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Mearls On D&D's Design Premises/Goals
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<blockquote data-quote="Hriston" data-source="post: 7761376" data-attributes="member: 6787503"><p>You said it was <strong>nothing more</strong> than a declaration, which is something a player says at a table in the real world. To me that sounds like you mean it has no effect on the fiction, but now you've included the detail that it "includes signaling that the other side can pick up". That's pretty vague, but it clearly means that the action declaration does establish in the fiction that the PC is "signalling" the intent to commence hostilities, i.e. action that may provoke <strong>opposing</strong> action from the other side.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Assuming the merchant wants to keep living, it establishes opposition between the PC and the merchant on which s/he's planning on using the sword.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Then the answer is "yes", isn't it? As a DM, you don't allow the punch-swinging character's arms to move until after initiative has been rolled, and that's fine for your games. But once it's that character's turn, and s/he takes his/her swing, before the attack hits or misses, there's a moment in which the swing is in process and the character is attacking. That moment can be established in the fiction before rolling initiative in my games. All I'm concerned with happening after initiative is the <strong>resolution</strong> of the attack, the hit or the miss. I believe that initiative exists as a mechanic to tell us the order in which events are resolved, not when they're initiated.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>It's the "during combat" that gives you the context that initiative takes place in a situation where sides in a conflict are opposing one another.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Forgive me if that doesn't sound like a very interesting battle. Why isn't there anything to do, and why are you in a battle with people you don't want to attack?</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>It's in what they do "to cause the perception of imminent combat" that I'm interested. That's what throws the sides into opposition.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Hriston, post: 7761376, member: 6787503"] You said it was [B]nothing more[/B] than a declaration, which is something a player says at a table in the real world. To me that sounds like you mean it has no effect on the fiction, but now you've included the detail that it "includes signaling that the other side can pick up". That's pretty vague, but it clearly means that the action declaration does establish in the fiction that the PC is "signalling" the intent to commence hostilities, i.e. action that may provoke [B]opposing[/B] action from the other side. Assuming the merchant wants to keep living, it establishes opposition between the PC and the merchant on which s/he's planning on using the sword. Then the answer is "yes", isn't it? As a DM, you don't allow the punch-swinging character's arms to move until after initiative has been rolled, and that's fine for your games. But once it's that character's turn, and s/he takes his/her swing, before the attack hits or misses, there's a moment in which the swing is in process and the character is attacking. That moment can be established in the fiction before rolling initiative in my games. All I'm concerned with happening after initiative is the [B]resolution[/B] of the attack, the hit or the miss. I believe that initiative exists as a mechanic to tell us the order in which events are resolved, not when they're initiated. It's the "during combat" that gives you the context that initiative takes place in a situation where sides in a conflict are opposing one another. Forgive me if that doesn't sound like a very interesting battle. Why isn't there anything to do, and why are you in a battle with people you don't want to attack? It's in what they do "to cause the perception of imminent combat" that I'm interested. That's what throws the sides into opposition. [/QUOTE]
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