Hack n' slash?

[ULFGARD]

Originally Posted by Bruno

I generally agree with this, but specifically I want to recommend against "Do nothing". "Do nothing" is a terrible "you're taking too long" action. All Out Defense or Evaluate or even Wait are better options, as the player doesn't feel punished afterwards.

I agree in general. I have reserved the Do Nothing or Wait options for players with mage PCs who have outright refused to create anything resembling SOP for their characters. I didn't want to, but having a player stare blankly at the game and/or give advice to other players (not generally allowed, but I do allow it for new players or in some games for funsies)/make offhand remarks then grind combat to a halt while he goes through his spell list, finally decides there's nothing good for him to use, then look back at the map, decide there's not a "good" move, and Do Nothing or Wait after all. HIGHLY annoying after awhile. He didn't want to lose control of his character by having a default action, yet he WOULD say things like "just have me do something useful," which isn't the GM's job. Hopefully this isn't a problem for Snipperkitty.

So the "default" action should be something like Attack Torso, or Wait (if there's no one immediately at hand to attack). Reserve "Do Nothing" for players who are obstinate enough to refuse a productive and balanced default option.

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I will say this: what I did for my difficult player (with the "have me do something useful" type of action when he couldn't think of something better) was this: I'd have him evaluate the situation looking to use skills he possessed (Hidden Lore, Tactics, and Thaumatology in particular). I'd roll vs. Per-5 for him in secret, adding +1 for each turn. On a success, I'd make an appropriate roll. The margin of success would affect the quality of the suggestion I gave him, with a crit revealing something that only *I* knew was going to happen. This was a case of a player who would panic under pressure (he once had a character die because he cast yet another fire spell literally one round AFTER the bad guy had laughed in his face and told him that he had prepared for fire spells). Even his screwing off was a part of this -- he was blowing off nervous energy. Yet he was playing thoughtful characters. I used this mechanism to give him the ability to play a character with mental attributes he himself lacked. It ended up working in the end.