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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8512200" data-attributes="member: 42582">I don't think they split hairs at all! I don't think they chose "describe", "decide", "determine", "narrate" at those different parts of their text on any more principled basis than the basic one of not wanting to repeat the same word too much.I think these are very informally written and presented rules - the stuff on page 2 is pretty close to page 3, but someone who wanted to quibble could no doubt find differences, even though I think they're both meant to describe the same process of play. This stuff isn't drafted with the same sort of technical precision found in a statute, or the M:tG official rules. Obviously a significant part of its purpose is to describe something that many long-time D&D players will find familiar, but that doesn't turn on the precise choice of verb as opposed to conveying the sense of who has what authority, who is expected to be saying what sort of thing when, etc.I recently got my Torchbearer 2nd ed books. The Scholar's Guide says this (p 213), under the heading 'The Game Master's Role':The game master is the arbiter of when the rules are invoked in Torchbearer. Play proceeds as the game master describes the scene and the action occurring in it, to which the players respond by describing their characters’ actions as they interact with the scene. The game master then replies with how the environment and the supporting cast react to the characters’ actions. Play goes back and forth like this until the game master decides a player’s description requires a test of a skill or ability. When a player asks you, “Can I test this?” as the game master, your response should be, “What is your character doing? Tell me where you put your feet or how far you go or where you look.”If all I knew about Torchbearer was that passage, and all I knew about 5e D&D was the stuff I've quoted from pp 2 and 3 of the Basic PDF, they would look like pretty much the same game, except that one calls its GMs DMs and the other calls checks tests.But in fact Torchbearer and 5e D&D are pretty different RPGs, in far more than their favoured terminology. But you can't get those differences from these relatively abstract, high-level descriptions of participants' roles in the basic dynamics of play.</blockquote>

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