Adventures/Modules

[Dustland]

Howdy folks, need your thoughts on something. When using published adventures, do you prefer text boxes to read aloud to players that describe a particular scene/room/etc? Or do you even use them?

My experience, especially with old Dungeon adventures, has been that reading a description to players was a very ineffective way to describe the scene, especially if the description is overly long. Too often the player's eyes glazed over by the third sentence.

Just wondering if that's a common issue and if I should bother including narrative boxes in an adventure I'm working on.

Thanks!

[kroh]

very common. A new Narrator (GM) will read the box. A great one will put things into his own style so to have everyone get the intent while sticking with his own flavor.

Regards,
Walt

[fairytalejedi]

I would say include them, but keep them short and sweet. No need to show off what a great prose writer you are, just give a brief description, to help out new or younger GMs as much as anything.

[Dragonfly]

Hey Dustland,

I don't read 'em outloud, but I'll use them as shorthand. A quick glance at a text box will remind me what's there so that I can put it into my own words. That's if we're talking about a room in a dungeon (or alien spaceship, etc.). If it's a more general introduction to a scene, or the description of a single NPC that is going to share some info, I'm not likely to use the text box at all.

Hope that helps!

I'm anxious to see this adventure you are putting together!

Cheers!

Aldo

[Evil-Genius]

I play them back in my own way. I tend to give the overview and then add more detail as the players ask questions.
Most of them suck as written and many actually fail to mention the bad guys and just describe the room or scene. D&D - I'm looking at you in particular.