Roll for Effect or Intent?

[bloodtide]

Again, these strike me as differences in scale, not kind. Both have the PC interacting with the world and being told to roll to find out if they succeed. Having to do it in one step or six does not change how it is being adjudicated, just the granularity of that adjudication (and as @Ruin Explorer said, giving the GM plenty of opportunity to GOTCHA).

Difference in scale is a thing between the two.

Both are rolls in an RPG, so they are very similar.

When I ran 5E the players were almost universally confused by the idea of rolling more than once for anything outside of combat.

I find this common too.

 

[GMMichael]

Again, these strike me as differences in scale, not kind. Both have the PC interacting with the world and being told to roll to find out if they succeed. Having to do it in one step or six does not change how it is being adjudicated, just the granularity of that adjudication . . .

The suggestions were a little more nuanced than that. The first was creating a world condition to solve a problem, the second was reacting to world conditions to solve a problem. The problem can vary in scale in both situations.

To me, OP's question is closely related (even if not stated that way). Do PCs react to conditions established by the GM (Effect), or do they create their own fiction after/before making a roll (for Intent). I might call this Simulation versus Co-Authorship, instead of Effect versus Intent. Or D&D vs. Dungeon World.