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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8507456" data-attributes="member: 42582">The 5e Basic rules tell me things like this:The DM describes the environment. (p 3) Characters who turn their attention to other tasks as the group travels are not focused on watching for danger. These characters don’t contribute their passive Wisdom (Perception)  scores to the group’s chance of noticing hidden threats. However, a character not watching for danger can do one of the following activities instead, or some other activity with the DM’s permission. (p 65) A character’s interaction with objects in an environment is often simple to resolve in the game. The player tells the DM that his or her character is doing something, such as moving a lever, and the DM describes what, if anything, happens. (p 66) [Y]ou describe your character’s words and actions to the DM and the other players. Drawing on your mental image of your character, you tell everyone what your character does and how he or she does it. (p 66) [Y]ou speak with your character’s voice, like an actor taking on a role. You might even echo your character’s movements and body language. This approach is more immersive than descriptive roleplaying, though you still need to describe things that can’t be reasonably acted out. (p 67)The first of these tell us that, at certain points in play, the GM states some fiction - ie an account of the imagined environment in which the PCs find themselves. Sometimes, despite what the rules say, this actually becomes a player function. For instance, p 6 says "You also invent the personality, appearance, and backstory of your character." When a player tells the table "My character is five-and-a-half feet tall and wears a saffron yellow cape", ie when they share their PC's appearance with the table, they are stating some fiction, although in this case not as part of an action declaration but rather temporarily taking over the GM's role of describing the environment.The second tell us that, at certain points in play, the players state some fiction - ie an account of what their PCs are doing, other than watching for danger, while travelling.The third tells us that, at certain points in play, the player states some fiction - namely, what it is that their PC is doing in or to the imagined environment, such as moving a lever - and then the GM states some fiction in response - eg what happens when the lever is moved.The fourth and fifth describe different techniques - the rules call them respectively "descriptive roleplaying" and "active roleplaying" - for stating or, in the second case, performatively conveying, what the PC is doing or saying (which obviously is a component of the shared fiction).I've read most of your exchange with [USER=16814]@Ovinomancer[/USER] about the cliffs, and am not really sure I've followed it properly, and hence I probably don't grasp the nuances of 5e* D&D. But taking the published Basic rules at face value, they seem to call for narration - that is, for stating fiction - at many points.Some of this narration generates rightward arrows (eg the second and third instances I've quoted). Some of it does not (eg the fourth or fifth examples may or may not - typically, for instance, calling out an insult to a foe in combat does not generate rightward arrows).Do you mean that the GM must ensure that no one ever states any fiction that is not meaningful? So eg they must dissuade or forbid players from narrating aspects of their PC's behaviour which does not generate gameplay consequences, like (typically) the colour of their cloaks, the height of their PCs (at least where that is unremarkable) or the calling out of insults to their foes in combat?Or are you talking only about the GM's narration?If the latter, are you saying that the GM must never state fiction that is mere colour without rightward arrows (eg perhaps describing constellations in the sky, or the colour of a NPC's eyes)? Or are you talking about the narration of consequences? Or are you saying that each framed scene must include at least one meaningful - as in, gameplay-relevant - element?I mean, there is so much narration in the typical back-and-forth of RPG play that I'm not sure how it could be required that it all be meaningful. The most tightly-focused RPG I know is Burning Wheel, and even it recognises that sometimes there will be narration that is not meaningful but is mere colour - hence why it deploys the principle of "say 'yes' or roll the dice", as opposed to "never allow anything to be said that won't demand that the dice be rolled".</blockquote>

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