D&D 5E To boxed text or not to boxed text

[jayoungr]

P.S. on backstory. If backstory was ever any good, it would be main story. The less explained it is, the broader the strokes, the better it is.

Are you talking about PC backstory or adventure background information?

Obviously this is just my opinion, but think of the last prequel you saw and ask yourself how it held up to whatever the main story was. There are very, very few prequels worth their own full treatment.

I love prequels. (Yes, even the Star Wars ones.)

 

[robus]

Again, I think the people on this forum (which skews much older than the average TTRPGer) tend to forget how difficult it is to start with.

Not every person with 30+ years of experience can do without it, and it certainly helps newbie DMs. Given the struggles I've seen teens learning to DM, I can appreciate the boxed text, even if I don't need it.

Absolutely, and it would be even better if the boxed text didn't make too many assumptions about the story so far (and thus trip up a novice DM). That's what caused me much grief in the early days.

 

[Bawylie]

Are you talking about PC backstory or adventure background information?


I love prequels. (Yes, even the Star Wars ones.)

PC backstory or adventure backstory? BOTH.

Prequels: “Ding dong your opinion is wrong.” (I tease). Star Wars prequels were... well... they have some good & great moments and are overall better than okay, but didn’t quite hit good or great for me considered altogether.

 

[jayoungr]

PC backstory or adventure backstory? BOTH.

Re adventure backstory, it's one of the things I appreciate most about an adventure. The purpose, IMO, isn't for it to be a compelling story in its own right; it's to give the DM a firm grounding in the situation so that I have the tools to improvise an answer that's consistent with the overall situation when players ask unexpected questions. Yes, I could make something up on the spot, but then I have to run all the mental checks to make sure I'm not contradicting myself.

 

[Bawylie]

Re adventure backstory, it's one of the things I appreciate most about an adventure. The purpose, IMO, isn't for it to be a compelling story in its own right; it's to give the DM a firm grounding in the situation so that I have the tools to improvise an answer that's consistent with the overall situation when players ask unexpected questions. Yes, I could make something up on the spot, but then I have to run all the mental checks to make sure I'm not contradicting myself.

That’s interesting. I often find that to be too much of a constraint. Because there IS a “right” answer to unexpected questions and if I wanted to give it, I’d have to go and look it up.

But this largely depends on the amount of adventure backstory provided. A single sentence serves well, more than that I feel is useless fluff. I can use something like “Once the forge of a legendary smith (name or deed), the fires have since cooled and now the abandoned fort serves as a nest for vipers and stalking shadows.” But to include say dates of building, a complete biography of the smith, or tales of the mighty weapons and armor that came from that forge would be too much IMO.

Ultimately, I don’t want to pay for that kind of content. It strikes me as “filler.” And I don’t like the use of 30 sentences when 3 are sufficient. Of course, tastes vary.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[robus]

Re adventure backstory, it's one of the things I appreciate most about an adventure. The purpose, IMO, isn't for it to be a compelling story in its own right; it's to give the DM a firm grounding in the situation so that I have the tools to improvise an answer that's consistent with the overall situation when players ask unexpected questions. Yes, I could make something up on the spot, but then I have to run all the mental checks to make sure I'm not contradicting myself.

I agree and when it's an adventure of your own making it works really well.

One of the issues I have with the published adventures (because they're set in the Forgotten Realms) is the backstory is pretty epic and there are all kinds of factors involved and if your players are aware of some of that, then they can get testy if your "reasons" don't match their understanding of the canon. It can put quite a constraint on your creativity IMHO. And it's a ton of crap to try and remember...

 

[LordEntrails]

This again?

For an adventure targeted at a market other than experienced DMs, it is essential. It is key to training new DMs on what to describer to the players and not describe to the players. But, it should never be the only place critical information is presented.

 

[Dessert Nomad]

After running some of the Season Eight Adventurer's League mods, I am definitely in favor of boxed text. While I would be fine in theory with ditching boxed text in favor of a description of what's in the room from which I'd construct my own 'boxed text' for players, what I've seen in practice is that no boxed text means no description. There are a ton of times where players come to a store and... they're no description of what's in the store, or it's just 'sturdy'. Does the whole building footprint (if that's even given) have one room with shelves packed with items? Or is this a small office with a larger room where magic or more specialized items are stored in the back? Or there's an NPC and, since they're required to give a few quotes for the NPC, there will be half a dozen lines of things the NPC might say... but all I know about their look is 'gnome female'. Does she wear armor, have grey hair, any scars, any distinct clothing style, maybe some interesting symbol? It's really annoying if it's a race I am not familiar with on the fly - I can come up with a dwarf look, but I have no idea exactly does a Shadar-Kai or Githyanki looks like off the top of my head.

So unless there's more strict quality control (which I don't see as likely for AL modules), I am 100% in favor of requiring boxed text, as it forces the person writing the module to actually tell you what a given place and/or person looks like.

 

[jayoungr]

I can use something like “Once the forge of a legendary smith (name or deed), the fires have since cooled and now the abandoned fort serves as a nest for vipers and stalking shadows.” But to include say dates of building, a complete biography of the smith, or tales of the mighty weapons and armor that came from that forge would be too much IMO.

That's an example of a description where I'd want more than that single sentence. Because my players are fairly likely to poke around the place after the combat is over, and then they'll start asking questions--especially if they think it might be relevant to some other part of the plot they're looking for information on: "How long since this forge was last used? Does it look like it was used to make weapons, armor, jewelry, horseshoes? What would my character [who is from the country where this is set] know about the legendary smith?" That kind of thing.