When playing on a VTT, it’s easy to screw up this particular bit of immersion-creation. I know I’ve done it. I still do it often and need to remind myself that, every time the PCs enter a new area or discover a new thing, they need to have it described. It’s easy to get inadvertently lazy and let the fancy maps show everything. Dungeons and Dragons descriptions (and those for other RPGs) shouldn’t be left to maps alone.
But the maps DON’T show everything. I tend to use “top-down” or “overhead” maps which means players can’t really see the walls, maybe only the tops of the walls. Certainly, they don’t see the ceilings! And what about smells? Obviously, the players aren’t smelling anything and therefore the VTT maps aren’t conveying that information.
One might think that those slightly angled battlemaps where you can see some of the walls would take care of at least the wall part. But no. You still can’t see the inside edge of the foreground wall and it still doesn’t deal with ceilings and smells. (I wish I could remember the name of that kind of map.)
If you’ve run a “theater of the mind” (TotM) game, wherein everything takes place in the players’ heads (no miniatures, no VTT), then you’ve probably already witnessed the immersive power of a good description of the physical environment and what’s in it. This is what’s needed with VTTs…and even in-person games with miniatures even with lots of fancy location builds. Again, Dungeons and Dragons descriptions (I like the alliteration) cannot rely on maps…or props.
I know it’ll feel silly to tell the players to stop their movement once they enter a room or say they’re picking up that object from a chest, but doing so so that you can describe the unique sights and smells and unique features about something is well worth risking that awkwardness. It also lets you convey information about the environment or object that might affect what actions the PCs make and how they do those actions.
It only takes an extra few seconds to a minute to do. And if you reserve it for important or colorful areas and objects, it won’t slow the game down.
Pretend you’re playing TotM and that the only way your players can know about the environment or object is from your verbal description. It’s well worth the effort.
Do you do something similar? Have you at least thought about this? Let me know in the comments!