D&D 5E Players Self-Assigning Rolls

[Lanefan]

I am not the sort of textbased adventure that would do that before marriage.

>Marry Textbased Adventure

 

[Satyrn]

>Marry Textbased Adventure

Are you sure you want to? I won't do that after marriage, either.

 

[Charlaquin]

>Marry Textbased Adventure

I don’t see a “Textbased” here

 

[Sunseeker]

Now this is something that annoys me: DMs red-flagging what's important via how they describe things. It's just another form of lead-'em-by-the-nose, really.

The relative importance (if any) of moving the table isn't known to the characters when they enter the room, and it's up to them to figure it out. The presence of the table at all might be a 'tell' if surrounding rooms have been completely empty, for example; and if they think to move it and search the floor revealed they might find a secret door leading down to a whole new level. But if they don't think to move it they'll miss that level - so be it.

Sure, and that's the sort of thing that when a player "Searches the table." notices some worn scuff-marks on the floor on one side of the table.

It's fine for players to miss things, but I find pixel-whining in either direction a waste of everyone's time. If I rolled a search of the table and then 2 sessions later we're all wonderning what we missed and the DM explained the table moved and I on't didn't notice it because I didn't say "I search the floor immediately around the table for any signs of scuff marks indicating the table moves." I'd tell him where he can put his magic words.

 

[Lanefan]

Sure, and that's the sort of thing that when a player "Searches the table." notices some worn scuff-marks on the floor on one side of the table.

It's fine for players to miss things, but I find pixel-whining in either direction a waste of everyone's time. If I rolled a search of the table and then 2 sessions later we're all wonderning what we missed and the DM explained the table moved and I on't didn't notice it because I didn't say "I search the floor immediately around the table for any signs of scuff marks indicating the table moves." I'd tell him where he can put his magic words.

Sure. But what if they don't search the table? What if they only search the walls for secret doors and then give up and move on? What if they don't search anything in this room?

And yes, what if they do search the table and outright fail to find or notice anything? (the instance I have in mind here would be a two-step process - you need to move the table before you can get at the floor beneath it, then you need to search there for the secret door) So here they could search the table and on a bad roll fail to notice any scratches in the floor; or they could simply move the table to start with (as the PCs in the original example did) and then fail to find - or even look for - the secret door.

 

[Lanefan]

Are you sure you want to? I won't do that after marriage, either.

I don’t see a “Textbased” here

>Attack Bear

 

[Satyrn]

>Attack Bear

You bite the bear, and it runs away. A storm blocks the East. And don't even think about going South.

 

[DemoMonkey]

>Walk into Mordor

 

[redrick]

The only thing I-as-DM would have done differently here is the line where I inserted '***' would instead read: DM: OK, you try to pick up the table and immediately realize it's way too heavy. It is made of stone, after all. All you manage is to budge it just enough to tell you it's not attached to the floor.

And in case it matters, had a die roll been attached to the declaration, as in "I pick up the table <roll> Athletics check adds to 21" my response as DM would have been the same.

Disagree. The room was described just fine - nothing in it except a worn stone table in the middle. The player states an action "I pick up the table" without any further ado, the result of which is that the character determines the table is too heavy to lift.

Had the stated action been "I check out the table" then that would have been a reasonable place to give info about its probable weight, along with how dusty it is and any other pertinent info. But the player-in-character jumped straight to "I pick up the table" leaving the DM no option but to respond to that declaration.

Yeah, I'm not sure why [MENTION=6777696]redrick[/MENTION] would say that was a mistake. I sure don't think it was.

Lanefan

Haha, man, I have never had the opportunity to spend this much time considering the adjudication of a player action before! It's quite an exercise. I should record my sessions and invite all y'all to mark up my DM-voice in red pen.

But, since we're all having fun here, and we've made this hypothetical DM, a hypothetical set of players and a hypothetical fictional room with a mid-sized stone table in the center, which may or may not have any significance, I'm gonna justify how my fantasy fantasy roleplaying team ran it.

DM: You enter a small room. A worn stone table stands in the center of the room.

This room has two features. It is small. And it has a table. We've noted that the table is worn (worn means used! PCs use things too!) and that it is stone. Stone is heavy. Many stone tables are too heavy to lift. Some small stone tables, say a stone chess board, can be lifted.

PLAYER: I pick up the table.

Maybe the player wants a table? Maybe the only way the player can think to interact with this room is by picking something up. The player certainly can't think of how to interact with the "small" feature of the room. (I lay across the floor and try to touch one wall with my feet and the other with my hands?) The player must assume this is a stone chessboard table that can be picked up and possibly taken back home.

DM: It looks like it weighs a ton.

Time to tell more about the table. The DM can run this two basic ways — they can let the character try to pick up the table, and fail, or they can give the player information the character would probably have before trying to pick up the table. (It's not a small chess-board table. It's a big stone table.) In this case, there's no real reason not to let the character try (and fail) to pick up the table, unless the DM plans to call for a Hernia Save, but the DM is giving the player the benefit of the doubt that the character might behave differently with this additional information, and doesn't want to make the character look like an straining over a non-chessboard-sized table.

PLAYER: Oh, never mind.
PLAYER: Oh, ok. Guys, maybe we can all push this table together and get it to move across the room?
PLAYERS: Sounds like a great plan.

Players never back down from an empty room. If the table is too heavy for one person to pick up, that just means they need a new solution. Fortunately, it seems like the whole party is united behind the Table Quest.

DM: Only three of you can get around the table.

Why would the DM harsh on this moment of player unity? I dunno. I mean, they just saw it as a medium sized table and they can't imagine 4 adventurers squeezing around one side of it to push the thing. Now we've had the opportunity to learn a lot more about this table. It is way too heavy for one person to lift. And it is more or less exactly three shoulder-widths long. We know way more about this table than we would have if the DM had simply let PLAYER roll an Athletics check to pick it up in the first place.

DM: Great. You three, give me a group Athletics check.

An action, with a goal and an approach and an uncertain outcome! Check time. The DM is also specifying the "group check" mechanic, so the players understand how their success will be determined. (Half of the participants need to beat the DC of the check in order to succeed.) This way, when Job rolls a 4 on their Athletics check, players will immediately understand that that's not a deal-breaker, so long as Rob and Bob rolled high.

 

[iserith]

Haha, man, I have never had the opportunity to spend this much time considering the adjudication of a player action before! It's quite an exercise. I should record my sessions and invite all y'all to mark up my DM-voice in red pen.

My players record my DMing style and put it on Twitter.



As you can see, my approach is to roll really badly, then cry myself to sleep later that night.