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

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mort" data-source="post: 8720680" data-attributes="member: 762">How is "I actively try to perceive my surroundings using all resources available to me..." Not specific enough?It means I am focusing my attention by visually checking what is around me, at the cost of some other action.It's also pretty easy to visualize. The character stops and surveys the area. Something an actor or director can easily with with.As above, the character stops and looks around focusing on the various things around them. Seems extraordinarily straight forward.Not necessarily. The character has stopped and declared they are actively heavily focused and looking around perceiving what they can. This is quite different than just a passive interaction.Again, why not?Stopping, and actively looking around to perceive all that one can is a fairly specific action. It is significantly more than just passively interacting with the environment. It is also distinguishable from other actions the character might take such as searching the area (which generally involves physically interacting with it vs. just looking it over) or hiding (which, again, generally involves physical interaction over just visual examination).My point is, it seems the bar on action declarations seems to be being set too high. Often something seemingly general (such as the op example) is sufficient if the DM just goes with it. And if the DM really does believe it's too general a simple "can you elaborate on what exactly your doing?" Is usually sufficient to elicit a response "good enough" to move forward.</blockquote>

Verification