One of my ongoing challenges as a GM is "filling out scenes." That is, players typically do a few things, and there are a couple of rolls, and then I'm often at a loss. When other GMs have run things for me there's a lot more interaction in their scenes, and they're more vivid, and they definitely take a little longer.

Given that I'd like to encourage more interesting, richer scenes, with more things for the characters to interact with (where they might be overcoming some obstacles or exploring) and more dialogue (where there are NPC's)?

What are your system-agnostic tips for getting better at this?

Watch movies and plays.

Who are your NPCs?  The world should be full of them.

One of the best pieces of advice I ever heard was "Every character in a scene wants something, and each one is going to try to move the scene in a direction that gets them closer to what they want."  Now, the messenger may only want to deliver her message so she can leave and go have a quiet drink and a smoke somewhere, but that's what she wants and she's going to try to move things that way.

Et cetera.  Just think in terms of "what do these people want and how can they move towards those things?"

Describe your initial scene.Have them interact with it however, and respond how you think make sense. Don't ask for a roll until they ask to do something that would require one. You would be surprised how long players will interact with things if you just give them a prompt and what are you doing, rather than asking for checks.

The only real exception is stuff that is more passive, like perception, since that determines how you describe the scene.

For stuff with NPCs, Old Geezer has you covered.

There are five senses - have fun playing with them:
What do you see?
What do you hear?
What do you smell?
What do you feel?
What do you taste?

One of my favorite things to do in Dungeons (dead space ships, post-apoc buildings, modern era ruins, etc) is to describe rooms that are generally considered Empty, aka the filler space.

On Old Geezer's point about Movies & Plays, give extra attention to the set design and the sound design in your favorite scenes. Also, watch with the sound off and watch what the camera does, aka what does the director want you to know about the scene?

1) Use more than visuals.  Intertwine what one or more party members smells and hears.

2) Use items from your own experience.  When in Hawaii, I saw this really interesting gnarly old tree growing under a small stream.  In D&D I described it larger with a triangular opening at the base that lead to a cave complex.

3) When describing an NPC talk about someone that you know a bit that no in the gaming group has the slightest chance of knowing.  Play  and magnify those idiosyncrasies.  If the party runs into that character again, they may remember that quirkily old guy with one eye that spoke with a lisp.

4) Have some NPCs as the polar opposite of a stereotype. A kind, animal loving Orc; a goblin wizard with an incredible vocabulary; etc.  Don't use this one too much.

5) Use  floor plans of buildings that you know incredibly well.  When running Call of Cthulhu, I like to use my grandmother's 1930 built house.  You know all the rooms, and can probably name several items.

6)Describe an item or two that is interesting, but not important at first . . . Like a painting on the wall or the way a warped door squeaks and doesn't really close all the way.  Sometimes these things become important later.

By adding some of these details you may find that you can use them a session or three later.  Sometimes the party goes off in a plot direction you hadn't planned on and with enough of these items, characters, motives out there, sometimes the story just writes itself later.

Good luck.

Explosions. Nothing moves along a dull scene like explosions.

^^^^^^^^^  Like.

"Listen!  Do you smell something?"

Quote from: Old Geezer;810296"Listen!  Do you smell something?"

He who heard it, dealt it?

Quote from: JeremyR;810286Explosions. Nothing moves along a dull scene like explosions.

Hell yeah!

Emotional eruptions are awesome. NPCs suddenly freaking out on other NPCs is great fun, forcing the PCs to figure out WTF is happening. Holy shit why are the two Paladins drawing down on each other???

My favorite was I "interrupted" a standard paint-by-numbers Shadowrun shady bar meeting with this week's Mr. Johnson by firing a missile into the bar.

That was...a blast.

Shadowrun is just dripping with all sorts of opportunities for details that can enrich a scene.  Melding two to three genres will do that.

Although one COC campaign stands out, I've probably had the most fun as a GM running SR in the 90s.  I couldn't pull it off now.  Real world tech changed too much for me, plus all of us in our 40s can't play street names with a straight face . . . . But those were the days.

Remember those old point-and-click adventure games? What was missing from the older ones that was added to the newer ones?

Greater Detail -- just sheer more things to look at.
Moving Pixels -- things tended to animate, if albeit briefly, maybe move after clicked.
More Clickable Things -- self explanatory.
Variable Consequences -- more range of consequences depending on sequence and current status.

Now take all those ideas and realize that in tabletop RPGs you have an unlimited FX budget and access to Unscripted responses.

So describe and animate the environs. Give license to interact with it. Allow them to have different responses depending on the journalist standard of "who did what, when, where, why, and how."

Breathe life into the world, have things function around and beyond the immediate task at hand, and try to respond consistently to PC actions.

edit: oh, and explosions -- and ninjas.

Let's take NPCs.  Aside from the advice others have given, your best bet is NOT to play them one-dimensional.  If you've got back-and-forth dialogue, then play your NPC as if he/she was your own character.  (Well, the NPC is, but you know what I mean.)  So you've got these high-handed adventurer types grilling you for information?  And you're a death-or-dishonor type who isn't in any event inclined to kowtow to these outlanders?  Great: your decision comes down to whether you're going to lie, delay them, mislead them or defiantly refuse to talk.  How would you go about doing that as a PC?

Even if the NPC is a mook?  Even if the NPC is a mook.

You know, I'm not sure longer scenes are necessarily better scenes. And while in theory the GM that can paint a vivid picture when setting the scene may sounds great, it is important to realise that amount of spotlight in a game session is a limited resource. The more spotlight GM takes with colourful descriptions and NPCs they less spotlight is left for the player characters.

Which is to say the the more theatrical GMs aren't always the best ones. Some times less is more so you aren't necessarily doing anything wrong.

With that out of the way, if you want the players to interact in more detail with the scene make sure the players are specific about what they are trying to achieve with their actions.

For instance when if a player says "I want search the room for clues." that is kind of vague.  If you ask the player to be more specific about what kind of clue ("any sort of paperwork" for instance) then in turn you can start describing the parts of scene that are relevant ("the desk", "the waste paper bin"). You can also ask how is approaching searching ("carefully so that no one will know he was there or quickly pulling the drawers right out and overturning the bin").

Basically the detail, the meat of the scene from making the players chosen actions specific. I think this is the roughly roleplaying equivalent of the old writing advice "show, don't tell".

Quote from: Ravenswing;810360
Even if the NPC is a mook?  Even if the NPC is a mook.

Giving mooks a personality helps bring the world alive. Good movies make good use of screen time featuring mooks to make them memorable.

It doesn't take much to make henchman #1 memorable. For example in the movie Die Hard there was a scene featuring Gruber's henchmen in a lobby entrance of the building preparing for a police assault. The henchmen are all loading their weapons and taking positions. One of the henchmen (Al Leong) glances down into the glass countertop and notices the boxes of candy bars. He slowly reaches down and snags one after glancing around to see if anyone is looking. It's hilarious!  It only takes a moment of screen time and it provides a bit of character to an otherwise generic thug.

Quote from: Old Geezer;810265Watch movies and plays.

Who are your NPCs?  The world should be full of them.

One of the best pieces of advice I ever heard was "Every character in a scene wants something, and each one is going to try to move the scene in a direction that gets them closer to what they want."  Now, the messenger may only want to deliver her message so she can leave and go have a quiet drink and a smoke somewhere, but that's what she wants and she's going to try to move things that way.

Et cetera.  Just think in terms of "what do these people want and how can they move towards those things?"

The Best Advice I ever saw OG give.
This ten times over.