D&D 5E To boxed text or not to boxed text

[el-remmen]

maybe the sign of a railroad.

You are the second person to say this, but not sure what reading boxed text has to do with railroading.

I mean, if they read the boxed text and it contradicts some fact of the scene based on what is happening, then it is clearly a mistake - are you saying there are DMs that insist it must be how it was described in the boxed text regardless of the actual game conditions?

For example, I read the description of a room as written but then add, "But of course because the decanter of endless water you are holding is still spouting, everything is starting to get damp and the floor is slick." Are there DMs who say, the floor must be dry because the boxed text says it is?

 

[cmad1977]

I use the boxed text all the time. Adjusting it on the fly for consistency.

 

[cbwjm]

I do like boxed text, I use it to set the scene as it will often frame a location for the players to react to it. Of course in not beholden to it, if the players actions have changed it enough that the box text is no longer relevant then I adjust it, using the boxed text and the results of the player's actions to describe a location.

 

[pemerton]

You are the second person to say this, but not sure what reading boxed text has to do with railroading.

Because boxed text implies that the situation can be established and described in advance of actual play.

 

[el-remmen]

Because boxed text implies that the situation can be established and described in advance of actual play.

Ok. . . well, I guess we need to make a distinction between types of boxed text - that which describes a location and that which describes a situation.

The former seems to have nothing to do with railroading, but is a baseline for describing a place (with the caveat that game circumstance could change it). The latter I can see having more to do with possible railroading, but since I see it as a baseline to work from (and that is how most modules describe how to use boxed text) I don't think that has as much to do with the boxed text as it does with the relative experience (or style) of the GM.

 

[Jack Daniel]

No boxed text, ever. Can't stand it. Attached is an example of my preferred format for dungeons. (Hopefully nobody playing in my online campaign at the moment stumbles across this thread… )

 

[Eltab]

Boxed text as a Starting Description (size, doors, furniture, temperature, lighting) is fine.

Another use - from HotDQ - would have been to describe the effects of the 'LSD trap' in the cavern beneath the Swamp Castle in a concise player-friendly way so the DM can xerox the page and hand the box text to the affected player(s) "You've been gassed by the trap and the world goes all weird. This ~gives handout~ is what you see / hear / feel when the gas cloud clears up and you look around"

 

[pemerton]

Ok. . . well, I guess we need to make a distinction between types of boxed text - that which describes a location and that which describes a situation.

The former seems to have nothing to do with railroading, but is a baseline for describing a place (with the caveat that game circumstance could change it). The latter I can see having more to do with possible railroading, but since I see it as a baseline to work from (and that is how most modules describe how to use boxed text) I don't think that has as much to do with the boxed text as it does with the relative experience (or style) of the GM.

I think the thought is that if the locations/places are already known in advance, then the game is a railroad. There may be exceptions - eg running a "skilled play" dungeon crawl. I'm not entirely sure what @chaochou's view is on those. But in any event I think few contemporary D&D modules are presenting that sort of thing.

 

[Sacrosanct]

I use it all the time. Also.. I don’t. Also.. I change it on the fly.

I use the boxed text all the time. Adjusting it on the fly for consistency.

At least you're consistent from year to year

 

[77IM]

Good boxed text is like a good forum reply: short and to the point.