Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Bumamgar" data-source="post: 6353864" data-attributes="member: 38648">First off, as a GM, after the Player described their actions, I would ask some clarifying questions to ensure that the Player's idea of the scene matched mine.GM: Is your goal to attempt to maintain cover against as many goblins as possible, or to move into the room as far as possible?  Keep in mind that due to the way the goblins are spread out, the closer you get, the more likely that some of the goblins will be able to see around the pillar, reducing your cover.Second, Theater of the Mind style play is imprecise.  There is an agreement, at least within my group, that we are specifically avoiding fiddly details of positioning and going for a more 'fast and loose' interpretation of the scene that ultimately depends on the GMs fairness and overall judgement.  In other words, my players generally describe their actions with intent rather than specifics, and I respond with results.For example:GM: You are at the entrance to a large hall, 70' long and 30' wide, with two rows of pillars dividing the width of the room into thirds. The pillars are about 10' apart. A group of goblins - a dozen or so - is gathered at the rear of the hall, arranged in a semi-circle facing the entrance.Player: I'd like to try and move into the room as far as possible, hiding behind pillars, while still maintaining cover from as many goblins as possible.GM: You are able to move in 20', past the first row of pillars, before you realize that going any further would reduce your cover with regards to the goblins on the edge of the semi-circle.  If you stop here, you'll still have cover from all the goblins, but be 50' away, or you can move up another 10' to the next row of pillars.  If you do, you will maintain cover with 8 of the goblins, but against 4 of them, you'll only have partial cover.  What would you like to do?It's all about having a shared dialog, but with an agreement that what the GM states is the actual scene.  This does occasionally require clarifying discussion, and even the odd take back from time to time, but generally those are pretty rare and I've learned to preempt that quite a bit with clarifying statements coupled with an 'are you sure?'...Player: I'd like to run up to the goblins and attack with my longsword!GM: As you prepare to run in, you notice that, due to their positioning, it would be very easy for the goblins to encircle you.  Are you sure that you want to rush right up to them?</blockquote>

Verification