The sand in the air drifts slowly to the earth below in silence and all is as it was. Yet not quite, for the silence is not complete. Down below, as yet unseen through the settling dust, lifts the cool sound of running water. The clearing air soon reveals a cracked pool, now overflowing with spring-clear water, and a long dead channel, taking, at each step, its own parched drink before passing the flowing river on. It will take time to heal this land, but there will be blossoms in the spring, for Athis has returned from her exile—and with her comes life.

Tracy and Laura Hickman, Pharaoh, TSR 1982.

But that is a special case. Looking through the latest D&D release, Rime of the Frostmaiden, I can find several excellent examples of boxed text.

Consider this:

Peering through the gap in a collapsed wall, you see a fifteen-foot-square infimary in disarray, with an operating table in the middle of the room. Leather straps extend from one side of the table into the air above its surface, and fasten to the other side. The shape suggests that something or someone invisible is lashed to the table.

Icewind Dale: RIme of the Frostmaiden, Wizards of the Coast 2020

There are a few things there (use of you) that some do not recommend, but I think it is excellent at giving an overview of the area and focusing the characters on the major point of interest in the room.

Just a note: If the room is too complicated to describe in boxed text, it is likely too complicated!

And what is the worst? – @MTBlack@2579

There are so many examples!

For humour’s sake, I take this example from The Forest Oracle.

A group of seven men approaches. They are following the road east, and are making good time, neither tarrying nor running. Their faces are expressionless. One is dressed as a cleric of some sort, and another is dressed as a traveling drummer. The others could be peasants or serfs going from one location to another for the harvest season. Each carries some sort of weapon. It is plain that they are not soldiers by their haphazard way of walking. They do not seem to be joking loudly or singing as they advance.

Carl Smith, The Forest Oracle, TSR 1984

There are far worse examples out there, but this one falls into the trap of overdescribing. In fact, there are several parts of the text that are nicely evocative, but it is not content with just describing the scene but also assuming what the characters think of it!

The last line is priceless. “They do not seem to be joking loudly or singing as they advance”. You could use that as the last line of every boxed text you read out, and in 9999 of 10000 cases, it would be true!

How does one measure the success of the boxed text? Qualitatively, Quantitatively. – @WisePapaGrant

It is easy to measure the non-success of boxed text. If your players fall asleep or completely fail to understand what you have just said, you have failed!

The purpose of boxed text is to distill the ideas of what may be a complicated encounter down into a form which the DM can easily relay to the players without having to do the work themselves. It is a guide for both the DM and players of what is immediately important.

So, after a passage of boxed text, the players should have between one to three items they can immediately interact with, and have an idea of the area they are doing it in. You do not need to be that specific – shorter is better for attention span – but as long as they have an idea of what they can do next, it is a success.

When writing box text, what are some common mistakes authors make? – @mysterywisc

The number one problem is the boxed text is too long. The related problem is too much irrelevant detail.

In some cases it comes down to making the area itself too complcated. If there are twenty things to interact with, describing them all individually just takes too long.

Assumption of action is another common problem, which is when you describe the characters doing something that, in the game, they are not doing. (It seems that there is assumption of action above in my example of good boxed text, but that is text triggered by an action).

Related to that is assumption of inaction. This happens when you describe an ongoing scene. A common one is a sacrifice. You describe the cultists, how they are chanting, and how the high priest lifts his dagger, performs the sacrifice, and does something unspeakable afterwards. Meanwhile, the players start shouting at you in the middle of the text about how they stop the high priest! That is assumption of inaction: except in specific cases, do not describe actions that take time to complete!

How much should boxed text give away? To me, sometimes its too assumptive. – @SwampRob

As much as needed for the players to have an idea of what is going on!

Here is another example from Rime of the Frostmaiden:

This tower reaches upward like a talon, its stonework studded in chiseled runes. A blue light shines from its highest window.

Icewind Dale: Rise of the Frostmaiden, WIzards of the Coast 2020

That has a little bit of evocative text — “upward like a talon” — and two immediate areas of interest, the runes and the blue light. That gets the players attention and gives them things to interact with.

It is entirely too easy to give too much detail. You can save that for individual sections in the text that the DM references when the players look more closely at the area.

That seems enough for one blog post! I will get to the other questions asked in the near future. If you have a question about boxed text you would like to ask, tag me on Twitter or email me at merricb@yahoo.co.uk – I will try to include them in a later article!