GM Phrasebook Thoughts

I don't ask my players "What do you (want to) do?", like the old, well worn advice in the front of the rulebook says. Instead, I ask them "What's the plan?" It's not just that my subscription to Roll20 has me paying by the word - it's a small point, but it's genuinely a better phrase. And since its the starting point for the whole structure of the game ("...a conversation, between the players and the GM..."), I think it's kind of important.

The first reason I do this semi-intentional thing is because plans are purposive. Of course, when players act, they do so with purpose. But they don't always share their purposes with the GM. I think some players have this innate suspicion that the GM is out to jump on their plans. Maybe it's the ghost of Gary "Legendarily Competitive DM" Gygax, but there seems to be a feeling that the player should detail each individual action leading up to their plan, without revealing the purpose behind it. I can see why, if you were playing with mister Drudgeons and Dugongs himself, you'd want to declare that you carefully flick individual coins onto the floor panels in front of you without giving a reason - any extra detail you gave might give him a chance to get his hooks in, and gleefully declare that you'd fallen victim to a trap or four.

But here's the thing: Rpgs are inherently purposive, in that the GM needs to be aware of the players' interests to know how to describe their surroundings, how to interpret the details of their actions, and so forth. Every room description, and for that matter every action declaration, is like a vague, translucent fact floating on a sea of detail yet to be cashed out or even determined. To borrow an example from philosopher Fred Dretske, if someone asks "Is there anything in the room?", the correct answer could be either "Yes" or "No", depending on their purposes. If the person is a player looking for the Armchair of Scholarly Might, and the room is devoid of soft furnishings and other middle-sized objects, then "No" is correct. However, if they suspect the presence of a dust-mephit, and the corners are thick with dust, then "No" is extremely misleading, even when said of the same room. Dust particles don't usually count as things, but in the right circumstances - with the right purposive intent - they become extremely relevant.

"What's the plan?" asks the players to tell you what their aims are, not just what they're doing to get to them. Including the word "want" edges in that direction, but I've almost always seen either version of the usual sentence heard anyway as simply "What do you do?" Occasionally, with the "plan" version, you get someone telling you their goal without saying how they want to achieve it, but its a simple fix to press them for details - they haven't actually given you a plan, after all.

The other good thing about the phrase is that it gets people to think together. Even if they're not acting in unison but splitting up to search for clues, the phrase helps to elicit a round of player responses, not just the one. It even helps to get group thinking going, rather than everyone just going it alone, by, I suppose, implying that there should be both a shared goal and a shared method for the whole group. I've mentioned before the importance of canvassing the whole group for actions before starting to adjudicate - that invisible turn structure that pervades the whole game, but is seldom explained - and this helps shore that up. Having this invisible system humming is what keeps the pace up, and makes sure that players are never out of the loop, at least for too long, while they wait for others' actions to resolve.

There may be something too to the idea that it helps with giving players open options to explore situations. Thinking back over my most recent sessions, I think I've spent a chunk of time at the beginning of each throwing stuff haphazardly at the players and asking "What do you do?". This is basically revving up to speed to get to the point in the session where I can actually put them in an interesting, complex situation and ask "What's the plan?" I guess the point is to focus on prepping "plan" situations, instead of just "do" ones, although I admit this needs more working out.

So yes, give a thought to your GMing vocab. It's not the be-all and end-all, but how you address the players is a key point of contact in the interface between the world in your imagination and the version of it in theirs.