The all mighty box text

[DonTadow]

Would you buy an adventure that did not include box texts? Instead it included detailed personalities, locations and things that a character would say? I"m pondering writing an adventure where there is no balky box text. I'm just curious if I'm the only one whom finds lenghty box text sometimes annoying as both DM and player.

 

[Shadowslayer]

My beef has never been the boxed text itself. It's boxed text that's too long or unweildy that I don't like. I think its great to sum up an initial impression of a particular room or area....saves me having to comb thru the entry to tell the PCs what they see.

I may still buy a module without it...its not necessarily a deal breaker. But when I see that there's no box text, I know it'll mean a little more time invested in studying it before play. Thats a downfall.

I guess it falls under "ease of use" when you're evaluating your work.

 

[Mouseferatu]

A great many of Necromancer's modules--including my own--lack boxed text. Similarly, the modules done for the Scarred Lands didn't have them.

Personally, as long as the module's written so everything the DM needs is included in the description, I prefer modules that don't have the boxed text.

 

[pogre]

Boxed text is handy as a guide for dialogue and description. However, I agree with the mouse. As long as a module includes some guidance in a clear way the box can go.

 

[the Jester]

I like boxed text in my modules, but its presence or absence is not enough to be a deal-breaker (or a deal-maker) for me.

 

[Ion]

I don't use box text as written. I highlight the important features I want to mention, and then scan my eyes over the book as I'm describing the room.

What I would really love is the important things to note in bullet point form. Just the key things I need to know about the room, and then I can add "complete sentences" and any other fluff I want to mention around them as I go along.

 

[smootrk]

Often the boxed text is written with assumptions about how the characters encounter the area. All too many times, my players have somehow managed to enter areas in an odd manner, making some of the boxed text seem out of place.

Static area descriptions would be OK, as in the basic description of the area. NPC's & Monsters ought to have their own little boxed text descriptions to detail them. However, leave any reference to interactions between the players & npc's/environment as it never seems to work out correctly.... players enter the wrong door, npc's who are listed as running off to warn others are intercepted by the pc's unexpectantly, certain spell effects make changes (light, darkness, clairvoyance, etc).

There are so many things that players do that make boxed text irrelevant. I make a point of perusing the boxed text & room info, then paraphrasing only the actual visual/auditory/smells etc. I purposefully leave out the scripted actions.

 

[Drowbane]

I'm with our Friendly Neighborhood Rodent (of the Dark) on this one.

I always summarize boxtext or ignore it for my own brief descriptions.

 

[trancejeremy]

Generally they aren't useful to read to the players, since they often make assumptions that won't apply to your players. But on the other hand, they are very useful when you first read through the module to get a "feel" of it and the author's intentions. Sort of looking at a movie scene through the camera lens, instead of from the director's chair.

 

[wmasters]

Often the boxed text is written with assumptions about how the characters encounter the area. All too many times, my players have somehow managed to enter areas in an odd manner, making some of the boxed text seem out of place.

All too true. I played a Living Greyhawk metaregional some time ago where the box text it was assumed that we'd killed one or another group in a skirmish. It happened that we were a party almost universally equipped to deal subdual damage, the only thing we killed all module was a pigeon.

The fact that none of the enemies were actually dead rendered the box text redundant (and, unfortunately, the conclusion of the adventure, our DM ad-libbed it very well fortunately).

So box text for me isn't so great in itself. For NPCs, sufficient background and knowledge of important opinions on characters is better. The exception is those occasions where I pick up a module and running it, if I've only had the chance to scan over the module rather than read it thoroughly. Then box-text is very helpful.