Working -around- boxed text

In the bad GMs at Gencon thread RangerWickett said this:

I loathe boxed text, and haven't used it since 10th grade, when I realized that disrupting my natural flow of speech to say pretty, pre-written things just makes the storytelling sound worse, rather than better. I refused to just hold up the module and read what was printed there, and tried desperately to overcome how uninterested they all seemed.

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So the question I have is... when handed a module you want to run, and it presents a scene in boxed text, which you desire to avoid reading off -what do you do?

I agree boxed text is the bane of setting a good roleplay mood, but sometimes I find myself stumped when it gets tossed in front of me. It disrupts my train of thought more than the player engaged in side talk does, so I'd like to see what successful strategies people use to get that same info out there without -reading it off- when using a module where it has been presented as the primary means of information.

At times I have my strategies for just skimming it real quick and then summing it up, but some modules write whole disertations in there and there's just got to be a good way to deal with that (other than asking if anybody smokes and if they can give you a light, then putting the module to it... )

So, can we come up with a good diverse list of strategies to getting the most out of a poorly written module?

As a fan of boxed text, here's what I do. First off, when I say I'm a fan of boxed text, it isn't because I like to read it aloud. In fact I have the same problems with it that you do. What I do like about it is that if its well done, it gives you all the relevant details that players would have when at the start of an encounter.

What I do is pretty simple, really. I take a minute to read it over and then I summarize what I just read in my own words to my players. It sounds more natural that way and it allows me to convey the points of the box text.

I take a few minutes and hit the salient points with a highlighter pen. I can ususally improv from there.

Agreed

I don't like boxed text either. Sometimes, I'll read it, if it's cool or especially good. Most of the time, I do what Baraendur said -- I'll read it, then summarize it to the players in my own words. It helps to have good improv skills, and I think for some DMs that don't, boxed text would be better than nothing at all.

Re: Agreed

MUKid said:

I don't like boxed text either. Sometimes, I'll read it, if it's cool or especially good. Most of the time, I do what Baraendur said -- I'll read it, then summarize it to the players in my own words. It helps to have good improv skills, and I think for some DMs that don't, boxed text would be better than nothing at all.

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I think boxed text is meant to be used in this fashion. At least, that is how we think it should be used at MEG. It is "paraphrased" to give you the flow of the story line but unless stumped you "should" put it into your own words so it feels natural. I have never looked at a piece of boxed text and thought "Ack, I have to read THIS out loud?" I just get the gist and tell it the way I want.