How do you deal with exposition as a GM? I made the mistake recently of making a game's introduction too long and want to avoid the problem in future games. Unfortunately, the solution isn't as simple as writing shorter intros. I still want worlds with enough detail to make them feel real. Consider any win D&D campaign setting. Could you explain Forgotten Realms or Eberron in a page or two? Or if you like horror, consider Mage or Vampire, those visceral worlds absolutely require significant exposition which is why they come in the form of a book. In forum RP, the GM doesn't have the option of presenting the same volume of material at the onset of the game and if she tries fail will inevitably result.

So, to specify my question, is there a method of dealing with exposition in such a way that players are not turned off or bored. How can a GM coat this pill so it will go down easier?

Oh and please restrict ideas to original concept RP. Obviously games based in Star Wars, Harry Potter, etc skirt this issue altogether for the exposition is already firmly implanted in the player's head.

Ahh. This is a great question. xD

The trouble a lot of introductions run into is they start with such a wide scope, talking about the universe in the broadest of strokes, that there's no way for potential players to hook themselves in. I know you said not to mention Star Wars, but seriously look at how the movies themselves did it. You start with the screen crawl "LONG LONG AGO IN A GALAXY FAR FAR AWAY" which, y'know, is about as broad as you can get but very quickly you're drawn into the story because the characters are instantly relatable, and you're not lost still in gobs of explanatory things.

I hope that makes sense. One of the greatest ways to get exposition out is to involve the reader. I remember a sci-fi RP once on another board where the GM spoke to potential readers as though they were late to a classroom session where their potential mission was being outlined. Having a fantasy opening being told as a "sonnet" by a minstrel by a fire.

Implying exposition through dialogue, or having brief narrative moments explain things is also an option. Showing the reader a shrine to a deity and how it has cracked and been overgrown with time speaks volumes of a country leaving its roots behind more than just telling us about it.

As I say, character is compass. Making the exposition so that the reader feels like they're a part of the story right away rather than waiting for the broad-as-the-sky opener down to finally, finally, why they decided to read through all the pages is the way to go.

I once read a hunk of "this is our world!" extra-IC nonsense that got as detailed as to tell potential players how people blow their nose in the country. That's not okay.

As unorganized as I am, I sure hope you got something outta that.

-VV

@ViceVersus That was an incredibly insightful reply, thank you. I particularly like the idea of feeding exposition by tablespoon through the course of the story. I was thinking of something similar myself though it does rule out some possibilities. You would want characters to be outsiders who are learning about the world, not natives already steeped in lore and tradition. This of course screams cross-over fantasy, where the main characters are modern and are thrust somehow into the story world. An Urban Horror/Fantasy could also work in this way with the characters slowly shedding light on the shadowed world of the supernatural.

Well, what was the setting or roleplay that you were planning on working with? The presentation can be tailored to just about anything. Or were you just questioning in general?

And yes, the technique of having the protagonist learn as much as the viewer/reader is a great one. (:

This is an issue that can stump a lot of people and is a frequent factor of roleplays failing. However, it is covered in this guide which also includes other advice on making your RP successful.

In reference to your specific question, though, look at the section entitled The Setting/Roleplay Introduction.

Hopefully, it will help you out with advice that will fit any genre of roleplay.

Of course, that talks about the Introduction page of a roleplay - the 'sales pitch' as it were. That needs to be short enough to keep your potential roleplayer's attention while giving enough information for them to make a decision. This is covered in the guide I linked you to.

However, once someone has made the decision to join, they have dedicated a more substantial amount of their time to your story. So, you can exposit further within the roleplay itself. This can be done in a number of ways.

You could information-dump in the first, introductory IC post - include everything that's needed throughout the roleplay. The best way to do this and keep it interesting is to make it a true IC post, introduce your character at the same time, but make sure all the information is conveyed. An example could be someone in a library, reading history books, or a grandfatherly figure telling old war stories. It could even be a chance to introduce NPCs that will appear throughout the roleplay. Essentially, it will be a piece of prose, and it's your job as a writer to make it interesting.

Alternatively, you could just set the initial scene and introduce your character, then reveal the history and whatnot as the story progresses and requires it. Of course, this presents problems as discussed earlier in the thread, so I won't repeat them. The positives, though, include adding some element of mystery to your RP, preventing meta-gaming, and giving you better control if somewhere down the line you decide to change something you had originally planned before you reveal it.

Or you could go for a mixture of the two. Use the introductory post to give enough exposition to allow other players to interact with the setting and initial plot realistically, then reveal further stuff as you go on.


Another possibility is ignoring the introductory IC post completely when thinking about exposition, and using the roleplay's OOC threads to create a wiki. This is especially useful if the world you are created is particularly in-depth, it also means you don't have to info dump (big or small) in the roleplay itself. On the flip side, it could result in a lot of reading, and you and your players would need to make sure that the IC thread itself still makes sense in the context of the story - other people may want to read the roleplay without needing to read a mini encyclopaedia.

Hopefully, that helps.

My usual tactic is to do the introduction in parts. I start out with a short plot blurb to catch the player's attention. This is usually only a few paragraphs, and sometimes I make it in character or partially in character. The key is that it should summarize the point of the game in an interesting fashion, and for this reason it needs to be the very first thing the player sees. I usually detail my settings thoroughly in the "mini encyclopedia" fashion - I'll give my reasoning for that in a bit - but if I'm going to do that, I have to have a brief intro that's going to make people want to read all that setting info. It's like having a strong first page in a book.

There are a couple of reasons I detail the setting as much as I do. For one thing, the setting in my games is often rather important to my plots and the way the characters within the world function because they're usually set in vastly different fantasy worlds with their own specific rules. If I'm making a game that's set in modern Earth with no fantasy setting quirks, I'll just briefly detail the physical location of the game, usually in just a paragraph or so. Likewise, if it's a fantasy game in which things aren't so planned or rigid or in which things generally work according to generic high fantasy rules, I won't pour a lot of setting description into the game. For another, I feel that giving players a good amount of setting information might help give them more inspiration for their character or at the very least more places to fit their character into the setting. I want them to have this info before they create or finalize their characters so that they can work off it and so that there won't be inconsistencies.

It is a good tactic to do it IC, though. I should do that more often.