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General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
How Do I Get My Players to be More Descriptive?
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<blockquote data-quote="nameless" data-source="post: 689780" data-attributes="member: 1543"><p>Here's a peeve of mine that fosters generic descriptions: DM's who give <em>penalties</em> for those descriptions. For instance, I might declare that I spring over a table as I swing my sword in a high arc at the orc chef. Seems reasonable enough, I end up next to the orc and make an attack. Even going around the table would have probably been within my 30' movement.</p><p></p><p>But some DM's will penalize you for this kind of cinematic action. I've had a DM who demanded a Jump or Climb check to make it over the table, then said that I lose my Dex bonus for being exposed in midair. He might have even given me a -2 AC penalty, but no +2 to hit for a charge.</p><p></p><p>If you want to be a stickler, he may have been rules-justified, but he sure as hell wasn't promoting good roleplay.</p><p></p><p>So my solution is to have the player say in character what he wants to do, and then OOC declare what his action really is. As far as bonuses for good description, I might give things like a free Trip attack, a free Bull Rush, a bonus on threat range, auto-confirm criticals, or maybe a Disarm. If the DM disagrees too strongly with the IC description and the OOC effect, he should probably chime in and suggest a different OOC effect, or let the PC choose a different description.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="nameless, post: 689780, member: 1543"] Here's a peeve of mine that fosters generic descriptions: DM's who give [i]penalties[/i] for those descriptions. For instance, I might declare that I spring over a table as I swing my sword in a high arc at the orc chef. Seems reasonable enough, I end up next to the orc and make an attack. Even going around the table would have probably been within my 30' movement. But some DM's will penalize you for this kind of cinematic action. I've had a DM who demanded a Jump or Climb check to make it over the table, then said that I lose my Dex bonus for being exposed in midair. He might have even given me a -2 AC penalty, but no +2 to hit for a charge. If you want to be a stickler, he may have been rules-justified, but he sure as hell wasn't promoting good roleplay. So my solution is to have the player say in character what he wants to do, and then OOC declare what his action really is. As far as bonuses for good description, I might give things like a free Trip attack, a free Bull Rush, a bonus on threat range, auto-confirm criticals, or maybe a Disarm. If the DM disagrees too strongly with the IC description and the OOC effect, he should probably chime in and suggest a different OOC effect, or let the PC choose a different description. [/QUOTE]
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How Do I Get My Players to be More Descriptive?
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