Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Oofta" data-source="post: 9047710" data-attributes="member: 6801845">The issue I have is that the details are incredibly lacking, there are never any examples, it's never been clear to me what you do, how often you do it, or how you find it useful.  In other words, I don't really care about the goal, I care about the actions that the PC is taking.  If the action is unclear I'll ask for clarification.  If the player looks frustrated or I get the sense that they just don't know how to express what they're trying to do, I'll ask what they're trying to do at that point.But what I keep trying to clarify, and I apologize if I say it wrong, is they why.  Why do you find it useful?  Is it just a different approach to the game, a story driven narrative game versus ... and I wish there was a simple dictionary here for these terms ... a simulationist approach.Example:  In a recent game, I'm playing a wizard and one of his cantrips is message.  We had decided to take out a bad guy guard, who had just unjustly arrested an innocent and was hauling them off.  So my PC messaged the guard a couple of times asking why they were really doing this, did they really follow the head leader, did they not realize that what they were doing was wrong and futile.  I had also messaged my allies to let them know to follow my lead.I had multiple goals in mind with this.  If I was really, really lucky I could get some information or even change the guard's mind. Most likely scenario was that they'd haul me off as well.  That worked for me because I could get out of the perp walk with a misty step but I would be able to do it when we weren't in the middle of a crowd. I wanted to minimize or eliminate collateral damage if I could.But my goals didn't really matter, all that mattered was my actions - that I messaged the guard and his responding actions.  I wanted the DM to have the guard respond as they thought the guard would respond based on what I did, not what I was attempting because to me that's more realistic.  I didn't want to influence the how the DM had the guard react, similar to how I don't want to be influenced when I DM.It's the same with punching a warship.  Most of the time it would be "You punch the ship, it's solidly made and your fist gets a bit bruised.  Unless you have some special power I don't understand?" That last part is just me clarifying the action in case they have some special ability I don't remember or in case I gave a bad description because it should have been blatantly obvious it would be futile.  But I don't ask what their goal is because to me the outcome of their action is all that matters, why they did it is not relevant.</blockquote>

Verification