Pet Peeve with Adventure Path Area Descriptions

[Septhaka]

A pet peeve I have with area descriptions in many APs is the descriptions are incomplete. I would rather the description be something I can read to convey what the characters seem, smell, hear, etc. when they enter an area. Many times though a description might omit the NPCs present in the room leaving the DM to tack this on sometimes awkwardly after reading the supplied description or, as I do, modifying the supplied description before the session to include missing elements. Is there a reason why some descriptions completely omit NPCs that would be completely visible and noticeable when characters enter an area?

[Thirdhorseman]

because some npc's in dungeons and other places with combat may have moved if the pc's have made enough noise to attract attention. general features will almost always be the same, but NPC's are the least certain to be there, thus they are not included in basic descriptions. that's my guess at least

[Joana]

James Jacobs on boxed text:

James Jacobs wrote:

Do not include monsters in read-aloud text, unless the monster is 99% of the time in the same position, and even then, only include the monster if it seems to be part of the room (such as a mimic or a golem hiding as a statue). Why's this? Because it's the reverse of #1 above. You should never imply MONSTER action in read-aloud text as well, since the read-aloud text doesn't know what the PCs did just before they entered the room. If the room's bugbear inhabitants hide upon hearing someone trying to get through their locked door, that can be ruined by describing the bugbears in the read-aloud text as "sitting at a table playing Snap-Rats."

The main reason we put a Creature entry in encounters, and why we bold-face the word "CREATURE" at the start, is to give the GM a quick visual cue that there are monsters involved in the encounter, so that when he describes the room, he knows to keep the inhabitants in mind so that he can add them to the description's end, or incorporate them into the description as he sees fit.

[mousmous]

I've come to terms with the necessary evil of keeping creatures separate from the room description and most of the time I can do good prep and incorporate the NPCs into the description. The worst case scenario is when I forget the room description entirely in favor of showcasing the NPCs (And then we have an awkward battle where "Oh yeah, there's a table there." or the equivalent is said)

My pet peeve are the room descriptions that I realize only as I'm reading them that they describe things are not possible for the PCs to see. For example, describing the floor of an area that is far above the eye-line of the only door allowing access into the room.

[Sub-Creator]

And, despite what Mr. Jacobs stated in the quote above, it seems all-too-often that golems or constructs are not included in the actual text for a room, which makes them afterthoughts if one isn't careful. Thus, the construct that appears as a beautiful statue in the chamber is instantly picked out as being a creature and not part of the room by the PCs. That's always been my biggest problem. Not including creatures that could be anywhere due to PC actions? I'm cool with that.

[J-Bone]

My pet peeve on some of the box text is the description of the entrance ways. I suppose its good for the theatre of the mind folks but always feel redundant to me as a map guy.