Smell seems to be a vastly overlooked component in roleplaying. Gamemasters describe what characters see, what they hear, but rarely what they smell. Perhaps it’s because we expect smells to be awful in adventuring scenarios, what with the killing and all, or somehow tied to hygienic issues, but there’s so much more than that. You enter a scene, and you know the evil Countess has been here because her perfume still lingers in the air. Those goblins you’ve been tracking are nearby, or have been recently, because you can smell their campfire. That man, there, you know he’s a cleric of a certain god because of the incense that order uses, or the particular oils they anoint themselves with. The ranger knows the elves went this way, because the process they use to tan their saddle leather is unique among races and has a distinct odor. You know the halfling is hiding in here; you can smell his tobacco. Those freshly-scrubbed adventurers must have just come from the dwarven lands, because they smell of dwarven soaps.

Play with using smells in different ways. It not only adds some worldbuilding and verisimilitude, it can just be fun.

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