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Message: <blockquote data-quote="iserith" data-source="post: 7159038" data-attributes="member: 97077">I think a good policy is for the DM to not assume what the PCs are doing or to narrate what they do, even when describing the result of the adventurers' actions. The players describe what they want the characters to do, not the DM. The players should be reasonably specific as to their goal and approach so that the DM has enough information to determine if mechanics need to come into play and to adjudicate a result without making assumptions about what the characters are doing. The exception will be assumptions that are agreed upon beforehand such as stating that a character is assumed to be keeping watch for danger while traveling provided they do not state some other ongoing task, for example.At the same time, players cannot be expected to detail every single thing, hence why I say the players must be reasonably specific. This means in some cases being okay with the players retroactively saying they did a thing, provided that seems like a logical thing for the character to have done and does not contradict something that has already been established in the fiction. Typically, they will say something like this in my experience because the DM is setting up some kind of problem or challenge related to a thing they did not say. Therefore, if the DM avoids doing that, there should be very few instances of it occurring. The boundaries are not clear on situations like this and will vary from group to group, even situation to situation. The best way to deal with it is upfront by having a discussion about it with the players to figure out what works for everyone and then everyone holding to that agreement consistently going forward.</blockquote>

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