D&D 5E At Your 5E Table, How Is It Agreed upon That the PCs Do Stuff Other than Attack?

[Paul Farquhar]

Any and all (apart from assuming, I never do that, and it's always a DM thing to decide on an ability check). I leave it up to the players to decide how they want to interact.

 

[CleverNickName]

2, 4, and 6.

At my table, each player describes their character's action (or movement, intentions, question, etc.) in character. Then the DM decides if a roll is needed, and if so, decides what the player needs to roll. The player makes those rolls, the DM resolves the dice results, and the game continues.

 

[briggart]

All of the above. Sometimes players state what they intend to do and we figure out how that translates into D&D mechanics, other times they frame their actions directly in terms of mechanics. Some players lean more to one style than another, but we don't have a clear cut division in our group. And it's typically a collaborative process, with a bit of back and forward between DM and players to make sure that we are all on the same page.

 

[Lanefan]

I think what they're getting at is the idea that there is room for negotiation as the DM clarifies the challenge. For example, a player might say something like, "I'm going to jump down into the pit, avoiding the spikes, so I can check for treasure," and the DM replies with, "That's next to impossible, but I'll let you do it on a DC 30 skill check." At that point, I would let the player change course on the grounds that they didn't fully understand how difficult it was, which suggests that I might not have described the situation adequately.

My reply as DM to that would go more like "Avoiding the spikes completely is next to impossble; but roll me a d20 - the higher you roll, the luckier you are in missing them." And I'd make it a gradated roll, with a low roll meaning the jumper takes full damage as if falling in (and a 1 probably also meaning the jumper is pinned on the spikes and cannot now move without taking boatloads more damage), a reasonable roll meaning some damage but less than full, and a 20 meaning no damage at all.

Generally, if a player declares an action that seems next to impossible, suicidal, etc. I will clarify what they are trying to do and how hard it is and give them a chance to change their mind. "You can certainly try, but as you approach the lava and the intensity of the heat hits you, it becomes obvious that running across it is a truly terrible idea." If the player still insists, well...I always ask them to have a back-up character ready to go.

If it becomes obvious the player is acting on mis-heard or mis-spoken info I'll repeat the description and add clarification if needed. But yeah, if someone wants to try for that one-in-a-million longshot play, who am I to say no?

(and as a player I try these sort of hope-and-prayer extreme-risk extreme-reward plays far more often than my long-suffering character would probably prefer)

 

[Lanefan]

Yes! That, to me, is an important step. Just as I might misinterpret a player’s action or intention if they don’t state both clearly, they might misinterpret the difficulty or the stakes if I don’t state both clearly. Making explicit statements of all of those things a standard part of the process removes a lot of opportunities for miscommunication and insures the game runs smoothly as silk drenched in butter.

The other issue is often that - between table chatter, crunching chips, inattention, and other distractions; all of which are a near-constant - not everything is always going to be heard as clearly as it was said.

 

[Minigiant]

Re 5 - you mean that players/characters aren't committed to actions once they are declared?

For me, if-when it gets as far as 4 that's it - you're committed, no take-backs - and 5 would read "Resolution occurs, game proceeds".

I only say Players can take backs because

1. Players cant see the world. They can only declare actions based on the DM's description before their turn which can be incomplete.
2. If players are not allowed to take back before any roll, they will fish for info.ALL THE INFO. And slow the game. "Is it this high. Is it this far. What's at my north? South, How thick.."

 

[AmandaBarbarian]

all/any as long as both the player and dm have a way to understand the goal and what the player thinks the character can do, that is enough

 

[DEFCON 1]

Every which way but loose.

 

[Swarmkeeper]

Re 5 - you mean that players/characters aren't committed to actions once they are declared?

For me, if-when it gets as far as 4 that's it - you're committed, no take-backs - and 5 would read "Resolution occurs, game proceeds".

I only say Players can take backs because

1. Players cant see the world. They can only declare actions based on the DM's description before their turn which can be incomplete.
2. If players are not allowed to take back before any roll, they will fish for info.ALL THE INFO. And slow the game. "Is it this high. Is it this far. What's at my north? South, How thick.."

To add to what @Minigiant is saying here... I (almost) always provide the DC for a stated task and the stakes for success and failure. I don't consider it a take-back by the player if they decide to change their course of action. I consider it from the PC's perspective: they are (mostly) capable adventurers who have a reasonable sense of how difficult something is to do in the fiction and the potential consequences of said action. That's not always obvious from the player's perspective. FWIW, it's rare that a player actually changes course of action for their PC in our game, but the option is there.

 

[Voadam]

Generally all of the ones where the DM decides whether a roll is necessary.

Sometimes a player will say "I do X" sometimes "I want to do X so I do Y" or "I want to do X"

For the player asks a question one that is sometimes. For most knowledge ones "Do I know about X" I resolve it with either an answer or a roll or whatever. For most physical things I would not assume an action other than looking. "Can I easily jump over the gap?" Does not indicate to me an action to jump on their part.

For other, sometimes players will announce they have a skill as part of their question. "I am trained in arcana, what have I heard about this type of demon before?" I will then decide on whether there is a roll or not and whether it is in the open. If the described demon is actually a misunderstanding of something else and not a thing that as described exists in the world at all I might make ask for their modifier and roll myself behind the screen (in person) or have them roll in the tower (on Fantasy Grounds) to not give away the secret even though the answer is going to be, "you have not heard of this type of demon before".