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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Roger" data-source="post: 3143635" data-attributes="member: 17420">This is drifting the thread a little bit, but I think it's a useful conversation to have.I'm not entirely convinced of this... I mean, we have a D&D Rules FAQ that's dozens of pages long, and a whole lot of forum posts that consist of people thrashing around about exactly these sorts of things.But yeah, in general, one kinda needs a level of consensus among all the players with respect to this imaginary consensual reality.Of course, this consensual reality doesn't necessarily have a lot to do with real reality.  Otherwise all these people who "know" what a longbow is wouldn't walk around with them strung all day, et cetera et cetera.  But it's enough that everyone agrees that, yeah, in this game, you can do that.I'm not really sure if I understand what you mean by "reactive" here.  I mean, yeah, in general, skill use (and everything else) by players is reactive to DM input.  You get stabbed with a sword, and you react to that by making a Heal check.But some player can just spontaneously decide that he wants to make a Sense Motive check on that alien embassador who is trying to board his ship.  That's reacting to the DM's input, sure, but it's fairly active in and of itself.I think this level of abstraction is required in pretty much all d20 games, whether fantasy or hard-sf or whatever.  Here's some examples that I hope will illustrate what I mean by this:You're in a dungeon and you get shot by an arrow.  The party medic makes a Heal check on you.  Most DMs I know don't require that medic's player to explain that they're removing the arrow with forceps and stemming the flow of blood and setting up a blood transfusion from the half-orc.  They just make a roll, you get back 3 hit points or whatever, and the game goes on.You're on your way to the village when your wagon breaks.  The gnome makes a Craft check to repair the wagon.  Most DMs don't require that player to explain that he's replacing the transaxle with a freshly-cut tree and swapping out wheel spokes to rebalance the rims.  They just make a roll.You're on your way to Gamma Sector and the FTL drive malfunctions.  Welshie makes a Repair check.  He either succeeds or fails.  It seems odd to require the player to explain that he's bridging the anti-matter flux capacitor through the ship's water closet to make that happen.  Especially when the party medic just makes a Heal check to fix your injured party members.Sure, any particular group isn't required to play like this.  If they find it really fun to let that one player with the Linguistics degree really get into what he's doing when he makes that Decipher Script roll, heck, more power to them.  The default way d20 works, as far as I know, is this:  1)  The players tell the DM what they're trying to do.  2)  The DM determines the relevant resolution mechanic and target difficulties.  3)  The players roll some dice.4)  The DM tells them whether they succeeded or failed.5)  The responsibility to narrate what that roll actually means in the imaginary space is generally shared, but fairly often falls on the DM's shoulders.Absolutely!  This style of play absolutely supports heroes coming up with interesting plans.  The DM, or the players, or both, can narrate all sorts of interesting actions that show what that die roll actually meant and what's happening in the imaginary space.Cheers,Roger</blockquote>

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