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<blockquote data-quote="Janx" data-source="post: 1462449" data-attributes="member: 8835">Ironically enough, your literal interpretation of his meaning does exactly what you didn't want.&nbsp; By not being lenient, you look like your trying to screw him over.&nbsp; Next time, drop that part of your explanation, as it weakens your argument.Realize that most people aren't lawyers or programmers.&nbsp; Nor are they expecting to have to write precise instructions for a game.&nbsp; Readying an action means I'm going to sit here and wait until something interesting is about to happen, then I'm going to insert myself back into the initiative stream just before it really starts happening.In the player's case, it sounds like he meant:&quot;I attack the first guy who starts to attack me&quot;But even that statement is inaccurate, because he means to WAIT until someone starts to attack him, then he will attack that guy before the bad guy finishes his attack.In theory, the player's instruction to the GM would have had to be:&quot;I ready my action by waiting until someone starts to attack me.&nbsp; When that happens, I will attack him before he does&quot;To which the GM could counter by throwing a female bad guy, and make use of the fact that the player used male pronouns instead of gender neutral words.Does this start sounding like it could get very wordy and lawyery very fast?Good.Never screw your players that way.&nbsp; Allow for the most probable re-interpretation of what they meant.&nbsp; When&nbsp; in doubt, assume Ready an Action means &quot;I wait until something interesting starts to happen, then I jump in before it really happens.&quot;&nbsp; That usually causes less irritation.Screw them by attacking the guy in the rear, when the rest of the party said they all ran up to grab the treasure.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Janx, post: 1462449, member: 8835"] Ironically enough, your literal interpretation of his meaning does exactly what you didn't want. By not being lenient, you look like your trying to screw him over. Next time, drop that part of your explanation, as it weakens your argument. Realize that most people aren't lawyers or programmers. Nor are they expecting to have to write precise instructions for a game. Readying an action means I'm going to sit here and wait until something interesting is about to happen, then I'm going to insert myself back into the initiative stream just before it really starts happening. In the player's case, it sounds like he meant: "I attack the first guy who starts to attack me" But even that statement is inaccurate, because he means to WAIT until someone starts to attack him, then he will attack that guy before the bad guy finishes his attack. In theory, the player's instruction to the GM would have had to be: "I ready my action by waiting until someone starts to attack me. When that happens, I will attack him before he does" To which the GM could counter by throwing a female bad guy, and make use of the fact that the player used male pronouns instead of gender neutral words. Does this start sounding like it could get very wordy and lawyery very fast? Good. Never screw your players that way. Allow for the most probable re-interpretation of what they meant. When in doubt, assume Ready an Action means "I wait until something interesting starts to happen, then I jump in before it really happens." That usually causes less irritation. Screw them by attacking the guy in the rear, when the rest of the party said they all ran up to grab the treasure. [/QUOTE]

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