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The LICHES method of descriptive text

A while back a friend asked me to write up some pointers for how I write descriptive text. You know, for dungeons and such. I gave her the LICHES method, which I'm posting here now. The primary purpose of descriptive text is to clue players in to what they need to pay attention to. When you ask your players, "What do you do?" think of that as less of an open-ended question and more multiple choice. Your descriptive text gives your players the potential answers. (This is, of course, a broad statement. Players will always pull something out of left field.)

Good descriptive text includes any applicable lights, interactables, characters, hazards, egress, and senses—LICHES.

Light

Characters should know how much light they’re dealing with, and what the source is. Sconces, torches, moonlight coming in from a window? Sunlight filtering in from the forest canopy?

Interactables

If there’s something in this room the characters are meant to look at or touch, put it in. If you want them searching in the desks, tell them there are desks. The opposite is ALSO true. If you put something notable in your description, players are going to expect to get something out of interacting with or studying it.

Characters

If there are people in this room, what are they doing? It's very helpful to give DMs a look at the "moment before" for any NPCs in your description. What were they up to before the characters interrupt their lives? This goes for monsters, too, if they’re readily visible.

Hazards

This one should probably come earlier on the list. Like if something's on fire, you either mention it FIRST or LAST. But lesser-noticeable hazards, like "patched-up holes" or "slits in the wall" can be mentioned casually, without drawing a gigantic verbal arrow to it.

Egress

Some people might disagree with me on this, but it’s very helpful to be told that there are doors, even if they’re already on the map. Some tables don't run maps, and sometimes your VTT's fog of war tool obscures what is and isn't a point of egress on your map.

Senses

A lot of LICHE is based on what the characters can see, but you can play with the other senses as well. Characters can smell “a foul odor wafting from the pile of corpses,” hear “the lazy whistling of a popular folk song,” or maybe even taste “the salt on the wind at the docks.”

Putting it all together you might get:

Fire crackles in the hearth, casting long shadows on the papered wall and the sturdy oak desk pushed against it. An orange tabby yawns and stretches out on the plush armchair, revealing for an instant her sharp claws. Two doors lead out of the room: the western door that leads further into the house, and the eastern door that opens into the porch.

L: Fire I: Oak Desk C: Cat H: The cat's claws (watch out) E: Door into the house, Door out to the porch S: The crackle of the fire, the plushness of the chair

Don't worry about making this stuff sound poetic. You just need to give the players a list of things they can interact with or react to. Role playing gets compared to improv a lot, and there are a lot of similarities! Think of an effective description as the thing your players say "yes, and" to. And you don't have to include every letter in LICHES if you don't want to, or if they don't apply. Sometimes a room is empty. There may be no hazards. But this rule of thumb has really helped me write up some descriptions for both published adventures and home games.

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New Blog Post Alert!

Talking about the Minimalist TTRPG Jam, getting some insight from Binary Star Games about the inspiration behind the jam and going into some depth about my submission: Pommel!

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New game just dropped!

Made a game in a day for the Minimalist TTRPG Jam! Want to skip the rules and jump straight into the action? All you need is a d6 and your imagination! Link below (its free but go on and chuck us a couple quid would ya?)

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New Blog Post Alert!

Taking a look at my player-character for our current D&D 5e campaign, his personal issues with magic and how the use of a soft 'no' can be just as fun as a 'yes, and-' in roleplaying! https://lostpathpub.blogspot.com/2022/11/xarunes-personal-issues.html

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I’ve spent the last few months working on a new Powered by the Apocalypse game, mostly driven by my long-time love for Robin Hobb’s Realm of the Elderlings series and now revitalised by how feral I feel over the way that Pentiment reflects and expresses the power struggles and tension that underlay medieval history.

(but also I can’t deny it’s in part shaped by my disappointment that Game of Thrones doesn’t do anything interesting with a tone and a premise that’s pretty compelling—cynical medieval politics! a dynastic powderkeg! a grounded and grimy tone!).

Anyway, the other day I finally got the pitch in a place where I’m happy with it—direct, succinct, and (hopefully) evocative:

The Bitter Litany is a tragic Powered by the Apocalypse game of fantasy intrigue and hard choices. It tells stories about the inexorable force of history, the human cost of duty and ambition, and the bleakness of court politics.

Players take on the role of key figures in the court of a petty kingdom—princes and assassins, advisors and priests—and explore their secret griefs, their fraught relationships, and the fragile dreams of a brighter future that they cradle tight against the storm.

As the years crash upon them like waves, we play to find out what they will cling to amidst the current of history, what tragedies will claim their lives and legacies, and who will follow them in this bitter litany.

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Hey you beautiful people!

My name is Ethan H. Reynolds, and trans and pan creator who has created 20+ games and have gotten 9,000+ downloads on my games!

On this blog, you can find some stuff that I have created, as well as just some fun stuff. I'm not here to preach to people or make sales only; I just want people to enjoy what I make!

You can find my games right here. I promise they're amazing! (https://linktr.ee/EthanRey12)

If you want separate stores, look below as well!

Itch.io: https://ethanhreynolds.itch.io/

DriveThruRPG: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/m/browser/publisher/Ethan-H-Reynolds/19942

Kofi:

Have a wonderful day! 💜✨💜✨

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An Introduction

Hi everyone! I've just started my new blog The Lost Post and the first post is now up. It's mainly just a little introduction, letting folks know what I do and what my plans are for the future of Lost Path Publishing. You can check it out here.

Let me know if you enjoy it, a little feedback goes a long way. Have a good night! <3