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"I make a perception check."
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<blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 8719322" data-attributes="member: 6790260"><p>As I understood it, everything is supposed to remain in the fiction. "You have to do it to do it." So, the player may absolutely <em>intend</em> to make a Discern Realities roll, but they cannot just flatly say, "I'm gong to make a Discern Realities roll," roll the dice, and then say, "I got an 8. What here is useful or valuable to me?"</p><p></p><p>Instead, it's a conversation within the fiction up until the point where the rules are triggered. So, for instance, paraphrasing from my most recent session...</p><p>[SPOILER="Spoilered for length"]DM (me): "Alright, you're able to get through the lock no problem. Tell me, Bard, have you ever picked a Jinnistani lock before?"</p><p>Bard: "Well, I figure I had to have done so just as an exploratory thing while I was in the Silver Thread as a kid...but wait, didn't I pick a lock while we were in Jinnistan? Getting into that glassmaker's shop?"</p><p>DM: "I...honestly don't remember, so we'll just go with that. Anything special you remember about Jinnistani locks?"</p><p>B: "They're always made with really good materials--tight tolerances, perfect fits, that sort of thing. You can't use cheap tricks to pick them."</p><p>DM: "Cool. So, you get through the door, and enter the little guest house. Things look fairly ordinary for a separate guest residence, though you notice some disarray off in the direction of the kitchen."</p><p>Fighter: "Alright, we head that way. What do we see?"</p><p>DM: "Three dead bodies. They're...really weird. They kind of look like elongated, semi-insectoid humanoids."</p><p>Spellslinger: "What's their armor like? Anything unusual?"</p><p>DM: "Yes, actually. As you examine the bodies, you realize that what you thought was their chitinous exoskeleton is actually a strange lacquer-composite material, which appears to be <em>physically bonded</em> to their flesh."</p><p>B: "Do they look injured? Have they damaged anything else in the house?"</p><p>DM: "You don't see any obvious injuries, and while the kitchen is a mess, you don't see signs that they went anywhere else."</p><p>B: "I want to examine the bodies more closely, see if I can figure out what killed them."</p><p>F: "I'll help. Pry off some of their armor."</p><p>DM: "Alright, that sounds like a Discern Realities roll, yeah? Please give me that Wisdom roll."</p><p>B: "Oh, 11, nice. Let's see...I always forget what these friggin' questions are...how about 'what should I be on the lookout for?'"</p><p>DM: "Good question. Well, firstly, you can tell these things were at least human<em>oid</em>, but they're...really weird. As you pull the armor away, the body actually begins to almost immediately...not exactly 'decompose,' that implies rot. This is more like <em>disintegrating</em>, as though reality itself doesn't <em>like</em> these bodies."[/SPOILER]</p><p>And things went on from there.</p><p></p><p>Point being, I have had to coach my players to focus on "you have to do it to do it." Two of them were <em>very</em> eager to immediately leap to rolling without any in-fiction preamble, and I've been trying to show them that they have to lead in with the in-story <em>effort</em> before they can declare a move they wish to invoke. Much of the time, this cashes out more or less as "I want to use X" and I respond with, "Well, walk me through what you're doing first." Sometimes, they don't even need to roll anything, because their questions are answered or their goal is achieved without doing so. Usually, it does actually happen, but I want that initial step of "you have to do it to do it" to happen first.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="EzekielRaiden, post: 8719322, member: 6790260"] As I understood it, everything is supposed to remain in the fiction. "You have to do it to do it." So, the player may absolutely [I]intend[/I] to make a Discern Realities roll, but they cannot just flatly say, "I'm gong to make a Discern Realities roll," roll the dice, and then say, "I got an 8. What here is useful or valuable to me?" Instead, it's a conversation within the fiction up until the point where the rules are triggered. So, for instance, paraphrasing from my most recent session... [SPOILER="Spoilered for length"]DM (me): "Alright, you're able to get through the lock no problem. Tell me, Bard, have you ever picked a Jinnistani lock before?" Bard: "Well, I figure I had to have done so just as an exploratory thing while I was in the Silver Thread as a kid...but wait, didn't I pick a lock while we were in Jinnistan? Getting into that glassmaker's shop?" DM: "I...honestly don't remember, so we'll just go with that. Anything special you remember about Jinnistani locks?" B: "They're always made with really good materials--tight tolerances, perfect fits, that sort of thing. You can't use cheap tricks to pick them." DM: "Cool. So, you get through the door, and enter the little guest house. Things look fairly ordinary for a separate guest residence, though you notice some disarray off in the direction of the kitchen." Fighter: "Alright, we head that way. What do we see?" DM: "Three dead bodies. They're...really weird. They kind of look like elongated, semi-insectoid humanoids." Spellslinger: "What's their armor like? Anything unusual?" DM: "Yes, actually. As you examine the bodies, you realize that what you thought was their chitinous exoskeleton is actually a strange lacquer-composite material, which appears to be [I]physically bonded[/I] to their flesh." B: "Do they look injured? Have they damaged anything else in the house?" DM: "You don't see any obvious injuries, and while the kitchen is a mess, you don't see signs that they went anywhere else." B: "I want to examine the bodies more closely, see if I can figure out what killed them." F: "I'll help. Pry off some of their armor." DM: "Alright, that sounds like a Discern Realities roll, yeah? Please give me that Wisdom roll." B: "Oh, 11, nice. Let's see...I always forget what these friggin' questions are...how about 'what should I be on the lookout for?'" DM: "Good question. Well, firstly, you can tell these things were at least human[I]oid[/I], but they're...really weird. As you pull the armor away, the body actually begins to almost immediately...not exactly 'decompose,' that implies rot. This is more like [I]disintegrating[/I], as though reality itself doesn't [I]like[/I] these bodies."[/SPOILER] And things went on from there. Point being, I have had to coach my players to focus on "you have to do it to do it." Two of them were [I]very[/I] eager to immediately leap to rolling without any in-fiction preamble, and I've been trying to show them that they have to lead in with the in-story [I]effort[/I] before they can declare a move they wish to invoke. Much of the time, this cashes out more or less as "I want to use X" and I respond with, "Well, walk me through what you're doing first." Sometimes, they don't even need to roll anything, because their questions are answered or their goal is achieved without doing so. Usually, it does actually happen, but I want that initial step of "you have to do it to do it" to happen first. [/QUOTE]
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