Search results

How did people do it before ability checks or skill checks? They said what they wanted to do. And note that D&D 5e doesn't support the player asking for checks. That's the DM's role. Players asking for checks comes from previous versions of the game (or people learning from people who played...

Given that D&D is based on childhood games of make believe, there's a practically infinite numbers of ways one could imagine how your character could be reintroduced to the current goings on in the campaign. Pick one that makes the most sense to everyone, given the context, and play on. The DM...

I ask them to tell me what they are trying to accomplish and how. Maybe there's a roll and maybe there isn't - I can't decide that until I hear what they want to do. It isn't awkward - it's people communicating clearly to each other.

Yes, I only use "Player describes action and intention, and DM decides whether an ability check is needed to resolve" as a player and DM in D&D 5e. It's in the table rules that I share with players for every adventure or campaign. As a player, whether the DM is fine with people asking for checks...

The objections your players are voicing don't seem like what they're truly objecting to. Based on what you're saying, I would like to know how hard it is for the players in this game to sit down to play and get to the adventure. Do they know where the adventure is and how to get to it? Lots of...

It's actually initiative and regular turn order regardless, but PCs who are surprised don't get to act on their first turn, but can do reactions after their turn has passed.

I struggle to imagine what upside there would be to justify all that effort.

That's a sufficient statement of goal ("convince the guard to let me in the room") and approach ("by being charming") in my view and is adjudicated the same way as a player using a lot more words to say the same thing.

Right. You don't need checks to do stuff. You need them to resolve when doing stuff is in doubt. Remove the doubt in your favor, and you just succeed. No magic words required either. Just a clear statement of goal and approach, where the approach is particularly suited to the goal. Sometimes you...

If I'm not sure, I ask.

You tell the NPC a lie via active roleplaying. (Though there's nothing wrong with descriptive roleplaying either.)

Players misdirect themselves all the time. They don't need my or my NPC's help. And again, so what if they know the NPC is lying? It's not like I have a hidden plot they are trying to uncover. So the NPC is lying. What do you do about it? As well, I can tell you from direct experience, players...

The rules lay out a couple of basic options in the PHB for failed ability checks - no progress toward the objective or progress combined with a setback. So I think it's fair for the DM to say upon seeing the failed check that the PC has noticed a tell that the NPC is lying (progress), but the...

My experience is that players do that because the DM is not presenting a meaningful consequence for failure. If they fail the roll, the DM says they don't notice anything. Nothing has changed, and that doesn't seem very meaningful or consequential to me. Introduce a complication as a result of...

Curious what the objection is to this.

The most common action that I see described is trying to observe the NPC to see if they have any mannerisms that suggest they are lying. But in a social interaction challenge, there are benefits to be had in discovering the NPC's ideal, bond, flaw, or agenda. If you figure out what they are...

What are some examples of what they did that you found unpredictable? In general, I find a good approach when you're caught off-guard is to make sure you understand what the player is trying to achieve and how the character is going about that so that you're on the same page. Sometimes you may...

It's not clear from "I make an Insight check on this guy" what you're trying to determine though. Choose something, based on your needs in the challenge. Maybe you roll and maybe you don't. (Hopefully you don't and just succeed, right?) And if you fail, prepare for the meaningful consequences...

Or, at least, a way. I'm not putting my character's life in the hands of a d20 if I can avoid it. And it's no skin off my back to just say what I'm doing and how.

Here's something else of note, from the PHB. It relates to finding a hidden object, but is a good example of a general policy on reasonable specificity the game appears to expect: "When your character searches for a hidden object such as a secret door or a trap, the DM typically asks you to...