Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Oofta" data-source="post: 9068621" data-attributes="member: 6801845">There has been a lot of discussion on this thread that veered far from the original poll. Some people have stated that the player must describe what they are doing along with what they are trying to achieve.&nbsp; That description may be required to qualify for a check or may mean that they automatically succeed.&nbsp; An example given was for a trap door.&nbsp; The player had to describe how they searched the door for traps adequately before they got a roll to find the trap.&nbsp; Once the trap was discovered another player (not the rogue) described how they disabled the trap.&nbsp; No check was required.I make no claim as to grammatical correctness or anything else, but some people are adamant that you cannot use game terms to describe actions.&nbsp; Some people have stated repeatedly that PCs must declare &quot;goal and approach&quot; and if the player does not they're kicked out of the game.I've never actually seen it in real life or any streams I've watched either.When I DM, checking for a trap is as simple as declaring you want to find a trap and rolling a die. Same with disabling any trap found, although you can always potentially bypass it completely by finding a different route.&nbsp; I encourage or add descriptive flavor if it makes the game more interesting but never require it.&nbsp; I don't care how the action is declared or what language is used.&nbsp; If I describe a chest that the players are interested in a simple &quot;Check for traps?&quot; is all they need.&nbsp; If they're at a locked door an experienced player can roll a D20 and state &quot;18 to unlock?&quot; They've adequately told me what their PC is doing.&nbsp; Sometimes it's just faster, sometimes it's just what a player is comfortable with.&nbsp; I never require goal or intent because I don't judge success or failure based on those factors.&nbsp; If a chicken is crossing a road, I don't really care why.&nbsp; As a DM all I care about whether or not there's a truck coming that will require a check to see if the chicken can avoid becoming roadkill.&nbsp; The why will be revealed as part of the ongoing play if it's important.This is all covered in the DMG under &quot;The role of the dice&quot;, different people have different approaches.&nbsp; Some people roll for everything, some people never touch dice outside of combat.&nbsp; Which I think is kind of cool, even if never touching the dice outside of combat is not my preference because I want out-of-combat activities to be a consideration when building a character.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Oofta, post: 9068621, member: 6801845"] There has been a lot of discussion on this thread that veered far from the original poll. Some people have stated that the player must describe what they are doing along with what they are trying to achieve. That description may be required to qualify for a check or may mean that they automatically succeed. An example given was for a trap door. The player had to describe how they searched the door for traps adequately before they got a roll to find the trap. Once the trap was discovered another player (not the rogue) described how they disabled the trap. No check was required. I make no claim as to grammatical correctness or anything else, but some people are adamant that you cannot use game terms to describe actions. Some people have stated repeatedly that PCs [I]must [/I]declare "goal and approach" and if the player does not they're kicked out of the game. I've never actually seen it in real life or any streams I've watched either. When I DM, checking for a trap is as simple as declaring you want to find a trap and rolling a die. Same with disabling any trap found, although you can always potentially bypass it completely by finding a different route. I [I]encourage[/I] or add descriptive flavor if it makes the game more interesting but never require it. I don't care how the action is declared or what language is used. If I describe a chest that the players are interested in a simple "Check for traps?" is all they need. If they're at a locked door an experienced player can roll a D20 and state "18 to unlock?" They've adequately told me what their PC is doing. Sometimes it's just faster, sometimes it's just what a player is comfortable with. I never require goal [I]or [/I]intent because I don't judge success or failure based on those factors. If a chicken is crossing a road, I don't really care [I]why[/I]. As a DM all I care about whether or not there's a truck coming that will require a check to see if the chicken can avoid becoming roadkill. The [I]why[/I] will be revealed as part of the ongoing play if it's important. This is all covered in the DMG under "The role of the dice", different people have different approaches. Some people roll for everything, some people never touch dice outside of combat. Which I think is kind of cool, even if never touching the dice outside of combat is not my preference because I want out-of-combat activities to be a consideration when building a character. [/QUOTE]

Verification