| name | scene-framing |
| description | Open a location or moment by painting it through the senses so it becomes immersive and real. Load when narrating a new scene, room, or environment. |
Scene Framing
When the party enters somewhere — even somewhere you didn't prepare — make it felt, not just stated.
Paint with the senses. Mercer's improv method (GM Tips: Improv, t235–244): "let your instincts inform you of what you'd expect to find there and describe the impact to your senses" — sight and lighting, the smells and sounds, the temperature of the very air itself are "easy gateways to an immersive location." Lead with two or three concrete sensory details before any exposition.
Concrete over abstract (the Monson principle: specificity and trust): name the specific object, the specific smell, the specific sound. "A low-ceilinged room" is forgettable; "tallow smoke, a draft off wet stone, and the click of something small in the dark" puts them there.
Let detail emerge — you don't need it all up front. Drop one anchoring image, let the players react, and build outward from what they touch. Trust that you can tie the scene to existing threads once they start talking (t258).
End the frame on a hook — something that invites a choice or a question (a door ajar, a figure who looks up, a sound that stops). The frame's job is to hand agency back to the players.
