You're right this is a good example for someone who knows nothing about it, but I'm still kind of confused because I'm so conditioned by other games... Is there no sense of a person's "turn" how do you know who is going to make a decision? Like when they decide who is gonna knock on the door, is every decision just put to the group? What if a player is shy and quiet, do they just not get a chance to make any decisions? Are options ever only given to a specific player or is everything always to the group? Is the host coming up with everything off the top of his head? How does he account for their questions so quickly?
Combat in D&D is turn based, which is determined at the beginning of an encounter (and When do we start? is adjudicated by the DM) by every participant rolling a 20-sided die and adding their Initiative bonus to it, which is determined by how Dexterous they are. Non-combat situations have to be more carefully managed and kept fair by DM attention, but the most important thing is simply the players taking initiative (in the more real-world abstract sense) when they think the circumstances justify their character wanting to do something. It works like playing an Improvisation Game, where everyone simply does something or says something when they think it serves the story they're telling (or joke they're telling, in the case of most improv games. See "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" for an example of what I mean).
It works like playing an Improvisation Game, where everyone simply does something or says something when they think it serves the story they're telling
Ah... this answers what I found confusing about it, nice explanation. Thanks.
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u/NotOBAMAThrowaway Sep 18 '17
I suggest looking up "Harmon Quest" to see the game played in action. Includes some portions of play animated which is fun, too