Here is a post I made regarding a player narration style:
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Interesting. I’ve definitely noticed this style of player narration in older blog posts and articles/books about early d&d players, and I’d love it if my players tried this out.
On the other hand, though, starting with questions might contribute to the game being a conversation. That is, rpgs are a collaborative experience, and I wonder if this more declarative style has any negative effects, like making it harder for players and DMs to get on the same page if they’re making different assumptions.
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Definitely, I don’t think you can (efficiently) get away with just the above method and at some point you’re going to have to ask questions purely from a player perspective. Verbal and text communication is limited, and we’re really not inhabiting this world, so at some point we’re going to have to make sure we’re on the same page.
I do think a lot of assumptions can be detailed via intention though. Saying what you’re doing and what your character is hoping to get out of it I feel does most of the heavy lifting, or at least it has in the games I’ve adopted this style with.
Another thing that got brought up on the OSR server regarding this post is some referees who have players that do this, but they tend to over-assume what is present and accessible for the characters, which is interesting as many of my players tend to be a little more pensive. Not that either is better than the other, but the stylistic differences are worth noting and as of right now I have ideas for how one may communicate expectations around them, but I don’t think we have good verbage around.
This is a cool little trick. What blog backend do you use?
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Wordpress, hosted on Bluehost.