Let's do an experiment using bad boxed text.

[Jhaelen]

Bad boxed text doesn't bother me in the least. I never read it aloud, anyway. I just use it as a basis for paraphrasing the descriptions. This has the advantage of not breaking the flow and obfuscating the parts of the adventure that are played as written and the parts I'm inventing as I go along.

Still, this contest is fun

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Let's combine Danny's text with Danny's reaction:

Now it's awesome.

And actually, because of my timing- I mean I jumped on it- and decent impression of the DM as that character, that's about how it went!

 

[Tarek]

I remember a Living Greyhawk module; The adventure was actually a fairly good one. Find out what's causing the disturbances and disappearances in this relatively remote and normally peaceful community.

But. In boxed text. The writer of the module made the mistake of naming the specific kind of government this small community had, in the modern wording.

It was an anarcho-syndicalist commune.

Boom. All the interest I had in the scenario, disappeared. If the author wasn't going to take the module seriously by imparting information we really didn't need, using terms most people are familiar with from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, well, I wasn't going to take the scenario seriously.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

There is enough light in this small room that you could see what you are standing in, but your nose tells you that it would be a bad idea, even as the damp and clinging material seeps over the tops of your boots....

The Auld Grump

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

There is enough light in this small room that you could see what you are standing in, but your nose tells you that it would be a bad idea, even as the damp and clinging material seeps over the tops of your boots....

The Auld Grump

My, what a fascinating smell you've found!

 

[TheAuldGrump]

My, what a fascinating smell you've found!

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TY8T9iTUxc]YouTube - Labyrinth lipy of the Bog of eternal stench[/ame]

The highest form of humor (humour?)!

The Auld Grump

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

[PINHEAD]Oh, yes- there will be pop-culture references.[/PINHEAD]

 

[Ulrick]

[PINHEAD]Oh, yes- there will be pop-culture references.[/PINHEAD]

You slaughter the entire tribe, took their stuff, and got revenge for the death of your mother. Afterwards, you leave the dungeon. But you do not feel quite the same. Your girlfriend awaits you in the camp and you say to her: "I killed them. I killed them all. They're dead, every single one of them. And not just the men... but the women, and the children too. They're like animals! And I slaughtered them like animals! I hate them!"

She comforts you in your hour of need, ignoring the fact that you might be one step closer to losing your paladinhood...

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Hmmm ...

You have no recollection of how you arrived here. You find yourselves in a circular room that measures nine foot seven inches by six foot nine and three quarters inches. The room is lightless, colorless, tasteless, and odorless. The walls are decorated by richly illustrated frescoes and collages of scenes of fearsome demonic creatures at play in a fey wood deep underground, illuminated by brightly burning torch sconces whose glowing flungi put off a wan and putrescent light. The floor is covered in a thick, rich carpet of threadbare shag over wooden slats.

Search as ye might, you can find no entrance or exit to the room. Detect magic does not reveal the +1 longsword hidden under a flagstone in the northwest corner or the room, nor does is the thief able to find the ten foot by ten foot pit trap covered by the mimic in the southeast corner of the room.

The bard converses with the ancient red wyrm who dominates the room, explaining that you did not mean to stumble into his lair uninvited. The wyrm does not accept your diplomancy and promptly consumes the bard, then invites you to depart by the passageway from which you entered.

 

[Tarek]

Hmmm ...

Originally Posted by bad boxed text
You have no recollection of how you arrived here. You find yourselves in a circular room that measures nine foot seven inches by six foot nine and three quarters inches. The room is lightless, colorless, tasteless, and odorless. The walls are decorated by richly illustrated frescoes and collages of scenes of fearsome demonic creatures at play in a fey wood deep underground, illuminated by brightly burning torch sconces whose glowing flungi put off a wan and putrescent light. The floor is covered in a thick, rich carpet of threadbare shag over wooden slats.

Search as ye might, you can find no entrance or exit to the room. Detect magic does not reveal the +1 longsword hidden under a flagstone in the northwest corner or the room, nor does is the thief able to find the ten foot by ten foot pit trap covered by the mimic in the southeast corner of the room.

The bard converses with the ancient red wyrm who dominates the room, explaining that you did not mean to stumble into his lair uninvited. The wyrm does not accept your diplomancy and promptly consumes the bard, then invites you to depart by the passageway from which you entered.

Ooh, that's bad... I mean, perfectly bad. The well-written kind of perfectly bad that almost makes sense until you reread it.

Plus, there's automatic character death in boxed text, or automatic character insertion and then death in boxed text...