Experience Points

What might cause an environment bonus to not be counted or to be sent back? A few things! Usually, it happens if a user only vaguely mentions the surroundings in passing or just mentioning a prop or two. Most of the time, this can be fixed by expanding on your sentences and leaning more into the description of the environment. Avoid just throwing loose keywords in, or repeatedly describing the same object to count multiple times. Below, we have some examples of environments that wouldn't pass for the bonus, as well as how to fix them into well-rounded environmental writing!

Bob ran towards Charlie, excited to finally be in Rekes with his family.

While this sentence mentions the region by name, it does not give any detail. Where are they in Rekes? What's around them? Mountains? Hills? Valleys? The seaside? Consider expanding and setting the actual scene: "The crisp salty breeze from the western shore drifted through the halls through open windows, carrying with it a familiar scent. Charlie stood up abruptly, knocking over the chair he was sitting on and tossing the DPIP-issued tablet he was using onto the wooden table behind him. Bob! Charlie bolted for the door, unlocking it in one swift tug of the deadlock and swinging it open to reveal Bob, his brother, standing on the doorstep and looking more than a little sunbaked. The two embraced, carry-bags in a dusty pile beside them left completely forgotten." You now know that Charlie has been inside and the weather has been warm enough to keep the windows open and has been sunny. You know he's been in a room with a table and a chair, and that he's been looking at a tablet. You also know that the door is locked by mechanical means and there's a pile of carry bags now on the doorstep too.

"Wow," Charlie said, using a knife to scrape off some moss.

Props in themselves aren't considered environmental, but if he was doing something, for instance, "Charlie gripped the well-polished knife in a palm and scraped it across the mossy surface of a damp boulder, depositing the scraped-off moss into a satchel held slightly off of the ground to avoid the moisture below." then it would be more environmental. You now know that the area is probably humid enough to support moss, that both the boulder and the ground are wet so perhaps it rained recently.

The tark'ee looked over at a hill before talking more to his friends about this and that.

While it does mention a hill, this sentence doesn't have more than a word or two dedicated to describing the environment. In fact, stating one thing like that isn't really describing it at all! Show, not tell! Consider: "The tark'ee's eyes drifted over to the distant hill, its rocky slope steep and yet somehow still the home to a herd of nervously shifting mountain goats, their own eyes set onto the group of predators—the colonists." Now it describes the hill better and includes what sort of hill (rocky and steep) and some more environmental factors (nervous goats.) 

They quickly made their way across the field.

While this does mention the environment a little bit, it doesn't describe it. Consider describing the field and expanding on this: "They quickly made their way across the lush golden field, its long grasses making it hard to see more than a few metres in any direction. Whenever someone would stumble over a hidden log or gulley and fall into the hard-packed soil, they would find hands and snouts lifting them up and hurrying them along."

The group huddled together against the wind.

This one is easy to miss, as you might think it's enough to think that the mention is enough. Try this instead: The icy northern wind swept over the gathered group, bringing in hints of pine and rain that made it clear that they would be having a wretched night if they didn't head home now. This sentence is better because it sets the scene more thoroughly, even though it mentions the group more. It mentions the 1) icy northern wind that has 2) hints of pine and rain and the 3) weather looks like it's going to be bad (wretched night). This implies they're near a forest but not fully inside it, that they're likely at a high altitude or at least are being affected by the weather in a pretty significant way.