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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Charlaquin" data-source="post: 7789130" data-attributes="member: 6779196">Perhaps it would help to lay out the typical flow of the conversation in my games.1. I describe the scenario, usually in terms of what the PCs can directly perceive, and ask a player, “what do you do?”2. The player announces what they do in terms of what they want to accomplish (their goal) and what their character does to try to accomplish it (their approach).3. I assess whether the approach has a reasonable chance of succeeding at achieving the goal, a reasonable chance of failing to achieve the goal, and a cost for the attempt or consequence for failure.3a. If the action has all three things, I decide a DC, and which Ability is most appropriate to resolve the action. Then I tell the player to “make a DX [X] [Ability] check. On a failure, [consequence.]3b. If the player feels that one of their Proficiencies (skill, tool, weapon, armor, or language) might help them achieve their goal, they can ask me if they can add their proficiency bonus.3c. The player can decide to make the check, or to go back to step 2 if they feel the proposition is too risky.4. I describe the results of the action, then return to step 1.A player asking to make an Insight check, whether intentionally or not, is asking to skip steps 3 through 3c, under the assumption that their character takes an approach that has a chance of success, a chance of failure, a cost or consequence, Wisdom was the appropriate ability to use to resolve it, Insight was an applicable Proficiency for it, and the risk and potential consequences were acceptable.And for some DMs - in my experience, a lot of DMs - that’s fine. Lots of groups like to leave the approach abstract, make the roll, and determine the approach retroactively based on the results of the roll. There is absolutely nothing wrong with running the game that way, if that’s the way you enjoy playing. However, for me personally, that often leads to an experience that I find dissatisfying. To each their own, but at my table, if you ask to make an Insight check, I’m going to ask that you instead tell me directly what you hope to accomplish and how, and I will decide if a check is necessary to determine the results.</blockquote>

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