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I am not ready to ready the ready action...
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<blockquote data-quote="Harzel" data-source="post: 7418986" data-attributes="member: 6857506"><p>The circumstances in which I see the Ready action used are some that others have already mentioned: mainly when opponents make themselves otherwise unattackable by moving in and out of cover, incorporeal movement, or moving back and forth from the ethereal plane. [MENTION=1465]Li Shenron[/MENTION], do your players ever encounter such situations?</p><p></p><p>The rest of this is a bit of a rant; take it with a grain of salt (or the seasoning of your choice).</p><p></p><p>I think not telling beginners about Ready is an understandable (trying to keep it simple) but ultimately unfortunate choice. D&D bills itself as a team-oriented game in which you can attempt anything. Yet the structure of what for many groups is the most significant part of play - combat - features each PC acting individually while everyone else is frozen in space and time. The Ready action is the system's sole concession to enabling joint efforts, and the sort of reactions to other combatants that "attempt anything" ought to include. (Of course, the system penalizes anyone who uses this workaround, but that's a different part of the conversation.) Leaving out the Ready action further emphasizes the individual-turn-taking nature of the combat system.</p><p></p><p>As to the observation that the only time the OP's players attempt to use a "ready" mechanism is outside of combat - ok, I'm going to go out a highly speculative limb here (since in reality I know very little about the OP's game). The players have been presented with a game that has two modes - one relatively free-form in which actions flow relatively naturally and one that is a tightly structured around individual turns. I've never seen anyone playing Monopoly try to switch turn order or take an action in the midst of someone else's turn. To me it is not too surprising that novice players would take the game structure presented to them at face value - out of combat your PC acts naturally; in combat your PC acts only on your turn, unless your DM says otherwise.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Harzel, post: 7418986, member: 6857506"] The circumstances in which I see the Ready action used are some that others have already mentioned: mainly when opponents make themselves otherwise unattackable by moving in and out of cover, incorporeal movement, or moving back and forth from the ethereal plane. [MENTION=1465]Li Shenron[/MENTION], do your players ever encounter such situations? The rest of this is a bit of a rant; take it with a grain of salt (or the seasoning of your choice). I think not telling beginners about Ready is an understandable (trying to keep it simple) but ultimately unfortunate choice. D&D bills itself as a team-oriented game in which you can attempt anything. Yet the structure of what for many groups is the most significant part of play - combat - features each PC acting individually while everyone else is frozen in space and time. The Ready action is the system's sole concession to enabling joint efforts, and the sort of reactions to other combatants that "attempt anything" ought to include. (Of course, the system penalizes anyone who uses this workaround, but that's a different part of the conversation.) Leaving out the Ready action further emphasizes the individual-turn-taking nature of the combat system. As to the observation that the only time the OP's players attempt to use a "ready" mechanism is outside of combat - ok, I'm going to go out a highly speculative limb here (since in reality I know very little about the OP's game). The players have been presented with a game that has two modes - one relatively free-form in which actions flow relatively naturally and one that is a tightly structured around individual turns. I've never seen anyone playing Monopoly try to switch turn order or take an action in the midst of someone else's turn. To me it is not too surprising that novice players would take the game structure presented to them at face value - out of combat your PC acts naturally; in combat your PC acts only on your turn, unless your DM says otherwise. [/QUOTE]
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