Poll: Boxed Text, for player or GM?

[FusionBurner]

Boxed Text -- It works for everyone

Here is an example of how it used to be done back in the Golden Age of D&D:

L.67 Tomb of Amun-Re:
Through the double doors and down a 10-foot long corridor, you now enter the burial room which is 30 feet wide by 40 feet long. The great sarcophagus is in the center of the room, the golden staff lying across it. In the center of the north wall stands a statue of Amun-Re with a carved copy of the Star of Mo-Pelar held out in its right hand and the staff held across its body with its left hand. A phrase is written on both the east and west walls.

Play: The players may proceed with Treasure and Trap/Trick as well as the runes in Lore. The Monster is inside the sarcophagus and will not attack unless the lid is opened.

Monster: If the sarcophagus is opened, the Mummy (the monster's STAT BLOCK goes here) will attack.

Treasure: Lying across the sarcophagus isn the Pharaoh's Staff of Ruling. This is one of the two treasures that players need to fulfill their quest. It can be easily and safely taken from the top of the sarcophagus. See TREASURES AND TOMES (this is something included in the module) for its magical powers.

Trap/Trick: The statue is a secret door that leads to a 10-foot wide by 20-foot deep alcove...(and so on)

Lore: There is a base 30% chance (using the d20 rules, this would be a DC check) of each character correctly reading the writings which say:

A PASSAGE WAS ALWAYS PROVIDED BETWEEN THE TOMB OF THE KING AND HIS LIKENESS...(and so on and so forth)

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The comments in parenthesis where added by me, but the rest is from the AD&D module, "PHARAOH", by Tracy and Laura Hickman, published in 1983 by TSR.

At any rate, I found that sort of layout worked very well both back then and now.. as I take these old modules and convert them over to d20 rules to be run by myself on Internet Relay Chat games.

Game On!

 

[blargney the second]

FusionBurner, that's exactly what I was going to say I wish boxed text were like. I want a bare-bones description of the room, then an itemized list of things in the room for the DM. I really hate when there's crucial secret information that's right in the boxed text - it means I have to scan for what parts not to read, which is horrendously inefficient.

 

[Emirikol]

I wrote and edited scenarios in the Living Greyhaw system for a couple years. I found that BOXED TEXT is to be read by the DM's because it contains the absolutely CRUCIAL information that must be gotten across to the players AND THEN the DM can embellish.

DM's who wing stuff tend to miss things and then wonder why the players have gotten totally off track.

There is such a thing as the BOXED TEXT NIGHTMARE however.
1. Too long (NEVER too short unless the author simply misses something)
2. Suggests or even says that the PC's are taking action..such as..."As you round the corner, you run smack into a troll" or worse, "You walk into the room and...." or "YOUR HAIR STANDS ON END AS you finger the dead corpse..." What the hell? Boxed Text is supposed to be a "PAINTING."
3. They have alternating boxed text and DM's text (usually done by authors who don't understand that 'conversations' don't work as boxed text)
4. They don't allow PC's to act. "Before you can take action, the wizard teleports away."


Don't even get me started on BLURBS that end in a question...

jh



..

 

[Mycanid]

Well, being an "old timer" I guess I grew crusty in my ways. I liked the boxed text read to the player format.

 

[airwalkrr]

There is something to be said for boxed text that is short and sweet, as in, no more than two sentences that give the main idea. Beyond that, I tend to paraphrase for my players when I "read" boxed text.

 

[jmucchiello]

Excellent question. Boxed text for the GM, actually. It could be completed with a "Designer's Note" kind of boxed text, if you see what I mean.

I think you are referring to a side bar. That is a different beast.

 

[T. Foster]

I'm not generally a fan of boxed text (which, even at its best, tends to make too many assumptions about how the party is proceeding), hate boxed text that includes assumed actions for the PCs, and really really really hate boxed text that includes canned "dialogue" for NPCs. I can see why it might be necessary for tournament-type situations where it's important that all player groups be on an even playing field, but that's a pretty unique circumstance and for regular campaign-play I'm not convinced that boxed read-aloud text is ever necessary, or usually desirable.

FWIW, my favorite format for room descriptions in dungeon modules comes from Snakepipe Hollow, released by Chaosium (for Runequest) in 1979. Each room description is broken down as follows:

INITIAL DIE ROLLS: Roll to determine what's in the room at the time the characters enter it

FIRST GLANCE: gives the size of the room and a general description of its features (equivalent, if I'm understanding the concept, to "boxed DM text"?)

CLOSER LOOKS: details that will only be noticed on a closer examination (some of which may be misleading and/or unimportant)

EXITS: lists all of the exits in the room and where they go

HIDDEN SPOTS: tells how long it takes one character to thoroughly search the room, and what, if anything, they find on a successful search, including the chances for finding a Found Item (a cool idea unique AFAIK to this module (and Griffin Mountain, by the same author) -- a table of minor treaures and other curiosities (somewhat similar to the "dungeon dressing" table in the back of the 1E DMG) that can be found anywhere in the dungeon -- "a broken bronze sword with 'ERAZ' carved on its hilt. Eraz is the name of the person who made the sword but is not otherwise significant," "three brass tacks," "a decorative hair ribbon, about 1/2 meter long, pale blue, in very good shape," etc.)

TRAPS: any traps in the room, how they are activated (and de-activated) and what they do if activated

DENIZENS: Stats and descriptions for the usual inhabitants of the room (but note that per the Initial Die Roll the usual inhabitant may not be present, and other creatures may be present instead of or in addition to the usual inhabitants)

TREASURE: the location and amount of any treasure in the room (beyond Found Items)

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES: self-explanatory