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<blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 7388171" data-attributes="member: 7006">It's called an 'economy' because every action is &quot;worth&quot; something.&nbsp; Some are &quot;worth&quot; a full action, some are &quot;worth&quot; a bonus action, some a reaction, some are free actions etc.&nbsp; And once you introduce this &quot;value&quot; to things you can do within what is supposed to be a narratively-motivated game... a player stops things thinking about what they CAN do, but rather what they can &quot;afford&quot; to do.&nbsp; Actions and activities are no longer narrative choices to think up and execute... they are discrete bundles which you have to &quot;buy&quot; in order to be allowed to accomplish them.As an example... you're outside a castle with a 15' wall and you want to get inside.&nbsp; Narratively, you'd say &quot;Okay, I run up to the wall, throw my grappling hook up and over, catch it on the edge, and then climb up the rope and hop over.&quot;&nbsp; And then in an &quot;economy-less&quot; game... the GM would say &quot;Okay, good.&nbsp; You've done it.&quot;&nbsp; (Or perhaps maybe adding in a die roll to see if it's done.)But with an action economy... now every single bit of this narrative action has a &quot;cost&quot;, and for your turn you only have a certain amount of &quot;action capital&quot; with which to spend to try and accomplish each of these now discrete bundles of action.&nbsp; And the game has been set up that certain actions cost one amount, others cost another amount, certain classes get to spend &quot;less&quot; amounts to &quot;buy&quot; the same thing, some features will let you &quot;buy&quot; (and do) two bundles at once, some remove the costs altogether.&nbsp; But as a result of all of this... everyone has to spend so much of their turns thinking about these costs and how best to spend their money, they end up losing the narrative and story of what they were trying to accomplish in the first place.&quot;Okay, I'm going to use 10 feet of my Move to get to the wall and my one Object Interaction to get the grappling hook out of my backpack-- hey, can I throw it up and over with that same interaction?&nbsp; If I can, then I guess I'll do that, and then because I'm a Thief I want to use my Bonus action to climb the rope using the rest of my Movement and can I then jump down on the other side as my Free action?&nbsp; If I do all that do I still have my Action left?&nbsp; Okay, then I want to use my action to Hide on the other side of the wall.&quot;And goodness forbid if the player doesn't actually KNOW what all these actions &quot;cost&quot; and has to keep asking whether they can do X, or if they need to flip through all their paperwork to try and figure out what these things cost and whether they have special features that can change the costs or remove costs or whatever.&nbsp; The game can grind to a halt all because the game has provided &quot;costs&quot; to ostensibly make it easier to &quot;balance&quot; what someone can do in a turn, and to give out special class features so everyone can do individual cutsy little &quot;things&quot;.If the game could trust players to think up and execute narrative action without going overboard or be unable to think of things to do... actions and their &quot;economy&quot; wouldn't be necessary.&nbsp; You'd instead just &quot;do stuff&quot; and the GM would tell you what happened after you did.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="DEFCON 1, post: 7388171, member: 7006"] It's called an 'economy' because every action is "worth" something. Some are "worth" a full action, some are "worth" a bonus action, some a reaction, some are free actions etc. And once you introduce this "value" to things you can do within what is supposed to be a narratively-motivated game... a player stops things thinking about what they CAN do, but rather what they can "afford" to do. Actions and activities are no longer narrative choices to think up and execute... they are discrete bundles which you have to "buy" in order to be allowed to accomplish them. As an example... you're outside a castle with a 15' wall and you want to get inside. Narratively, you'd say "Okay, I run up to the wall, throw my grappling hook up and over, catch it on the edge, and then climb up the rope and hop over." And then in an "economy-less" game... the GM would say "Okay, good. You've done it." (Or perhaps maybe adding in a die roll to see if it's done.) But with an action economy... now every single bit of this narrative action has a "cost", and for your turn you only have a certain amount of "action capital" with which to spend to try and accomplish each of these now discrete bundles of action. And the game has been set up that certain actions cost one amount, others cost another amount, certain classes get to spend "less" amounts to "buy" the same thing, some features will let you "buy" (and do) two bundles at once, some remove the costs altogether. But as a result of all of this... everyone has to spend so much of their turns thinking about these costs and how best to spend their money, they end up losing the narrative and story of what they were trying to accomplish in the first place. "Okay, I'm going to use 10 feet of my Move to get to the wall and my one Object Interaction to get the grappling hook out of my backpack-- hey, can I throw it up and over with that same interaction? If I can, then I guess I'll do that, and then because I'm a Thief I want to use my Bonus action to climb the rope using the rest of my Movement and can I then jump down on the other side as my Free action? If I do all that do I still have my Action left? Okay, then I want to use my action to Hide on the other side of the wall." And goodness forbid if the player doesn't actually KNOW what all these actions "cost" and has to keep asking whether they can do X, or if they need to flip through all their paperwork to try and figure out what these things cost and whether they have special features that can change the costs or remove costs or whatever. The game can grind to a halt all because the game has provided "costs" to ostensibly make it easier to "balance" what someone can do in a turn, and to give out special class features so everyone can do individual cutsy little "things". If the game could trust players to think up and execute narrative action without going overboard or be unable to think of things to do... actions and their "economy" wouldn't be necessary. You'd instead just "do stuff" and the GM would tell you what happened after you did. [/QUOTE]

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