Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="iserith" data-source="post: 7044416" data-attributes="member: 97077">I'll start with a repost of the analogy I put in the other thread:The odd thing about that though is that if I ask my 3-year old nephew how he might get the cookie jar on the counter that is out of his reach (the goal), he could tell me different ways to get it (the approach). Some of those will be automatic failure ("I make a cape out of a towel and fly!"), some automatic success ("I ask Uncle Iserith to get it for me!"), and some possible but uncertain ("I ask my mommy!"). He might even have a good idea how he would try to scare away a monster, having never played D&D in his life or, naturally, having very little in the way of life experiences compared to the average D&D player.What my nephew doesn't have in the way of his ability to establish a goal and approach are an expectation that game mechanics might be involved. So one wonders why a 3-year-old can do what some DMs claim older folks playing a game cannot!Based on this, I think that it should be pretty natural for most anyone to articulate a goal and an approach to achieving that goal. Kids can do it, so why all of a sudden do some people seem unable? I think it may have something to do with training, habit, and to some extent, a desire for a shorthand. ("I roll Intimidate..." becomes shorthand for trying to achieve X by doing Y, where X and Y are understood to everyone at the table already. Except when it's not the "standard" goal or approach for that table.)When a player doesn't give me a clear goal and approach, which actually happened once in my Saturday session, I just ask them to restate what they want to achieve and how they go about it. I'm not looking for flowery language or "active roleplay" as the Basic Rules calls it (first person) - just a clear statement so I can adjudicate. Evocative description and interactions are just a bonus that have nothing to do with my adjudication.Finally, one other thing I do is I remind players that the d20 is not their friend. It will kill them and everyone they've ever loved given half a chance. So why would you ASK to roll a die? In a game where the DM decides success, failure, or uncertainty - and only in the latter case do we roll - doesn't it make sense to try your best to remove uncertainty so you don't have to roll? That means gathering information, taking precautions, and otherwise trying to achieve automatic success. It's not always possible, of course, due to the fictional circumstances at play, but why on earth would you ask to involve that fickle d20?Edit: I notice this was placed in the General RPG forum. Please read the above through the lens of D&D 5e. I might not have the same thoughts on the matter in another system.</blockquote>

Verification