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<blockquote data-quote="Charlaquin" data-source="post: 9049769" data-attributes="member: 6779196">Asking a clarifying question does create the opportunity for the player to metagame, if that’s a thing you care about. It also creates a break in the narrative to answer that clarifying question, rather than providing that clarity up-front. These things may not be a problem for you, and if so, that’s fine and dandy. But if you want to know why I prefer players to provide that clarity ahead of time, that’s why.I don’t generally like traps that depend on the characters’ position being that specific; unless you’re using a map and minis, and ask the players to move their minis exactly where their characters stand, but that’s a degree of granularity I don’t care for.Again, that degree of specificity might be needed in something like the Tomb of Horrors wherein traps have such precise triggers. That’s generally too much specificity for my tastes. I just ask that players be “reasonably specific” in stating their goal and approach. “Reasonably specific” is like the Reasonable Person Standard in US law - it’s ultimately subjective, but there’s generally a common understanding of what constitutes “reasonable,” within a tolerable margin of error. If a player’s action declaration is not reasonably specific in my view, I’ll ask them to clarify. Since reasonable specificity is an expectation I set up front, this means such questions generally don’t raise any suspicion of danger, since I’ll ask them whether or not danger exists, and players who don’t have a clear sense of where the range of “reasonable specificity” lies will generally develop one pretty quickly based on when such clarifying questions are or aren’t asked.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Charlaquin, post: 9049769, member: 6779196"] Asking a clarifying question does create the opportunity for the player to metagame, if that’s a thing you care about. It also creates a break in the narrative to answer that clarifying question, rather than providing that clarity up-front. These things may not be a problem for you, and if so, that’s fine and dandy. But if you want to know why I prefer players to provide that clarity ahead of time, that’s why. I don’t generally like traps that depend on the characters’ position being that specific; unless you’re using a map and minis, and ask the players to move their minis exactly where their characters stand, but that’s a degree of granularity I don’t care for. Again, that degree of specificity might be needed in something like the Tomb of Horrors wherein traps have such precise triggers. That’s generally too much specificity for my tastes. I just ask that players be “reasonably specific” in stating their goal and approach. “Reasonably specific” is like the Reasonable Person Standard in US law - it’s ultimately subjective, but there’s generally a common understanding of what constitutes “reasonable,” within a tolerable margin of error. If a player’s action declaration is not reasonably specific in my view, I’ll ask them to clarify. Since reasonable specificity is an expectation I set up front, this means such questions generally don’t raise any suspicion of danger, since I’ll ask them whether or not danger exists, and players who don’t have a clear sense of where the range of “reasonable specificity” lies will generally develop one pretty quickly based on when such clarifying questions are or aren’t asked. [/QUOTE]

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