Box Text

[wayne62682]

What I hate worse is a scenario like the following:

Boxed text gives room description, and nothing else. Further down in the room details it mentions that there are a bunch of monsters in the room and they'll attack the PCs. Umm.. shouldn't this information normally be relayed to the players as they look in the room? I realize that the DM should know there are monsters in the room and modify the description accordingly, but really, as cliche as it is that should be included in the flavor text like it used to be (e.g. "Four large, hairy humanoids in crude armor stand in the room. As they see you enter, they snarl and heft wicked-looking morningstars")

Instead it plays out something like this:

DM: You see a room filled with some makeshift cots. A door is to the North.
Player: Okay, we enter.
DM: Roll for initiative as the four bugbears here attack you!
Player: Umm.. where the hell were there four bugbears in the room description?!

 

[Slife]

You enter a low room with a very high ceiling. It is completely circular, and in one corner, you see a large bonfire illuminating the whole room. Through the gloom, you can barely make out the various furniture. The room is mostly empty except for the tapestries. In the middle, a big monster stands. It turns around and charges you. One of the tapestries depicts a heroine in a mauve cloak sniffing flowers - mainly daffodils, but some tulips and roses - but only black ones.

^
My favorite

 

[Quasqueton]

See also:

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=172004

Quasqueton

 

[Joshua Randall]

Dungeon magazine writer's guidelines clarify that boxed text room descriptions should not include info on monsters or other inhabitants. That is because the monster could move around, get killed as a wandering monster encounter, or otherwise not be present. Or be hidden, invisible, or the like.

I think as a general rule, bad boxed text
* is too long (> 2 paragraphs)
* gives extraneous details
* gives details that would not be immediately obvious (very common example: "There is a barrel in the corner full of 500-year-old dwarven ale." How could anyone know what was in the barrel just by glancing at it?)
* leaves out key details that would be immediately obvious (e.g. gaping pit in front of door)
* assumes action or inaction on the part of the PCs

Lots of boxed text can be obviated by good maps, especially if the players know what all the map icons mean or they are intuitive. For example, you don't need to tell the players there is a dresser in the SW corner if the map makes it obvious. Nor do you need to tell the player that the evil altar is on a raised platform 5' off the ground if there is a clearly indicated contour line on the map.

 

[S'mon]

KotB doesn’t have boxed text

Take a look at the intro section - there's some stuff there to read to the players. But you're right, I misremembered. Still traumatised by Necropolis. Hmm, I think Queen of the Demonweb Pits had some ok boxed text.

 

[Henrix]

I had this at the weekend - I played an RPGA game where the DM read all the boxed text in a monotone.

Ouch.

A bad box text read out loud is a good way to destroy the mood.


A friend of mine wanted to take his hand at DMing a couple of years ago. He had written box texts of his own, so that suddenly, in the middle of the adventure, he stopped us saying "Wait, oh, here I've got it!" and started reading the text for us.....and everything stopped. Action died and the whole table started yawning.

 

[PapersAndPaychecks]

I've always loathed boxed text.

I think the original idea was to help out DMs who either (a) hadn't read the module thoroughly enough or (b) weren't articulate or creative enough to come up with an entertaining room description on their own. At least, that's the only justification I can see for it.

 

[SpiderMonkey]

I love boxed text.

There, I said it.

For me, time is an issue between sessions, and I'd rather spend that time coming up with plot archs, interesting NPCs, and other such stuff. However, I think good boxed text can bring the PCs "there" so to speak. I don't really use modules, but I steal room descriptions from them quite a bit. When i get a chance, I'll occassionally write my own bit of descriptive prose for an area; as a writing teacher, it's always a fun exercise for me.

[EDIT: I need to proofread my own writing.]

 

[MerricB]

I had this at the weekend - I played an RPGA game where the DM read all the boxed text in a monotone.

Heh. I make a lot of use of boxed text when running published adventures (RPGA and otherwise). However, I'm very very good at not reading in a monotone.

There is a basic problem with room descriptions: you need to give a lot more information than there is time to do so in. This gets worse if you don't use a battlemat, btw.

Cheers!

 

[Ilium]

I sometimes write my own box text. I do that in situations where I either want to make sure I don't forget something important, or the location is meant to be especially important or memorable.

But of course, since I wrote it, I know how it's meant to be read and I HOPE it's not boring.