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Players choose what their PCs do . . .
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7629823" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>Part of the point of the OP is that <em>the bit that I've bolded</em> happens ubiquitously in RPGing. Including bog-standard D&D.</p><p></p><p>Eg the player declares <em>I hurl a flask of oil at the mummy</em>. Checks are then made (depending on system and table conventions, these might include throwing checks, saving throws, damage rolls, etc). The GM narrates, as the upshot <em>Cool! You set the mummy alight - its dry rags and embalming oils are burning furiously</em>.</p><p></p><p>Eg the player declares <em>I search for secret doors</em>. Checks are then made (depending on system and table conventions, these might include perception checks, a sui generis secret-door-finding mechanic, an ad hoc roll, etc). The GM narrates, as the upshot <em>As you run your finger along the architrave you feel a small but regularly-shaped bump. It's probably a button. And your rapping of the wall has suggested a hollow space behind it</em>.</p><p></p><p>Surely these examples, and dozens or hundreds like them, aren't controversial!</p><p></p><p>I just gave two examples, both extremely straightforward and either of which could come from a D&D table c 1975, in which the GM describes PC actions.</p><p></p><p>That's a ubiquitous part of RPGing. What the OP is asking about is really the contexts in which and extent to which <em>players</em> get to describe PC actions, and also about enablers for that (eg successful checks).</p><p></p><p>This is a particularly odd example because the world probably contains many off-white dogs whom some think of as basically white while others think of them as some light or quasi- shade of brown.</p><p></p><p>And that's before we get to cases like brown dogs that have rolled in chalk or white dogs that have rolled in mud (or worse).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 7629823, member: 42582"] Part of the point of the OP is that [I]the bit that I've bolded[/I] happens ubiquitously in RPGing. Including bog-standard D&D. Eg the player declares [I]I hurl a flask of oil at the mummy[/I]. Checks are then made (depending on system and table conventions, these might include throwing checks, saving throws, damage rolls, etc). The GM narrates, as the upshot [I]Cool! You set the mummy alight - its dry rags and embalming oils are burning furiously[/I]. Eg the player declares [I]I search for secret doors[/I]. Checks are then made (depending on system and table conventions, these might include perception checks, a sui generis secret-door-finding mechanic, an ad hoc roll, etc). The GM narrates, as the upshot [I]As you run your finger along the architrave you feel a small but regularly-shaped bump. It's probably a button. And your rapping of the wall has suggested a hollow space behind it[/I]. Surely these examples, and dozens or hundreds like them, aren't controversial! I just gave two examples, both extremely straightforward and either of which could come from a D&D table c 1975, in which the GM describes PC actions. That's a ubiquitous part of RPGing. What the OP is asking about is really the contexts in which and extent to which [I]players[/I] get to describe PC actions, and also about enablers for that (eg successful checks). This is a particularly odd example because the world probably contains many off-white dogs whom some think of as basically white while others think of them as some light or quasi- shade of brown. And that's before we get to cases like brown dogs that have rolled in chalk or white dogs that have rolled in mud (or worse). [/QUOTE]
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