>Okay, players, you’re going to have to imagine this scene that I’ll read out to you
>Please don’t zone out as I read you purple prose descriptions of, uh, sylvan sentinel forests and verdant, emeraldine sward
>The monster is next to you all of the sudden, oh, no, it’s over there but I won’t keep track of it, we’ll just say it hits you
>There’s still a few NPCs left and you’re just going to attack the closest because that’s the only thing you should ever do
>Oh, I forgot to mention that

I'm sorry you can't see the apple.

>>95970618
I have hyperphantasia and actually get intrusive images all the time
I usually do theatre of the mind but find my players hate it because they're either aphantasia or can't take verbal cues too well

>imagines other people having fun wrong and gets mad about it
As always on this wretched board, OP is a faggot.

>>95970612 (OP)
You won't have to imagine this:
*rips a greasy pepperoni fart directly in your mouth*

>>95970612 (OP)
You can't do this anymore. Millennials lost imagination and zoomers lost attention. Gen alpha is losing ability to think and gen beta will lose the ability to speak.

>>95970612 (OP)
If they're not engaged and not paying attention, they shouldn't fucking say they wanted to play.

>>95970618
Not OP, but I actually do have aphantasia…and that’s specifically WHY I run theatre of the mind, why I write three-paragraph physical descriptions of all NPCs, and why I write half-page descriptions of major locales. I can’t see that shit, I can’t stream-of-consciousness describe a bustling scene, and I won’t necessarily remember if a character does or doesn’t have a beard unless I have it written down.

I don’t like deficiencies in myself. So I work at it. I have those descriptions on, I map out the spatial relationships between everything in a scene, and I make it work. And my players love it. I give them enough detail to imagine these scenes in vivid detail, while leaving enough undefined for them to have ideas, to ask questions that flesh out the scene more fully and give them more elements to work with.

I don’t see the apple, but I’ll be FUCKED if I’m going to let that stop me from giving you the best damn apple-related experience possible.

>>95971671
Just describe stuff like Terry Pratchett. "The marketplace was so packed you would rather stay home and order takeout."

Some people are ass at descriptions, it really is that easy

>>95970612 (OP)
I didn't like theatre of the mind. It feels like it's for lazy people.

>>95970612 (OP)
Are you one of those people who can't see the apple when you think about it?

>>95971707
That’s what I do for unimportant scenes or ones in places that have already been described. But, again, I feel very strongly about overcoming my deficiencies and describing things to the best of my players’ ability to imagine.

>>95971743
I feel like it's the opposite. You actually have to work on your descriptions and make it clear what's happening, especially in a bigger combat. If we just turn it into a board game, it just turns into "I do x damage to that one, and then move over here," over and over again.

Who are you quoting?

The major thing that escapes most people, especially those who hate playing games, is you can still have theater of the mind with consistent, measurable rules that the players are beholden to follow and the head of the table beholden to uphold.
They seem to believe a game and imagining the things that play out are exclusive from each other, when it's completely possible to visualize your character with his kit as you move his token across a measured map.

It's almost as if the people who hate games want to create a bad faith narrative to put people who love games in a worse light they're already seen through.