Quote Originally Posted by Keltest View Post
While I appreciate optimism of all kinds, my experience with your threads and communication style leads me to believe that when the players say they don't trust you to communicate clearly to them and think youre trying to play word games, theyre probably being sincere.

Now personally, were I in the position of having both strangers on the internet and people I know in person and regularly talk with doubting my ability to communicate clearly, and were I also inclined to a certain amount of introspection, I might draw the conclusion that I am in fact not communicating clearly, that this is a problem of mine, and that I should deal with it. But that's just me.
I am absolutely aware that I do not communicate clearly. As you may be aware, I have NVLD, a sensory processing condition that, among other things, means that I can't read non-verbal communication clues and also parse language differently than most people.

My problem is not that I think I am being clearer than I am, its that people assume that I am lying or trying to trying to trick them rather than asking clarifying questions. So, in this case, rather than just asking me "Did you mean that it cannot be destroyed at all, or did you mean that there is some secret non violent means of destroying it?" the player decided to just ignore the plan that the party had come up with and ended up sabotaging her teammates.

Or, if you want an example from this very thread, NichG blew up at me because he insisted I was "making up stuff to win an argument" rather than accepting my explanation that I thought he was talking about CRPGs as a whole rather than his three specific examples (which I have never played and have no ability to comment on one way or the other).

Or another thread last year where someone claimed that I was intentionally giving them bad information in an effort to make them look foolish because as revenge for finding an infinite power loophole in the playtest document in my signature and refusing to accept that I a wasn't clear on the specifics of what I was asking and gave him a general answer rather than a specific one... which is really bizarre because I actively pay editors and play-testers explicitly for the purpose of finding such loopholes and am very appreciative when they are found as I can then fix them.



And yeah, I could do better about asking clarifying questions myself. I am just so afraid of accidentally railroading the PCs, and I have had players in the past who react really badly if they perceive that I am telling them what to do / and or implying that they are doing something stupid or forgetful.


In your previous post, one of your complaints about my posting style was that I assume there are misunderstandings and thus repeatedly try and clarify my position. Right? To me, this is an indication that I am already aware that clear communication is a problem of mine and am attempting to deal with it.