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How to get better at describing actions, not rolls
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<blockquote data-quote="redrick" data-source="post: 7052022" data-attributes="member: 6777696"><p>If you are playing a system like 5e, you can tell players upfront that you will reward inspiration in each session the first time a player succeeds at describing an action, with the intent and approach, without referencing the actual skill or mechanical feature. This doesn't have to be that hard — I think it's just a retraining of habits for certain kinds of gamers.</p><p></p><p>I had players who used to roll for things before telling me why they were rolling. I simply told them that any check they rolled before it was called didn't count, with the exception of attacks rolls in combat. In other words, until the player has satisfied the DM's need for clear statement of action and intent, they don't get to roll.</p><p></p><p>This is certainly a lot easier when the DM is doing a good job at keeping the players aware of the world their characters live in. A good map can help sometimes, and hinder other times. (I hate it when players start talking about squares, but I also hate it when we spend every character's turn re-clarifying which side of the room everybody is on.) Making sure to describe the things happening around the characters in narrative terms instead of mechanical terms also helps.</p><p></p><p>As for the DM describing PC actions. This is something I probably do more than I should. My wife, who does not play D&D, sat in on a few sessions I ran, and I remember her calling me out on it. ("You shouldn't tell them what their characters are doing.") After reading iserith's admonitions against this type of behavior in another thread, I've been trying to pay attention to it in my game. My intention is generally to help connect the actions described by the players to the detailed world that I have in my head. It's a little like Guitar Hero, where you play a greatly simplified version of a song on a few buttons, and the game helps make you feel like you are Tony Iommi shredding a solo. I can definitely see, though, how my attempts to bridge the player descriptions and the fiction could be hindering my players' need to more actively engage directly with the fiction themselves.</p><p></p><p>For now, the result is I'm asking more leading questions, giving the player a couple of options when their initial description is too vague. The nice thing about offering options to players is that they will usually refuse both options and think up something for themselves. Usually this will be something stupid, because that's how we do, but sometimes it can surprise you.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="redrick, post: 7052022, member: 6777696"] If you are playing a system like 5e, you can tell players upfront that you will reward inspiration in each session the first time a player succeeds at describing an action, with the intent and approach, without referencing the actual skill or mechanical feature. This doesn't have to be that hard — I think it's just a retraining of habits for certain kinds of gamers. I had players who used to roll for things before telling me why they were rolling. I simply told them that any check they rolled before it was called didn't count, with the exception of attacks rolls in combat. In other words, until the player has satisfied the DM's need for clear statement of action and intent, they don't get to roll. This is certainly a lot easier when the DM is doing a good job at keeping the players aware of the world their characters live in. A good map can help sometimes, and hinder other times. (I hate it when players start talking about squares, but I also hate it when we spend every character's turn re-clarifying which side of the room everybody is on.) Making sure to describe the things happening around the characters in narrative terms instead of mechanical terms also helps. As for the DM describing PC actions. This is something I probably do more than I should. My wife, who does not play D&D, sat in on a few sessions I ran, and I remember her calling me out on it. ("You shouldn't tell them what their characters are doing.") After reading iserith's admonitions against this type of behavior in another thread, I've been trying to pay attention to it in my game. My intention is generally to help connect the actions described by the players to the detailed world that I have in my head. It's a little like Guitar Hero, where you play a greatly simplified version of a song on a few buttons, and the game helps make you feel like you are Tony Iommi shredding a solo. I can definitely see, though, how my attempts to bridge the player descriptions and the fiction could be hindering my players' need to more actively engage directly with the fiction themselves. For now, the result is I'm asking more leading questions, giving the player a couple of options when their initial description is too vague. The nice thing about offering options to players is that they will usually refuse both options and think up something for themselves. Usually this will be something stupid, because that's how we do, but sometimes it can surprise you. [/QUOTE]
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