Topic: What do your players actually do?

[BeggarKing (Thomas)]

I'm researching the most common actions for players. I was reading a snip from Roleplaying tips http://www.roleplayingtips.com/ that critically looked at the actions their characters actually take. Analyzing one session, their list was something like:

• Attack
• Perceive/Sense
• Dismount
• Heal
• Intimidate
• Scout
• Talk
• Move
• Cast spell
• Drink potion

Looking back at my groups last session (explore/roleplay heavy) the list of actions was fairly small (and roughly in this order of frequency):

• Attack
• Percept and tracking
• Talking, some leadership/social
• Lore checks (for knowledge of area/regions/creatures)
• Cast spells

I'm curious - in your own campaigns, what are the most common actions your players take?

[intothatdarkness]

It depends on the nature of the session and/or campaign. I've run sessions where the most common action was Attack, while there have been others where the most common was Perception, followed by Tracking. My urban games tend to have Social, Perception, Tracking, Pick Locks, and Casting fairly high up there, with Attack being lower on the list (unless something goes wrong...).

That said, I've been a player in games where the most common was Attack and Cast Spell (including Healing).

[tbigness]

Mine depends on the scenario too. My urban campaigns use Perception, influence, music or artistic, Lores, stealth, spells and a little combat. Mission campaigns are perception, tracking, Spell, Combat, Stealth, Lores with a little influence.

[Frabby]

Define "action". I think the results of your poll will heavily depend on what a given GM elects to treat as a notable action in the first place. For example, we don't usually play it out when a player character goes to pee or to take a dump - except under unusual circumstances where either the player intends to take a special action, or a special event happens.

Generally (combat and spellcasting aside), I reckon actions in the sense of maneuver rolls mostly happen whenever a player cannot describe his action well enough to convince the GM that it will succeed. Or if they deliberately try a maneuver to exceed normal action parameters.
We've had sessions where no die rolling at all was required for the entire evening.

[BeggarKing (Thomas)]

Good point. When I say "action", I mean an action that requires a roll of some sort. Something that requires game mechanics to handle.

[tbigness]

To keep the players on their toes I usually have them roll for nothing. This usually adds to the air of mystery.

[Voriig Kye]

In the group I'm currently GMing the order seems to be:
Power Perception and/or Detect Traps
Lore checks
Attack
Heal

They have turned into a really suspicious bunch.

[Cory Magel]

I was tempted to say "Drink beer and eat pizza" but we are usually drinking Coke or Tea.

Firstly, we have a saying "Talk is cheap".  Talk all you want.  You can do it while you're swinging a sword or while your standing around doing nothing... no actual declaration needed.

For a comprehensive (so far as I can think of) list of what all possible things we'd declare for a round...

Attack
Casting
Move
Equipment positioning (draw weapon, get out shield, potion, scroll, etc).
Perception (searching, alertness, power perception, finding secret doors, etc).
Combat related skills (Adrenals, Power Striking, etc).
Moving Maneuvers (riding, swimming, jumping, etc).
Static Maneuvers (lock picking, disarm trap, etc).

[gandalf970]

I was tempted to say "Drink beer and eat pizza" but we are usually drinking Coke or Tea.

Firstly, we have a saying "Talk is cheap".  Talk all you want.  You can do it while you're swinging a sword or while your standing around doing nothing... no actual declaration needed.

For a comprehensive (so far as I can think of) list of what all possible things we'd declare for a round...

Attack
Casting
Move
Equipment positioning (draw weapon, get out shield, potion, scroll, etc).
Perception (searching, alertness, power perception, finding secret doors, etc).
Combat related skills (Adrenals, Power Striking, etc).
Moving Maneuvers (riding, swimming, jumping, etc).
Static Maneuvers (lock picking, disarm trap, etc).

Cory couldn't have said it better!  This is exactly the same list I have and my group are some sword swinging attack happy fools, and they like it.  They might as well be the Knights of the Dinner Table!  They look to hack and love to hack, of course Rolemaster critical's make them spend a lot of time researching their next adventure from the hospital bed.

[arakish]

I am like others posted in this thread.

"Define Action."

Most of my games involve extensive role playing.  Yes, there is the occasional battles, but mostly it is about role playing.  I tend to give XP for excellent role playing more often than I do for the monsters killed.  Additionally, there are quite a few incidents that involve intelligent thought to get around the hack-and-slash sessions.

Needless to say, I give experience for almost everything.  And the operative world is "almost".  Thus the reason why I tend to require more XP needed to level up.  The current RMU has XP per level as 10,000.  For my world of Onaviu, I have made this 15,000.

If a list is desired, then:

• Role Playing
• Problem Solving
• Travel
• Escape and Evasion
• Spell Casting
• Attack

As said, I much prefer role playing over roll playing.

rmfr

[BeggarKing (Thomas)]

Hmm - I should have been clearer. I'm interested in the mechanics, and actions that players most commonly take that require rules + rolls. Great though to see campaigns with so much role-playing.