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<blockquote data-quote="Jay Verkuilen" data-source="post: 7758549" data-attributes="member: 6873517">I tend to run, or at least prefer to run, fairly player-directed campaigns. They get many opportunities to push the game in various directions. My use of defaults has generally built up over many years of dealing with pointless fights or &quot;oh, wait, what was happening? ... let me think about it&quot; combined with a strong desire to keep the action going. As I said, they're free to propose something else when a &quot;make an Athletics check&quot; comes up and quite often do. If they're not under time pressure, I would most likely let them control the pace more. I use rolls for information, sometimes kind of out of left field, often to prompt them to consider something other than what they would just default to do, which &quot;what do you do?&quot; elicits. That puts it back on the player and, in my experience, many are just as stuck in their ruts as DMs can get without things that push them to think laterally. I'll sometimes throw an unlikely character advantage on the roll, too. I don't mind some meta-game thinking either, as long as it's not egregious (e.g., introducing seriously anachronistic modern technology). The game is played by the players. After all, they're the ones feeling the tension, not their avatars.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Jay Verkuilen, post: 7758549, member: 6873517"] I tend to run, or at least prefer to run, fairly player-directed campaigns. They get many opportunities to push the game in various directions. My use of defaults has generally built up over many years of dealing with pointless fights or "oh, wait, what was happening? ... let me think about it" combined with a strong desire to keep the action going. As I said, they're free to propose something else when a "make an Athletics check" comes up and quite often do. If they're not under time pressure, I would most likely let them control the pace more. I use rolls for information, sometimes kind of out of left field, often to prompt them to consider something other than what they would just default to do, which "what do you do?" elicits. That puts it back on the player and, in my experience, many are just as stuck in their ruts as DMs can get without things that push them to think laterally. I'll sometimes throw an unlikely character advantage on the roll, too. I don't mind some meta-game thinking either, as long as it's not egregious (e.g., introducing seriously anachronistic modern technology). The game is played by the [I]players[/I]. After all, they're the ones feeling the tension, not their avatars. [/QUOTE]

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