Building a Dramatic Environment (TCG)

__TOC__
Total involvement in the game requires the inclusion of of more than just the players' visual senses. Adding sounds or smells to the adventure enhances the total experience and further stimulates the players imaginations.
Develop a proper mood at the beginning of an adventure by decorating the play area, providing player hand-outs, including props and sound effects, or even encouraging the players to arrive and play in costume. These preparations don't need to be elaborate, just whatever is at hand that will add to the flavor.
Fantasy theme posters (including calendars) depicting magical beasts and forests or showing arcane battles can be purchased in most bookstores and help get the players thinking about fantasy adventure. Although they may be a bit on the hokey side, leftover Halloween props (in the form of folding skeletons, bats, cotton-candy spider webs, fiendish jack-o'lanterns or ghoulish ghosts) can make excellent decorations if the players aren't too "grown up" to appreciate them (older players may appreciate these more than the younger ones).
Sound effects records and tapes can provide creaking doors, clanking chains, moans, groans and screams. Again, Halloween tapes can provide weird soundtracks, but the DM may want to check on the availability of specific sound effects records at a school or public library.
A costume is whatever makes someone feel more a part of the new world. It can be as simple as a hat, or as complex as a suit of armor if someone happens to have one lying around. Parts of costumes can also be used as props to actually aid in the game play process.
Encourage players to bring any of their own items that might make them feel more at ease in the new world (so long as the game session doesn't turn into a regular show and tell event).
==Playing Pieces==
Miniature figures arranged on a battle board can help both the players and the DM visualize the spatial relationships between their characters and any foes. Miniatures help some players eliminate problems found in developing a mental picture of their surroundings from the DMs descriptions.
Numerous manufacturers provide a broad array of excellently sculpted metal and plastic figurines. Many adventure game players enjoy collecting and painting miniature figures and if asked, are often more than willing to let other players in their games use them. For players on a restricted budget, colorful stand-up card board figures are a less-expensive alternative to the 3-D miniatures.
If miniatures are not available in any form, try making cardboard playing pieces. Write character and monster names on 3/4-inch square pieces of light cardboard or index cards and indicate which side of the playing piece is the character's front (or his 'facing'). For groups of monsters, just make a couple sets of boldly-numbered playing pieces (remember to differentiate between the '6' and the '9' by underlining the number). That way the DM can call out the foes by number during encounter. If possible, use a different color paper for each set of these monster pieces.
Yet another alternative is to use playing pieces from dismembered or defunct board games that may still be lying around the house, including old chess and checker games (although ambushing the top hat, the iron and the race car with a ravening band of white pawns led by a huge red checker may strain some player's suspension of disbelief).
Using miniature figures assumes a playing surface. The term "battle board" includes a variety of playing surfaces. Hard-core miniature wargaming enthusiasts may have tables filled with sand at home (although these are less-than- portable playing surfaces). Other players often use large sheets of graph paper marked off in inch or half-inch grids. Vinyl gameplay mats are gaining in popularity. These flexible playing surfaces are marked off in either hexes or square grids. The one-inch size are the most popular for fantasy gaming. Washable overhead projector pens are used to draw the encounter areas in a scale appropriate to the miniatures (where an inch usually equals five feet). Some mats are even transparent so that the DM's predrawn maps can be placed under them allowing the map grid to provide the necessary scale. Of course, garners on a budget can always use the nearest flat surface and provide a map scale with a cheap plastic ruler.
==Props==
Props are not necessary to the adventure, but their inclusion adds to the flavor of the game. A prop is essentially any physical object or visual aid that can be used during a game to evoke a mood, enhance play, or aid the players in solving problems. The following are suggestions for props, many of which are readily available to players:
* A cardboard box or jewelry chest that can be used to represent a trapped treasure chest. The players can show, instead of tell, the DM how they will go about opening it.
* Chess boards always seem to find their way into game adventures. Having a board and pieces available allows the adventurers to either play out a chess problem or puzzle out a room based on a chess board (without having to draw the board).
* A stuffed animal or plush fantasy monster can provide a lot of laughs as it mugs for a wizard's familiar. Hand puppets are even better. Try having the puppet carry on a conversation entirely in pantomime (no speech-movements only).
* Use glass beads, play money coins, begemmed costume jewelry (from flea markets and garage sales), and other trinkets to represent important pieces of treasure.
* Make homemade flash cards for monsters, NPCs, or magic items. Photocopy an illustration of the being or object and mount the picture on a 3"x5" index card (this is for the DM's personal, non-commercial use). Place important information about the pictured thing on the reverse side of the card. Show the cards to the players when needed.
* Use books with photos of real castles to depict castles in the DMs game world
* Use models of castles, buildings and even dungeons to depict and layout encounter areas. This can be fun even if miniatures are not used during play.
* Use wood blocks or locking plastic bricks to build walls, rooms and even entire castles. Use playing pieces from board games to represent treasure, monsters or odd artifacts.
* Make player handouts, including maps, scrolls, wanted posters and deeds.
* Provide sample items from a typical adventurer's inventory; like mirrors, flasks, hammers, magic wands, spikes, and so on. Whi1e sitting at the table, the players can show how they might use them.
==Mood Music==
One of the easiest, yet most effective, ways to set the mood is through music. Soundtracks of science fiction and fantasy movies are available at nominal cost and provide an excellent background for the session. These sound tracks have been programmed to express through music the adventuresome spirit we all feel within us. Some make us feel daringly heroic, while other pieces raise the hair on our necks and chill our souls. The DM should choose soundtracks that will evoke the desired moods.
Classical music is another great source for adventurous mood music, particularly selections from classic symphony composers such as Hoist, Tchaikovsky, or Rimsky Korsakov. Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries, for example, is exciting battle music. If the DM lacks a broad selection of classical music~ check with the public library. Many libraries lend records and tapes. The following is a tiny sampling of recommended composers and appropriate pieces.
Beethoven 	Symphonies 2, 5, 7, and 9
Berlioz 	Symphony Fantastique
Bruckner 	Symphony #6
Haydn 	London Symphonies (12)
Hoist 	The Planets Symphony
Mendelssohn 	#4
Mussorgsky 	Night on Bald Mountain
Rimsky-Korsakov	Scheherazade
Rossini 	William Tell Overture
Tchaikovsky 	1812 OvertureSymphony #6 Pathetique
Wagner 	Ring Cycle operasLohengrin
The DM should note that most symphonies are composed of four movements or segments. Not all of them will be appropriate background music. Rather than fumble with cuing up the appropriate movement at the right time, make an audio tape of each piece (one piece of music per tape-so the DM may wish to use inexpensive tapes).
==Smells==
Smells are more difficult to achieve in setting the mood since "Eau de Dragon," It and "Essence of Dungeon" are not popular perfumes. To be honest, most players may wish to avoid smelling a dungeon or a dragon (and just as many may object to simulating a forest clearing by spritzing the room with air freshener).
In some ways, this is truly unfortunate. Studies have shown that smell, of all the senses, evokes the strongest emotional responses. This is especially true of remembered smells. People establish strong links between odors and experiences. The aroma of baking bread can conjure up pleasant memories, while someone who has escaped from a burning building may tremble in fear when he catches even a faint whiff of smoke.
With this in mind, the DM should try to evoke vivid game imagery by drawing upon the experiences of his players. Consider situations in our world that relate to the ones in the game world.
Saying that a cramped dungeon cell smells "bad" has no emotional meaning. Since beings have probably been trapped in here without the benefits of indoor plumbing, evoke memories of school locker rooms, rustic road side restrooms or even the stairwell of a public parking garage.
A damp tunnel might smell like an old musty, mildewy basement. For a monster lair, suggest a cat's litter box or an animal barn with just a hint of ripely rotten garbage. The odor of spent fireworks is simi lar to that of brimstone. A well-preserved mummy might share odors in common with both a spice rack and a paint storage cabinet. Obviously, not all players will relate to these smell descriptions, but those who do may suddenly experience the adventure in new ways.
==Player Handouts==
Players really enjoy it when the game master gives them something tangible, something that they can hold in their hands to read and reread at their leisure. If the thing looks like something other than a computer printout, then its even better!
Suggestions for handouts that simulate things that are part of the game include maps found as a part of treasure hoards, letters to the characters, official pronouncements from the ruler of the land, pages apparently removed from old books, deeds to property, birth certificates, and other official documents (such as inventory lists or intercepted messages).
An artistically adept DM might use pen and ink to calligraphically letter a scroll on yellowed vellum, while a DM with a computer could print out the same thing in a fancy type font and then "age" the paper.
Along with other props, player handouts can help the DM establish what is going on in a game. A simple but fun way for a DM to set up a game would be to have things in the playing or gathering area be clues to the coming adventure. It may be a reward poster hanging on the wall advertising a 1,000 gold piece reward for the return of the mayor's daughter, or a wanted poster for their own characters who were seen last week tearing up the tavern. It could be a broadside (newspaper) highlighting the events that have happened in the region since the characters' last visit. This is often a newsletter-style handout given to the players as they arrive.
Handouts might also summarize information that the characters would be aware of if they had grown up in that world, such as the basic tenets of the popular religions' peculiar customs of the area they grew up in, or brief histories of the politics in the area.
Whatever the process used to create and present a handout, the end result is a playing aid that both communicates information to the players and enhances their feelings of participation in the DM's fantasy world by making them personally a part of it.