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Basic descriptions are necessary for collaborative storytelling

Just a vibe check of the Lemmy community with a deliberately exaggerated meme.

A reddit post would get flooded with argumentative mini-essays from folks who can’t string together 5 words in-character.

33 comments
  • Totally depends on the vibe. In my group, acting out persuasion or deception checks is most common, but sometimes someone can't think of exactly what to say and so just outlines the gist in a detached way - e.g. "I go on about how the safety of the city is top priority, allow us access so we can continue our search for the fugitive". Not specific, but general. Either works, and the general form is bare minimum IMO.

  • I had a game in Middle School that involved describing how I was supposed to arrange a ladder to climb up the side of a wall. We went back and forth for over an hour, because my DM kept insisting I couldn't turn the ladder sideways.

    Now, if my players want to deliver a particularly clever bit of prose or describe a novel engineering technique, I just give them a +2 on the roll and that's that.

  • I dunno, i appreciate being able to gloss over certain mundane actions with the shared understandings of common actions. Shopping, for instance, takes loads more time when everyone's in storyteller mode, and you never really know how many more sessions you've got before a scheduling error comes up. Best to keep the routine parts brief.

    Schmoozing a merchant for a better deal is best handled with a persuasion check, assuming getting a good deal isnt an important part of the campaign.

  • In my opinion if the player doesn't tell me their Intent, what they are trying to achieve, how can I assess difficulty? Assess danger? Imagine consequences? I also want the tools for the task they set themselves upon. For the barbarian weapons used, positioning etc. For the talker their arguments. Acting out is not necessary.

    Or just use an apocalyptic principle: "to do it, do it". If the character doesn't do anything that triggers a move no move is triggered.

  • Basic descriptions aren't necessary but helping in a lot of cases. And in some it's completely the same ("I want to roll an insight check" vs. "Do I believe his story?" - there's simply no describeable process making a difference).

    Also players are different... I won't punish a guy playing a high int, high charisma character for not coming up with a logical or persuasive argument (and again "I want to talk to him to change his mind" vs. "I want to roll for persuasion" is all the same here), just as I don't punish a nerd playing a barbarian for not actually being able to lift a person one-armed.

    But then I know my players and assume new additions are acting in good faith to their best ability and not just roll-playing because they want to have more time to focus on Candy Crush.

33 comments