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Slight tangent: Getting better at descriptive narrative that engages all the senses is another area I really want to get better at as an ST (indeed, background NPCs is kind of part of that). Does anyone have any advice on how to go about improving that particular skill?

– @Eunomiac on Discord: KULT - Elysium (#gm-discussion)

So how does one get better at describing a scene?
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Well as with everything you get better by

watching/listening to others describing a scene
deliberately practising describing a scene

Learning from others
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So for the first point - this is where every GM will profit from being a player in a game and experiencing other GMs style and skill of describing a scene. Now with the rise of Critical Role and other actual plays - we also get to experience other GMs performing their art, which is great. And as a beginning storyteller or game master I would recommend just emulating someone you like watching - there is nothing wrong with copying someone else’s style, while you’re beginning. And even coming back to learning from great GMs when you’re experienced. So go out and watch Matt Mercer, Matthew Colville, Jason Carl, Brennan Lee-Mulligan, Red Moon Roleplaying (there are plenty more, these are just the people off the top of my head that impressed me when I started - and still impress me) - and steal what you like about their style.

Maybe even watch people with a style you don’t like and see if there’s anything you do that is similar, as we’re often cringing most with things we do ourselves sub-consciously or consciously.

This is also where reading a premade scenario will come in handy, good scenarios will include description about places, people and scenes. You can start using words, phrases you’ve read, or modify them and make them your own.

Then there is learning from people outside the genre - authors, journalists, directors, painters, architects, musicians, cooks and sommeliers - see how they “describe” a scene, and what emphasis they put on which details. A police report of a murder scene will be quite different from the newspaper article about it and even more different would be the song that someone could sing about it.

And something I recently discovered is watching critiques of other people’s work, YouTube has a few people dedicating to film theory and it is a treasure trove to have people explain why that HBO series was bad, why it is problematic to present scenes in certain ways, and of course when screenwriting and directing is good.

Improving by yourself
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Now that we’ve sat down and finished watching movies, series, YouTube, read books and scenarios, what else can you do.

These are things that I try to do when I describe a scene

Engage all the senses
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I usually try to engage at least 3 senses when I describe a scene, seeing is the obvious one, but don’t forget the other ones.

One thing started to do recently, when I describe things, I add imperfections. This is something I got from watching corridor digital, a youtube channel about movie making with a focus on digital effects, and when they talk about what makes a filmed scene with CGI props more real, it is adding (more) imperfections.

And you can do that with all your senses:

touch: the irregularities on a cast piece of plastic
look: the limescale on a sink from dried water
smell: there is someone vaping on the 4^th floor while you’re ringing the bell
sound: there’s a slight warble in the recording of evidence you’re listening to - or the scratches of the needle on the record player.
…

Other things you can do in your game, is to tell your players sensory discrepancies: “You touch the window glass, but it feels like wood. It looks smooth and transparent, but you feel the rough texture of tree bark.”

Then there are more than just the obvious senses, we can feel dampness in the air, we can even hear if water is hot or cold when it is poured into a cup, we can sense the heat of the brick wall next to us in summer, we can feel insects crawling through the hair on our arms, without them touching our skin. Our sense of balance is related to our ear. We can feel low frequency sound waves. And we feel lost when one or more of our senses is missing, e.g. suddenly not being able to smell or taste.

Exercise: Open the window and note what senses you can engage with.
Bonus: Can someone else identify, where you were collecting your sensory experience and maybe even when, if you show them your notes?

The guest list
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Another thing I use when describing a scene is the “guest list”, a term one of my improv teachers Paul Foxcroft used. If you have a scene, who and what are you expecting to be there, and who and what you wouldn’t. Both can be used equally with good effect.

Let’s make the last a bit more concrete.

Example: a cheap roadside diner on a Motorway
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Who or what would you expect to be there:
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There is probably a waitress/waiter or two, a cook and someone washing the dishes. By all American movie standard the tables are clean (but still a bit sticky), the benches are covered in fake red leather and squeak a bit when you sit down. The waiting stuff wears a uniform with name tags. There’s probably chewed gum under the table and you can hear a radio faintly from the kitchen. Other customers in the diner are probably truckers and relatives of the owner (bc. they get food/drinks free), and maybe a family. But most of them lower or working class.

Who or what would you not expect to be there:
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Someone dressed really well like 3 piece suit, famous people from Hollywood or politics, police or ambulance is possible but adds some spice to the scene. Things you wouldn’t expect there - gourmet food, drugs, blood stains in a corner, something you know you left at home. something from a different environment ice, sand, strange animals,… that list can go on and on.

Exercise: Watch a movie, pause it and try to describe the scene without looking.
Bonus: Let someone else read the scene and see if they can tell you where the scene is from.

Mapping something familiar onto something fictional
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Another thing I learned from improv theatre is to map familiar settings into fiction. Say you’re describing an office and you go down the hall into a kitchen, none of your players knows that the kitchen you’re describing is the same one that you had in the house you grew up in. Your Shadowrun crew of misfits is charging into a futuristic office building is just the shopping mall down the road, or your office in your current or previous job.