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Leave Blanks

by Mike on 26 May 2025

One of my favorite writers, Cory Doctorow, had an excellent post called Against Lore. In it, he talks about how he could use the imaginations of firearm aficionados, who just can't help themselves but nitpick gun details in fiction, against themselves by adding a single word – "modified":

Jim's big idea was that gun people couldn't help but chew away at the verisimilitude of your fictional guns, their brains would automatically latch onto them and try to find the errors. But the word "modified" hijacked that impulse and turned it to the writer's advantage: a gun person's imagination gnaws at that word "modified," spinning up the cleverest possible explanation for how the gun in question could behave as depicted.

Creating these blanks means the imaginations of the readers can serve as part of the fiction. They fill in the details with their own imaginations.

We RPG hobbyists are very familiar with this concept. Over and over we hear stories where players fill in blanks and the GM runs with their ideas building an adventure far better than they would have on their own.

Doctorow talks about how this idea collides with roleplaying games. I don't think he nailed the real value blanks have in roleplaying games, though. Unlike other forms of fiction where we have the creator (writer, director, musical artist, whatever) and the consumer (the reader, movie-watcher, musical fan, etc.), in RPGs we're all at the table creating the story together. A reader might fill in blanks with their imagination in their head but at our gaming table, players speak it out loud. They're changing things.

There are lots of ways we GMs can leave blanks in our games or use tricks like adding "modified" to the description of a gun.

One of my favorites is to describe big wheels and counterweights moving behind the walls of a dungeon. I have no idea how that stuff works back there but it doesn't matter. Those wheels and gears and chains and counterweights show that the dungeon can work. When a huge juggernaut smashes down a hallway and then pulls itself back, our players imagine the complex geometry and engineering going on behind the walls that make the place work.

Here are ten other ways we can leave blanks our players can fill in with their own imaginations:

Monstrous Descriptions. Instead of naming a type monster, describe it. An ogre is a lot scarier when you don't call it an ogre.
Unknown Rituals. We don't have to know what all the symbols and runes mean. Leave it to your players' imaginations how the strange ritual worked.
The Ghouls' Slaughterhouse. We don't have to reveal the gory and horrific details of the slaughterhouse of the ghoul imperium. Just tell the players it's a place their characters certainly don't want to witness.
A Villain's Dark Past. We don't have to describe every element of a villain's past. Leave blanks and let the players fill in what they think might have brought their villain to this state. They come from parts unknown.
The World's History. We GMs love to fill out millennia of history but we can leave lots of blanks in our histories. For 24 years the Clone Wars in Star Wars were just called the Clone Wars. That was good enough.
Smoky Rifts to Depths Unknown. The strange misty tendrils flowing out of a bottomless ravine doesn't need an explanation. Who knows what's going on down there.
Dungeons Deep. A huge sinkhole in the center of a dungeon may reveal dozens of levels of a vast dungeon complex. How far does it go?
Brutal Scars. How did that guard captain get so badly scarred? She doesn't want to talk about it so stop asking.
Histories of Magic Items. An ancient sword wielded by a primeval knight over a millenia ago – the spirit of its wielder still swirling in the gemstone on its hilt. Imagine what stories that spirit knew.
The Inner Workings of Diabolic Machines. The smell of ozone, the sound of rushing water, heat being transferred through the stone – these details are enough for players to imagine how strange ancient traps or constructs can work.

Other Kinds of Blanks

RPGs have a nearly endless source of potential blanks. Here are some big ones:

Blank spots on a map
Blank periods of history
Blank information behind factions
Forgotten gods
Times of ancient and powerful technology

Player Prompts

Some blanks become prompts we can throw to players:

Keeping Secrets Secret

Secrets and clues are the cornerstone of Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master. Not every aspect of your game's world needs to be revealed through these secrets. Sometimes the best parts of our world live in the minds of our players and may never be filled out in the details of our world.

Leave blanks.

More Sly Flourish Stuff

Each week I record an episode of the Lazy RPG Talk Show (also available as a podcast) in which I talk about all things in tabletop RPGs.

Last Week's Lazy RPG Talk Show Topics

Here are last week's topics with time stamped links to the YouTube video.

Talk Show Links

Here are links to the sites I referenced during the talk show.

Last week I also posted a couple of YouTube videos on The 3-2-1 Quest Model and The Shadow Drake – Dragon Empire Prep Session 23.

RPG Tips

Each week I think about what I learned in my last RPG session and write them up as RPG tips. Here are this week's tips:

Track damage done to monsters with Xs and slashes (\). Each slash is five damage. Cross the slash into an X is ten damage. Keep a tally of extra damage separate.
Introduce one character-focused location in any new town the characters visit.
Offer a handful of options for downtime scenes.
Tie the game's story and narrative to information the characters know or learn.
Add high ground areas and cover for some tactical crunch in combat encounters.
Build scenes during travel around monuments or other interesting backdrops.

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