Rhythm of Play

Play runs in a loop of three beats, repeated for as long as the session lasts.

1. The DM describes the situation. Where you are, what you can see, what is happening around you, and what seems possible from here.
2. The players say what they do. Not what they roll — what their characters attempt. One player may speak for the group, or everyone may act at once.
3. The DM narrates the result, which becomes the situation for the next beat.

Dice enter only in the third beat, and only sometimes. If what you attempt is routine, it simply works. If it is impossible, it simply fails. The dice come out for the space between those, where the attempt could plausibly go either way, and the DM calls for an ability check or another D20 Test to find out which.

When time matters

Most of the time the loop runs loosely: an afternoon of travel passes in a sentence, a conversation takes as long as it takes. When precision starts to matter — usually because something is trying to kill you — the game tightens into rounds.

A round covers about six seconds of the world, and inside it everyone involved gets one turn, in an order fixed at the start by Initiative. On your turn you can move and take one action, plus a Bonus Action if something has granted you one. Between your turns you may get a Reaction, which is how you do something in response to another creature.

The loop has not changed — the DM still describes, you still say what you do, the DM still narrates. Rounds only pin down who goes when.