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What DM flaw has caused you to actually leave a game?
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<blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 7515436" data-attributes="member: 29398"><p>Except that, as others have pointed out, describing what you want to do is as far as a player can go.</p><p></p><p>Now it's true that describing what you want to do and describing what you're doing can and often do sound just the same at the table; but when you-as-player say in character "I'm walking across the room and opening the door" what you're really saying is "I want to walk across the room and then I want to open the door", and if there's no impediment to either of those actions the DM will likely just say something like "OK. Opening the door reveals a short passage behind, that opens out into a room or chamber after about 10 feet."</p><p></p><p>But if there is an impediment to doing what you want e.g. a pit trap in the floor, or the door is locked, then the exchange boils down to Player: "I want to..." DM: "You can't, and here's why".</p><p></p><p>Put another way, "describ[ing] what my PC is doing" fairly strongly implies that nothing in the fiction can or will change this; and that success is a fait accompli. No. Saying "I'm jumping across the stream" (implying auto-success) really means "I'm trying to jump across the stream" (implying success is not guaranteed).</p><p></p><p>These are trivial examples, to be sure, in attempts to call out and challenge the overarching philosophy or attitude in the quoted statement: "I play RPGs to describe...what my PC is doing" carries a heavy undertone of "and the fiction can't stop me"; as opposed to "I play RPGs to describe what I want my PC to do" which carries the much more reasonable and realistic tone of "if the fiction will let me".</p><p></p><p>Lanefan</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Lanefan, post: 7515436, member: 29398"] Except that, as others have pointed out, describing what you want to do is as far as a player can go. Now it's true that describing what you want to do and describing what you're doing can and often do sound just the same at the table; but when you-as-player say in character "I'm walking across the room and opening the door" what you're really saying is "I want to walk across the room and then I want to open the door", and if there's no impediment to either of those actions the DM will likely just say something like "OK. Opening the door reveals a short passage behind, that opens out into a room or chamber after about 10 feet." But if there is an impediment to doing what you want e.g. a pit trap in the floor, or the door is locked, then the exchange boils down to Player: "I want to..." DM: "You can't, and here's why". Put another way, "describ[ing] what my PC is doing" fairly strongly implies that nothing in the fiction can or will change this; and that success is a fait accompli. No. Saying "I'm jumping across the stream" (implying auto-success) really means "I'm trying to jump across the stream" (implying success is not guaranteed). These are trivial examples, to be sure, in attempts to call out and challenge the overarching philosophy or attitude in the quoted statement: "I play RPGs to describe...what my PC is doing" carries a heavy undertone of "and the fiction can't stop me"; as opposed to "I play RPGs to describe what I want my PC to do" which carries the much more reasonable and realistic tone of "if the fiction will let me". Lanefan [/QUOTE]
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What DM flaw has caused you to actually leave a game?
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