Mostly for the algorhythmic overlord, but I'll also mention that Kelsey Dionne (The Arcane Library) does a super job with bullet pointing information in her adventures. Her stuff is both very fun to play and very easy to run. A shockingly uncommon combo!
yeah, I've been highlighting boxed text and other pertinent bits of adventures, since at least the 3.x days, where adventures started to get very text-heavy and harder to pick out the key points you actually need at the table.
I use bullet points too! I use them mainly for NPC dialog. I'll make a list of responses or phrases I want them to use - it helps me to "hear" the NPC's voice in my head
I started off reading the Alexandrian, and was impressed with the quality of insight from the posts there. How To Be A Game Master turned the dial up to 11, whilst be incredibly accessible. I'm so impressed by how well it crystalises and structures things that I thought I knew, but really only half-knew. These videos are the icing on the cake, really helpful for prompting ongoing reflections...
Unsurprisingly, another video full of great tips! I always struggle with falling into the trap of "Must Read the Text as Written" syndrome when running a published adventure, always trying to hit the important points, yet still sound naturally like me, rather than stilted as I read someone else's words aloud. Highlighting is definitely a helpful tool in these situations! When writing my own scenarios, I use bullet points to ensure I cover the key elements. Side note: I am greatly enjoying the book, and enthusiastically recommending to anyone who ends up in earshot of me! I've been at this for 40 years, and regardless of one's level of experience, there is always more to learn, and new tricks that can be added to the toolbox!
The included adventure in Pirate Borg was an excellent example of a point crawl while providing bullet point info on how to describe a room using the various senses. I really loved it, can't wait to run it.
Absolutely love how you integrate D&D history into your videos full of game master wisdom and advice. As a relatively new ttrpg player, I find this history fascinating!
Just finished your book yesterday, and your advice is great. Simple and actionable for newer GMs, with alot of great tools and tricks compiled that are useful for anyone. I've been GMing for about 10 years, always learning new things, and love your content. Some of the best out there IMO! Thanks for the great video Justin!
You're welcome! And also thank you for the kind words. It's really great to hear that you enjoyed the book and, particularly, that you found it so useful!
Bullet points, bolding, and highlighting are absolutely essential for efficient, usable prep; any time you're staring at your notes is time you aren't engaged with your players and attentive to their experience, so anything you can do to speed up the times when you need to will have an immediate and direct impact on your game. Another thing I've found really useful for this principle is nested tabs in a program like One Note. If I have something relatively complex that might come up at an unexpected moment or perhaps be missed entirely, I can shunt it out into its own little sub-tab so it's always near at hand, but never in the way.
Another point against using boxed text is that many, many people play in their native, non-English language. I've gotten a lot of mileage putting boxed text into an AI language model like Chat GPT and make it break down the text into bullet points. Of course it can also translate on the fly. For good measure, tell it to format the points into a table and separate key objects and atmospheric descriptors into two columns for easy reference.
That's a really interesting approach! The conceptual division between "key objects" and "atmospheric descriptors," specifically in the context of the boxed text itself, isn't something I'd thought about before.
@xandrianYou're probably already aware of it, but Gavin Norman's latest edition of the Winter's Daughter adventure has an interesting design choice where key objects are printed bold followed by atmospheric descriptors in parenthesis e.g. "TWITCHING STAG SKELETON (Lying in the circle, twitching erratically). SLIME-COATED (bright green, glowing, evaporating). GREEN HAZE (lingering cloud of evaporating slime)" Love your book by the way, rock on.
Your point about bullet points instead of full boxed text was perfectly demonstrated to me by this video, actually. For me personally, your boxed text was confusing and I don't understand half of what was being said. There was almost too much going on. "A ragged-edged black hole that punches through the rock"? What does "A dark mass of stone that bulges out of the slope" mean in this instance? But your bullet points? An image immediately came to mind. I already try to use bullet points because I'm not the best at writing down my thoughts but can more accurately speak them ion the moment, this was just a great reminder as to why I do that!
The advantage of being able to tune the description to the words and phrases and techniques that you know works for the group you're running is a huge advantage! It also frees you up. Because you're really communicating with the players (instead of reading prepared text), you can also be aware of when they aren't fully understanding what you're saying: So you can circle back on it, reinforce particular points, etc.
That boxed text example was incomprehensible to me when you read it out loud. Even the written version later I had to read multiple times and still wasn't quite sure how to picture the scene. I think this shows how, as you said, descriptions need to be pithy, to the point, and use clear enough sentence structure. Nested relative clauses might look good in literature, but for communicating to players I think form has to follow function.
For all of us playing in a different language than english: is it worth it to translate boxed text? Direct translations are often worded awkwardly, but switching to english during our sessions just for a description can feel equally awkward.
Someone else was just talking about this here in the comments. Assuming you're comfortable reading English, I'd recommend the highlighter approach from the video: Highlight key words in the boxed text, and use those as guideposts for improvising the description of the scene in the language of play.
Thou hast successfully navigated the labyrinth! Welcome to the Land of Endless Treasures which is the comments section! (Warning: Many treasures in the comments section will be cursed!)
@@TheAlexandrianYou wanna know how i got this scar? Last time I looted a comment section I made off with a pun that turned out to be a mimic. Barely survived.
The really weird part is that the Planescape boxed sets were still in the background even though it was 1976. Those were released a lot earlier than I thought!
I really like how Necrotic Gnome’s adventures do clear evocative bullets that try and engage multiple senses. They’re my gold standard when I’m doing notes for myself (and reworking 3 paragraphs of overweening fluff into a couple bullet points I can actually use).
Making sure to engage multiple senses is such a good tip! It's something I talk about in my video on Describing the World, too. It's such an instant power up for your descriptions.
running mostly mystery typed games having a bullet list is fundamental for being able to make sure that all essential clues have been brought to the partys attention. It being in a bullet list form keeps options open to where and when to drop the clue and helps keeping the game dynamic and fluid.
I hate when second person is used in boxed text. I find it just bad. Sorry, but that include the example given. Why? Because I feel addressed as player not as character, I am not my character. I prefer to describe my character in third person and not in first, since that usually leads to more expressive description, and most importantly it helps to avoid subjunctive mood which make feel less concrete and thus less immersive. The other sie is that if the GM does not narrate in second person it grands the players more liberty how they want to imagine their character in the scenario and prevents the GM from accidentally railroading by telling the players what their characters are doing or at what they are looking. It also give the GM the opportunity to describe the environment in a more active voice, like describing how the fog is creeping towards the house or the shadows dance on the wall and thus deliver a much denser atmosphere.
