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<blockquote data-quote="MoogleEmpMog" data-source="post: 3654428" data-attributes="member: 22882">IIRC, two sentences of boxed text is considered pretty much the upper limit; I know it's what I try to stick to.&nbsp; Anything beyond that and the typical player's eyes start to gloss over.&nbsp; GM narration (as described in the Save My Game article) is usually not distinguishable from boxed text if you're a player - especially if it's been written down and the GM is reading from it like a script.Something like the history of an item?&nbsp; That would bore me to TEARS.What's more, I think it would bore most PCs to tears.&nbsp; Conan wouldn't care about the time-lost eons the sword he picked up had lain in a crumbling pre-human ruin, nor the storied legacy of red-mist carnage it wrought in its own day; he would care about how well it could hew the men or monsters surging up the steps scant seconds at his heels.If you want to involve players in the history of your world - involve their characters.&nbsp; Give them plot hooks (or even railroad them for all I care, but most people don't enjoy being railroaded like I do <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink&nbsp; &nbsp; ;)"&nbsp; data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> ) revolving around that history, make it full of important clues that will help them in the here and now.&nbsp; At the very least, have a ghost or spirit or celestial regale them with the information; at least that can be eerie or even a dialog, and potentially more interesting.Don't hand them an item and then spend several minutes monologuing about it.&nbsp; That's boring even when you're describing something interesting, like a monster or a dangerous environment.&nbsp; When you're describing a magic item?&nbsp; That's going to go wrong on every level.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="MoogleEmpMog, post: 3654428, member: 22882"] IIRC, two sentences of boxed text is considered pretty much the upper limit; I know it's what I try to stick to. Anything beyond that and the typical player's eyes start to gloss over. GM narration (as described in the Save My Game article) is usually not distinguishable from boxed text if you're a player - especially if it's been written down and the GM is reading from it like a script. Something like the history of an item? That would bore me to TEARS. What's more, I think it would bore most PCs to tears. Conan wouldn't care about the time-lost eons the sword he picked up had lain in a crumbling pre-human ruin, nor the storied legacy of red-mist carnage it wrought in its own day; he would care about how well it could hew the men or monsters surging up the steps scant seconds at his heels. If you want to involve players in the history of your world - involve their characters. Give them plot hooks (or even railroad them for all I care, but most people don't enjoy being railroaded like I do ;) ) revolving around that history, make it full of important clues that will help them in the here and now. At the very least, have a ghost or spirit or celestial regale them with the information; at least that can be eerie or even a dialog, and potentially more interesting. Don't hand them an item and then spend several minutes monologuing about it. That's boring even when you're describing something interesting, like a monster or a dangerous environment. When you're describing a magic item? That's going to go wrong on every level. [/QUOTE]

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