Weeping and staggering on one leg, a spear readied to strike in his hands

0. Behind the King
1. Two
2. Twice the size of a man
3. Only ellipses, not the whole eyeball
4. One iris brown, One eye lid blue
5. Shimmering aether
6. Floating

This gives us the following description

Before you stands a terrible visage, five times the height of a man naked and eyeless, his mustache and beard hanging long, a crown of gold on his brow. Almost shining ivory is his taut flesh like that of an emaciated beggar now weeping and staggering on one leg, a spear readied to strike in his hands. Behind the King are two eyeballs twice the size of a man, each are only ellipses, not the whole eyeball with one iris brown and the other blue each made of shimmering aether and floating. 

This description is pretty close to a standard description of a monster, but it follows the same procedures as the room description. Further the method may be applied to treasure as well.

We return to the mace

French ceremonial mace, 18th century

And begin our procedures anew:
0. Floating in the air
1. One
2. About girth and length of a man's thigh
3. A rectangular prism bearing a face on each side, within four pillars, capped by a orb
4. Shining golden
5. ornamented brass filigree
6. None

And get the following description:
Floating in the air is a mace head about the girth and length of a man's thigh. It is a rectangular prism bearing a face on each side, within four pillars, capped by a orb all of shining golden ornamented brass filigree. 

Repeated Encounters

It should be noted that repeated interactions need not have the same level of detail and may be simply referred to by their title. If the party fled their first encounter with the "Nightmare King" then in future encounters the full detail would not need to be given and the mental imagery of the Nightmare King could be recreated by simply saying his title. Further deviations from the norm should be emphasized, for example if all the doors in the dungeon are squares then their shape should be mentioned only a few times. But if there is a door which is instead domed, like in the room example, then it needs to be contrasted to the other doors.



I hope this has been an informative article, and that procedures are useful to you in a game.


Description Procedures: In order, state the following about what is being described
-
0. Location
1. Quantity
2. Size
3. Shape
4. Color
5. Material
6. Action