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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tony Vargas" data-source="post: 6854934" data-attributes="member: 996">It's not so much who frames checks, I think, but whether a check is desirable from the player side of the screen.  In the classic game, there were a lot of grey areas in the rules, and, unavoidably, a lot of checks you wouldn't be good at, by the numbers.  If you could get the DM to accept the description of your action as implying success more or less automatically, you could avoid engaging with a resolution system that disfavored your character (or couldn't be depended upon to favor him, or just 'wasn't fair' in some perceived sense - take it how you want), or maximize the chance the DM would fill in a grey area in your favor.  In the modern game, you could depend on the rules to cover what you were trying to accomplish in a fairly predictable way.  So if you're acculturated to the former, you couch declarations carefully to try to coax a favorable outcome from the DM, while if you're accustomed to the latter, you choose character abilities carefully to maximize the chance of a favorable outcome when the relevant resolution system is applied.  Personally, even buying into the above, I'm still annoyed when a player declares check or a dice result instead of an attempted action.</blockquote>