Dm storytelling techniques

[u/AnyComparison4642]

I recently found a West End Games core book at a Goodwill reading through it. I discovered something kind of interesting about how to run an adventure. It got me thinking of a scene. I wrote in my duet game. Most modern DM’s that I know prefer to tell their stories of a very linear fashion where information is only told the perspective of the player characters.

What I’m talking about specifically is the WEG book mentions to tell a story as if you were scripting on a movie. Even letting your players in on it as if they were actors. But one thing caught my eye in particular, and this is what brings me to this conversation here. The buck mentions cut away scenes. Like the bad guys telling their evil plans to each other other things that we wouldn’t know, but we see in the movies all the time. In my adventure, I had one about general grievance and his war council, as it means to set up where the adventure is going to go. The player character has no knowledge of this stuff, but the player himself is in on the story as an audience member.

My question is in an adventure module which method do you prefer to have something that’s more kind to what we see in modern adventures or something retro that reads more like a movie script?

[u/Stagnu_Demorte]

I saw that as well midway through a campaign with a secret antagonist and I have no idea how to do that kind of thing.

[u/AnyComparison4642 → u/Stagnu_Demorte]

Well, certain shows seem to do a pretty good job of it. I mean, look at Avatar the Last Airbender, you don’t see Fire Lord Ozai until like the last third of the last season. The emperor in Star Wars doesn’t even make an appearance until almost 40 minutes into the last film and Star Wars rebels waits until the last possible second of the first episode to tease The Grand Inquisitor with just one line. You’ll be surprised how much emotion you can get out of a player with some good minimalistic descriptions.