How Much is Too Much?

sethwy91 · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **sethwy91** on Thu Nov 07, 2013 8:38 pm

I'm currently working on a roleplay and I have a little Interest Check topic opened (interest-checks-dark-fantasy-medieval-setting-t86759.html), check it out if you the time. I like depth and detail, I like to make entire worlds that characters can immerse themselves in. HOWEVER, I have a bad habit of "detail vomiting". I have so much detail in mind, that I tend to just throw it all out there on a page.

So my question is, how much would you say is too much detail? Do you know of an outline either on here or elsewhere that has a neat outline as to what kinds of questions I should answer to provide pertinent and enough detail, but that isn't going to also overload people into becoming uninterested, and not want to even join? Please let me know what you think.

MoonRaven · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **MoonRaven** on Fri Nov 08, 2013 2:47 pm

If you are prone to "detail vomiting" I'd go with the bare minimum. Don't worry about giving out too little detail, chances are you'd get across more than enough.

There's also the Reporter's rule of thumb: "Who, what, when, where." That is, where are we (and when), what's going on and who's involved. The rest can be filled in as needed.
That's my style of approach anyway, I tend to give my players the textual equivalent of a sketch, then fill in the details as we go.

sethwy91 · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **sethwy91** on Fri Nov 08, 2013 2:54 pm

Mk. Thanks. That helps. I hadn't thought of coming at it that way.

MoonRaven · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **MoonRaven** on Sat Nov 09, 2013 9:26 am

You're welcome. I'm glad you found it helpful. :D

sethwy91 · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **sethwy91** on Sat Nov 09, 2013 11:04 am

Apparently toe the only one who wants to help me :-( lol

I've GM'd a lot, and people say they like my stories, I just have that one problem lol. Have you GM'd a lot?

MoonRaven · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **MoonRaven** on Sat Nov 30, 2013 11:41 am

Hi again. Meant to answer this ages ago, but then one thing lead to another in my life and I forgot.

Regardless, yes you could say I've GM'ed a lot. In toto, if we count all my years in AD&D and D&D 3.5 I have over a dozen years of GM/DM/whatever behind me.

I learned the 'rule of bare minumum' & 'who/what/when/where' early on, in fact long before I ever became a GM from the guy who was GM our group at the time.
What he said was that the less you give out, the freer hands you have to change things later on. That is, if your players don't behave the way you thought they would, and they never do XD, then you can always adapt things.

As for being the only one who wants to help I'm not so sure. Both the "rules" I mentioned are pretty much golden rules amongst most GM's and since I've already covered it, people may not have a whole lot to say. I know I run across this "problem" often, that I want to comment on a thread, but what I want to say have already been said so I just stay silent.

Btw. Since it has been a while, how are things going with roleplay?

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