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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Guest 6801328" data-source="post: 6876627">Therein lies the contradiction.  She narrates as if she evades the mechanics but without actually doing so, and thus there are no mechanics to evade the second time.  The reason for the narration the second time is not to evade mechanics, it's to sustain a consistent fiction.When ZoT gets cast she could just as easily as have said, "Ehh...I was just telling that story earlier to hide the fact that I'm thick as two planks.  I don't know the answer to the Riddle."Or: "I don't know.  I forgot.  I'm a genius with a really poor memory (look it up in the PHB! That's one of the things that Int measures!)"There.  Fiction sustained, mechanics upheld.  Not nearly as colorful/interesting in my opinion, but maybe you'd be happier with that.But regardless of which tale Eloelle chooses, the mechanics are unaffected.It's only if you believe that mechanics were actually altered in the first scene that this doesn't work.I'm distinguishing between action narration and, for lack of a better term, state-of-mind narration.  I think you are treating those two things as categorically the same.If you read the "rules" that were quoted earlier in this thread, the DM describes the scene, the players narrate what they want to do, and the DM narrates the outcome.  I'm not trying to change any of that.  Eloelle tries to solve the riddle, the DM asks her to roll dice, she does and the DM tells her she doesn't solve it.Then Eloelle adds an extra narration that doesn't have her "doing" anything.  Not performing an action, not interacting with other PCs or NPCs, not even looking at an object.  Nothing.  She (or her player) is just telling a story for the purpose of entertaining (see below) the other players.So here's a thought experiment.  (Max, are you paying attention?)  Imagine that, every time Eloelle is about to enter her state-of-mind narration, she gives the table a warning, and you stick your fingers in your ears and say "lalalalalalala" so you don't have to hear it.  So you never hear any of the Patron stuff.You will find that you can detect no impact on the game.  Nothing in the game 'state' has changed.  When she says "I don't know" to ZoT you'll think, "Yeah, she failed that Int test a while ago."  And I will further posit that if you *do* detect a change in game state, if there's some mechanical detail that doesn't add up, it means that Eloelle's player is failing at her responsibility to separate narration from mechanics.Now, if you are listening to her narrations you may not actually find it entertaining.  That's a legitimate gripe.  I'm playing AL CoD at the moment and we've managed to make children (or the ghosts of children) cry, kill the priest, burn the church, get kicked out of the store for shoplifting, etc. etc. etc.    I really don't enjoy playing RPGs this way, and I'm not really enjoying how a couple of the other players choose to play their characters, but that's how the game goes sometimes when you play with other people.  Those players "entered something into the shared fiction" that I'd rather not have in there.But also notice that their storytelling is actually impacting my game, because they are taking actions not just narrating state-of-mind.  The game state has changed: the priest is dead, the church is burnt, we've made enemies in town.  Eloelle, on the other hand, has not actually altered your game.  She's just telling a story.  So what is there to complain about?  Only that you don't like the story.  That happens sometimes.Valid, but a matter of personal preference.  See above.  If I ever find myself at a table with you I won't play Eloelle, but I will do so out of courtesy not because it requires a house-rule.</blockquote>

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