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"By balancing the use of dice against deciding on success, you can encourage your players to strike a balance between relying on their bonuses and abilities and paying attention to the game and immersing themselves in the world." "At any time, you can decide that a player's action is...

The example actions I suggested could be resolved by a Wisdom (Insight) check were taken straight from the PHB and DMG. So, those actions are specified.

You could be doing a number of things by making this request - trying to determine truthfulness, figure out their agenda, discern their ideal, bond, or flaw, trying to predict their next move, and more.

I get the impression that a lot of the objections come back to "What do I need to say so I can roll?" and, really, rolling an ability check is about the last thing you want to do at my table. Or at least it's certainly not the first. My players often have Inspiration in their back pocket for...

I run, play in, and observe a lot of different games. Not a one is faster, so far, than mine in terms of covering content in a given session, even though we have a standard of reasonable specificity when it comes to declaring actions. Time savings are chiefly around everyone being engaged in the...

The DM narrating the results of the adventurer's actions is part of the DM's role in the game. It's the 3rd step of the play loop outlined by the rules. That doesn't mean the DM needs to describe your character doing anything in particular, however, and my preference is that they don't. You, the...

It varies by adventure and campaign for me, so it's hard to answer any particular way. Sometimes I roll more, sometimes less - it depends on the structure of the game and what I'm trying to emphasize.

Use whatever words you and your DM are comfortable with. It's a game. Your skill in the game and application thereof affects your character's chances of success.

For D&D 5e, action and intention (or "goal and approach" as I prefer to frame it) is described by the player, then I as DM can decide if a check is needed. As a player, I do the same thing because I certainly don't want to roll if I can avoid it.

Perhaps just one, with minor details added as needed according to the context. "I use my good nature and social graces [approach] to try to convince the king to lend us his aid [goal]." Better still, the player references playing to the king's ideal, bond, flaw, or agenda here in a way that...

Another way to think about it is that, as a player, if your goal is success on a given action, rolling a d20 isn't a great approach because the die is so swingy. So as a player, you want to avoid rolling. But how do you avoid the roll? Since there are up to two criteria to whether an ability...

I ask the players to make checks because that's what the rules tell me to do. In D&D 4e, by contrast, the rules say the players can ask to make skill checks and the DM often says "Yes." So, in that game, I do that instead.

There's really nothing "obvious" about that though and it's not "would" but "might" since it's easy to justify why a character might know something, or at least think something to be true (even if they don't know for sure). Just make up a justification you can live with. And that leaves out the...

Imagine there being less potential conflict between what you know and what your character knows so that the "acting" is more natural. Also imagine there is no concern about breaking a table rule about portraying your character as knowing something that the DM doesn't approve of, and no need to...

In a recent game of mine where the PCs were making their way out of the Abyss, they came across what looked at first to be a normal beholder in a bone tower. Only this was actually two beholders fleshwarped by a sibriex to be a single creature. So sure, on one side it projected the antimagic...

Check out the Dolmenwood and Symbaroum settings for inspiration.

Yes, I'd be fine with it, and as far as I know they're doing it right now (since I play online). In fact, the "Grandpa's journal" thing is something my group says a lot as a joke. I regularly change modules because most modules suck in my opinion. I change monster stat blocks frequently too to...

They certainly could, but in my experience, they don't. I've seen players test the limits, but once they realize that I'll just roll with it - after all, I have infinite dragons - it settles right down. It's trivially easy to justify any action in the context of a game based on make-believe...

The way that I approach the game means that "metagaming" is a risky strategy, so the problem is mitigated without me having to ask them not to do that. Perhaps I was not clear - the "win condition" of the game (per the rules) is to have fun and create an exciting, memorably story by playing. I...

Me, I fully expect that players may try to use any means at their disposal to gain an advantage to overcome challenges. I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with that. After all, trying to overcome the challenges before them is what bold adventurers confronting deadly perils do. So go...