Words fall and everyone dies
Read aloud text, or Grey Boxed Text, is found in most published adventures. The text sets the tone for an encounter or describes important features of a room. Read aloud text is handy, yet often absent in adventures created by a GM for their group. GMs often trust their memory or create text on the fly.
Improvising description isn’t a bad thing for a couple reasons. First, a good GM can react to their group’s current interest and need for description, and they can modify the GBT to fit the situation. The latter is an occasional problem with published adventure, where the description might not fit what the party actually wants to do. “I don’t care if you were sneaking quietly and check the door, the text says you walk in and are surprised.”
…and additionally, I don’t want to read the often very long text while we want action – if I make up stuff myself I can decide on the length. If something is really needed to be said, in online games I just c/p the text into a forum and take a bathroom break while the players read it :-)
Bathroom break text. That would be another strip.