Viking Bastard
Adventurer
I don't read boxed text in general. I have, on occasion, but very rarely. When using a module, I'll usually transcribe most descriptions, boxed or not, into bullet points and work from that.
Same. I'm also a non-native english speaker, and I also never used boxed texts as is. A literal translation in my language would just sound weird and cringy.Hey guys,
I have just noticed that a many streamers read aloud boxed texts from published modules. I have never experienced this in acutal play (next to a table) in my country.
I am from eastern Europe where not everyone speaks English. Maybe that is why. The read aloud seems weird and it turns the DM into a TextToSpeech bot. Do you guys/girls use it and enjoy it?
How much do you rely on it?
Same. I'm also a non-native english speaker, and I also never used boxed texts as is. A literal translation in my language would just sound weird and cringy.
Isn't it called railroading?After running Storm King's Thunder which lacks boxed text, I realised how useful it is for letting the GM know quickly exactly what information should be readily available to the PCs. When it's taken away, the GM still needs to describe the room to the players but now the relevant information is obfuscated and mixed in with secret DM only information, so the GM needs to pause and read the text once to themselves first to pull out the needed information, then create their own wording on the fly to convey it to the players (which will likely be worse since it's improvised - I know when I make up descriptions on the fly I frequently fail to mention details like smells and sounds, only saying what the characters see). It's much easier to fail to pass on an important detail, and it slows down play as the GM sits quietly reading.
I also think that while boxed text is often akin to waving a flag and saying "this person/place is important", sometimes that's useful to keep players on track and focus their attention. In adventures where boxed text is rare, we do joke when it appears about how the party are obviously on the right track now but it is useful.
Isn't it called railroading?
...failing to mention the presence of monsters until the very last line...