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How do you handle a skill check if needed.
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<blockquote data-quote="iserith" data-source="post: 7792303" data-attributes="member: 97077"><p>This isn't "magic words" though. The players' role in the game is to describe what they want to do. The DM then uses that description to decide whether the task they describe succeeds, fails, or has an uncertain outcome. If the latter and there's a meaningful consequence for failure, the DM asks for a check. If the player does not perform his or her role adequately, the DM doesn't have enough information to make the necessary decisions. In order to recall lore, it follows that a player needs to describe specifically what they want to know and how the character might have some kind of experience with the lore or perhaps some kind of related asset.</p><p></p><p>It's really not about being a "roleplayer" in the colloquial sense of that word. It's really just the bare minimum of communicating what you want to do. If a player is literally incapable, perhaps due to some kind of personal challenge or learning difference, then obviously accommodations need to be made. For everyone else? No excuses in my view. They're probably asking to roll because there's no failure condition that is going to really hurt them or set them back, short of giving them false information which creates its own problems. But this does nothing in my view to make the game experience better and the higher quality the conversation, the better the game experience. And if you're a player that wants that specific, presumably useful, actionable information from the DM, isn't automatic success without rolling better than leaving it to the d20 to decide? That requires a good approach to the goal that removes uncertainty and/or the meaningful consequence for failure.</p><p></p><p>I'm not sure what you mean about the 20 questions. I discourage questions in my game in favor of description of action. I find questions to be very annoying and, in some ways, a form of cheating. Questions aren't actions and so they can't come with consequences. It's a form of failure mitigation to narrow down all the available choices to the "correct" one then you take action which takes advantage of a conversation between the DM and the player that is not happening in the setting. Definitely not an option in my game.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="iserith, post: 7792303, member: 97077"] This isn't "magic words" though. The players' role in the game is to describe what they want to do. The DM then uses that description to decide whether the task they describe succeeds, fails, or has an uncertain outcome. If the latter and there's a meaningful consequence for failure, the DM asks for a check. If the player does not perform his or her role adequately, the DM doesn't have enough information to make the necessary decisions. In order to recall lore, it follows that a player needs to describe specifically what they want to know and how the character might have some kind of experience with the lore or perhaps some kind of related asset. It's really not about being a "roleplayer" in the colloquial sense of that word. It's really just the bare minimum of communicating what you want to do. If a player is literally incapable, perhaps due to some kind of personal challenge or learning difference, then obviously accommodations need to be made. For everyone else? No excuses in my view. They're probably asking to roll because there's no failure condition that is going to really hurt them or set them back, short of giving them false information which creates its own problems. But this does nothing in my view to make the game experience better and the higher quality the conversation, the better the game experience. And if you're a player that wants that specific, presumably useful, actionable information from the DM, isn't automatic success without rolling better than leaving it to the d20 to decide? That requires a good approach to the goal that removes uncertainty and/or the meaningful consequence for failure. I'm not sure what you mean about the 20 questions. I discourage questions in my game in favor of description of action. I find questions to be very annoying and, in some ways, a form of cheating. Questions aren't actions and so they can't come with consequences. It's a form of failure mitigation to narrow down all the available choices to the "correct" one then you take action which takes advantage of a conversation between the DM and the player that is not happening in the setting. Definitely not an option in my game. [/QUOTE]
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