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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sunseeker" data-source="post: 7341112">Maybe, but BIG Action Declarations like "I hire an assassin to kill the King." need to be followed with subsequent specificity from the players. The DM can be much like the genie with the action declaration being a badly worded wish. If you don't clearly state your goals, how can the DM adjudicate the results? Things like overthrowing a King (through death or other means) requires a series of action declarations, no matter if we address them via role-play or roll-play. Yes, statistically the more rolls you make the more likely you are to fail (that's statistics for you). But BIG Action Declarations should be more prone to failure. Players may not be aware of fictional positioning of the King distrusting them (I mean, they wanna kill this guy for a reason that we're assuming isn't "the players are jerks", and if they are well...I suspect the King knows this), sending spies to watch them, intercept their moves. Perhaps the King has no interest in the party (which is often another reason the party wants to kill someone in power), and just happens to catch them looking to buy an assassin in the kingdom's routine checks on the Thieves Guild. Perhaps another noble is paying the Assassins League good money to keep the disliked King alive (maybe the King himself is doing this) and that funding is more valuable to the Assassins League than the coin the players are throwing out.Perhaps a rival kingdom is seeking to overthrow the King as well, and some ne'er-do-well PCs are just the right guys at the right time.Declaring an action for something simple and immediate is easy, and similarly easy to adjudicate. (I drink the beer!....okay, you drink the beer, what's your Con? 16? *Auto-pass* Okay, it's tasty and you don't feel a buzz.)The larger the action declaration, the more likely players are to experience side effects. In this example, the DM declaring that the death of the King has thrown the society into chaos should be keeping in line with what the players should have been able to learn about the Kingdom. It is not terribly difficult for an observant PC to pick up signs of internal strain in a land and perhaps after a chance encounter with the King, learn he's holding the country together with both hands.For BIG Action Declarations, I like to follow this simple guide:The are Known Knowns: These are the things the party knows. They don't require checks and finding this information is relatively easy. This information tends to remain consistent and if it changes, then the that new knowledge is likely to be a "known known" as well.-In this situation, the "known known" should be the fact that the country is under heavy strain and the King is all that is keeping the land together. There are Known Unknowns: These are things the party can find out, but can be subject to rapid change. This also includes information the party can reasonably intuit exists somewhere but lack specifics. (There is a Princess...therefore there must be a Queen. There is an Army, therefore there must be a General. There are 5 Noble Houses, two of which the King likes, two of which the King does not like, and one Switzerland.)-The example scenario lacks these, but any of these could be applicable, and are worth serious consideration when declaring "I hire an assassin to kill the King!". Such as "Who is next in line to assume the throne?" We know someone will, but we don't know who, or how, or how much competition there is.Finally, there are Unknown Unknowns: These are the sort of "secret fictional story positioning" ya'll keep coming back to. Players can't reasonably know everything that's going on in the Kingdom. Such as an enemy nation also seeking to assassinate the King. Or that the King as a secret heir born to a Tiefling woman who lives in the slums. Or that the bartender they've been so fond of yapping in front of is a Royal Spy. Utilizing these three basic elements, it's fairly easy for a player or a DM to determine the potential side-effects of a BIG Action Declaration.  Many players get in the habit of expecting success to come without strings. But you cannot truly make BIG Action Declarations and hold that expectation. I would find it incredibly unbelievable were a player to declare they wish to assassinate the King, have the DM roll a single d20, happen to roll a success, even a crit! And declare that the King is dead with no ill consequences to the country, or no caveats to the success of that assassination.The problem is of course, getting players to "think of the big picture". Few do. Which is why we end up with games with BIG Action Declarations that function like small action declarations, with no or inconsequential side effects in comparison to the actual act the players just took.</blockquote>

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