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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Piperken" data-source="post: 9858409" data-attributes="member: 7047091">A player's agency weighs heavily in my mind; it's their character and their creation. Irrespective of the score in the ability, the character should be a constellation that revolves around what that player envisions.Some players do like the challenge of pushing up against the low ability score. Sometimes you will just roll up a character's stats, it's not what you expected, but your response is, Yes! I want to see that!The advice in OD&D regarding how the DM should adjudicate what happens fictionally, comes across as antagonistic to my sentiments; it fits the mold of the DM who runs games the way you describe briefly in the first paragraph. And tables do like that kind of adversarial (but in its most positive, constructive sense, friendly) experience.In the example, if a player of a character with a low score in their Intelligence ability, happened to come upon a cool or creative solution that didn't call explicitly for a roll, I'd ask that player to describe in their own way how their character came upon this idea.If they struggled coming up with a reasonable explanation, then I would work with them in the moment to devise one that was agreeable to the table.(After all, irrespective of the number, a clock is always right at least two times a day!)</blockquote>