Box Text

[Jefe Bergenstein]

I like boxed text that tells the PCs what they see.

I dislike boxed text that tells the players how they feel or react. That's for the players to decide IMO.

Even worse is when the boxed text describes a series of actions. Playing one adventure where our characters stood helpless as the villain performed some complex action described in the stupid text prompted the creation of "Protection from Boxed Text" spell (and eventually a new DM).

 

[EricNoah]

I like boxed text -- I consider it optional but it is a very handy option to have at times.

I do appreciate when they start with the most obvious things first (like a monster or an unusual lighting situation).

 

[Joshua Randall]

In general I cringe at most box text, but several years ago I ran across a format I did like (in a federal govt training course of all things)

Wow, the feds use D&D as a training tool?

On a serious note, I'd like to say that as a player, I think no description (boxed text) is worse than bad description. If my PCs enters dungeon room #372-A, I want to know what he sees.

How big is the room? (Will a fireball fit in there?)

Where are the exits? (What if I need to flee? or, how many doors do I need to spike shut before holing up here?)

Is there furniture or other features? (What can I use for cover? or, Where could enemies be hiding? or, Where's the treasure hidden?)

What's the floor like? (Is it "rough terrain" that will prevent me from charging?)

Anything interesting about the temperature, sounds, or smells? (Are there subtle clues I can pick up on to avoid being eaten by the grue?)

 

[jmucchiello]

On a serious note, I'd like to say that as a player, I think no description (boxed text) is worse than bad description. If my PCs enters dungeon room #372-A, I want to know what he sees.

Description can be written to convey information to the DM who disseminates to the players as he feels makes the most sense. No one advocates rooms without descriptions. We just complain when the adventure writer puts on his "narrator" hat and asks the DM to "read this aloud".

 

[Oryan77]

I like your boxed text. Nice short punchy sentences, good cadence. Very un-Necropolis.

Cool, thanks. It seems like like/dislike of boxed text is pretty 50/50 among gamers. It's another one of those things that you can chalk up as being a difference in playstyles. Which surprises me a lot, I thought everyone reads the boxed text that comes with adventures. Sometimes you need to edit it to fit the session, but I never knew people actually hated boxed text...especially half of the gamer population

My problem with this is I have no idea where I am. Am I on a cobblestone street where the houses are close together or in the town square? If the streets are narrow I can't see the square because of the houses, and yet I can also see the amphitheater. If it read more like a travelogue (things to see in the seaside town) rather than are present tense action it would work better for me.

Good observation. My boxed text didn't specifically state where the PC's are standing, but that's because I think it's uneccessary to mention that. It really has no impact on the current situation. If an encounter begins, then I'll draw out the area on the mat and ask where they are standing. If the player wants to be standing in the narrow street instead of in the town square, that's cool with me.

My boxed text is meant to get a quick mental image of the area. Nothing more. If a PC never actually walked up to the wooden post to read the sign before a fight broke out, it doesn't matter. He could pretend he read the sign after the fight. Or he could pretend he never read the sign, but another PC told him what the sign said. I'm not really sure why it would be an issue since it has no effect on the game in the big scheme of things.

I personally think it's more entertaining to hear a description of a scene as a present tense action than I would if it was a travelogue or bullet points. My gaming style is narrative, I play D&D as if it's a story. When you just give out facts with no fluff to it, the game is more instructional...and that's not my cup of tea

 

[phindar]

This goes back to a game I was in just after high school, I believe it was the first Undermountain boxed set. Our group played through it several times a week, and the way we eventually started to survive and do well was anytime the GM started to read boxed text, we'd stop and run in the other direction. Cheezy, metagaming, cheating even? Yes. But we lived.

 

[Delta]

In general I cringe at most box text, but several years ago I ran across a format I did like (in a federal govt training course of all things). The boxed text was restricted to a single sentence and then there would be 3-5 talking points in bullet format that needed to be included in the description...

That's an interesting point... it lines up very accurately with how I teach my college classes (one fine-tuned definition that I carefully write on the board, then more of an extemporaneous discussion about it and some examples). In the future I might try that in my adventures; sounds like both less work and more lively in-game.

 

[Mycanid]

Hmm ... I always liked the boxed text arrangement. Different strokes for different folks I guess.

 

[dcas]

Fair enough, though I'm pretty sure Frank Mentzer wrote the boxed text for ToEE.

But we don't know how much of his writing for TOEE was based on EGG's notes . . . and he deliberately tried to mimic EGG's style in writing TOEE.

The Village of Hommelet doesn't have any boxed text. I prefer no boxed text myself.

 

[Quasqueton]

Here's probably my all-time favorite boxed text from a module (I'm not going to say which one, but most of you can probably guess):

To be fair, that text is the description of the adventure locale, to set the mood, not an example of a room description. And it is a better description than most DMs could give (me included) off their head. It sets the mood for the adventure, and probably expects the DM to continue and support that mood. If I remember correctly, there isn't any other boxed text for the whole book, especially not such long prose for room information.

Quasqueton