Block Text

[Jhaeman]

Does narrative block text (such as a mission briefing) need to be read word-for-word straight through from beginning to end, or can it be paraphrased and handled as more of a role-playing scene as long as all of the relevant information is conveyed? I know uniformity in presentation is essential for scenarios, but I also worry about some of my players' eyes glazing over at long blocks of text found in some scenarios.

[Gary Bush]

In a lot of cases it does say to read aloud or paraphrase.

As long as you give the information it should be fine to paraphrase.

[Hmm]

Yep, I often add my own details in there to break it up a bit, too.

Hmm

[Upaynao]

I've always found the boxed text to be clunky at best, at worst not at all like a real person would talk. Thus I paraphrase. Heavily.

[GM Ladile]

I prefer to paraphrase as well. As long as you make sure to present the necessary information to the PCs then I don't see any harm in doing so :)

[The Shifty Mongoose]

Whenever I see block text that goes on for multiple paragraphs, I tend to stop between them. Usually, players end up asking for more information, or questions that lead right into the next one. That turns a lecture into a conversation, giving the players more agency and involvement.

Though this approach works best when the block text is information someone's telling them. When it's a description of a room, not so much. Also, sometimes I read every typo as if they were all intentional. Depending on what the typo was, it can lead to some unintentional hilarity.

[Ascalaphus]

Breaking up long monologues so players can ask "could you say that name again" and stuff is good, helps people understand what they're doing.

It helps a lot if during prep you read at least the briefing aloud to yourself once. If you've done it once it'll be much easier to do again smoothly during the game.

[Hmm]

I've sung a paraphrased version of the briefing to myself on occasion to help get key parts into memory. But... I'm weird.

Doing an in character read aloud is great as well. I try out different voices to find one that makes sense for the VC, and to help me get into character.

Breaking up the box text the way Shifty Mongoose describes works great for From the Tome of Righteous Repose. If you pause a lot, the players will start asking questions as the oddity of the Pathfinder Lodge in question starts to dawn on them.

Hmm

[Kate Baker]

Some scenarios have rather gruesome boxed text that I've skimmed over depending on the players. Or I might reiterate important things a few times. There's definitely room to change it up.

[Fromper]

I frequently print out the opening mission briefing. After I read it to the group, I hand it to them as a handout, so they can copy the spellings of names, review the details, etc without having to ask me to repeat myself over and over.

[bluesman95]

Fromper wrote:

I frequently print out the opening mission briefing. After I read it to the group, I hand it to them as a handout, so they can copy the spellings of names, review the details, etc without having to ask me to repeat myself over and over.

I'll have to do that. I had one player last year at Gen Con have me spell everything

[Terminalmancer]

I did that with Hmm and friends' excellent Cosmic Captive handouts when we ran that locally. Seemed like an excellent idea... up until I discovered that due to unforeseen circumstances, one of my players couldn't read twelve-point text. Needed something larger-print. Argh!

(That same player still plays--and has fun, from what I can tell. She only ever ends up at my tables when I have at least one page worth of handouts to give to the PCs. Heh.)

Digression aside, it is a very valuable thing to do--especially when the costs are low, like you're copying and pasting it into a handout in Roll20 or something. I hadn't really considered it in person until Cosmic Captive but most of the players seemed to appreciate it.

[Woran]

While I hardly ever paraphrase, I do change my inflection depending on which NPC it is. Sheila I do very formally. Dreng tends to wander.

[Hmm]

Whoa, someone else used my Cosmic Captive Briefing Handouts? That's great! It also makes me feel better about continually using your House of Harmonious Wisdom handouts. I only created them because whenever I GM a special, there's sound issues. We get in these big rooms and suddenly the Overseers sound like adults in a Peanuts special: "Wah wahn wah wahn wahnk."

Hmm

[TriOmegaZero]

I do my best to improvise pauses and breaks in the monologue and react in character to PC interjections. (Interrupting the Master of Spells summons a sarcasm elemental.) It is far easier with a scenario I have read and ran before than the first time I am imparting the mission. I highly recommend working to paraphrase where you can and have a print copy of the block text for player review mid-scenario when they inevitably ask "what are we supposed to be doing in this cave?"

[Terminalmancer]

Hilary Moon Murphy wrote:

Whoa, someone else used my Cosmic Captive Briefing Handouts? That's great!

They were really useful! Thank you for making them!

Hilary Moon Murphy wrote:

It also makes me feel better about continually using your House of Harmonious Wisdom handouts.

Ha, no worries. Hope they help! We're supposed to cooperate, after all!

Quote:

I only created them because whenever I GM a special, there's sound issues. We get in these big rooms and suddenly the Overseers sound like adults in a Peanuts special: "Wah wahn wah wahn wahnk."

You aren't kidding. My one run-through of Cosmic Captive was especially bad. We had a table of some homebrew D&D game directly behind us and they were so incredibly excited the whole time! It's great they were having fun, but it sure seemed like they'd start yelling in our direction (not at us in particular, just in our general direction) from all of 4 or 5 feet away whenever the overseer started reading. Those handouts you made were the only reason anyone at my table had any idea what was going on.