Understanding DM/GM Lingo: Preventing misdirecting each other

It's all about how you end it

A while ago I watched a video about something (I don't really remember) but something that stuck with me was an example given as to how GM and Player scene-understanding can sometimes differ wildly and grind the game to a hold simply because the wrong social-cue/hand-over-phrase was used. The thing you say to indicate that it's now the players turn.
The example was this:

During one of Critical Rolls games, Matt was narrating a travel montage until the party reached a hill where he went into more detail and described the surrounding landscape. It was a floodplain with lots of rivers going through it. As Matt finished describing the landscape he ended with "[...] what do you do?". The players, unsure what Matt was waiting for, began to ask questions about the landscape and randomly rp about stuff. This took 20 minutes until the party decided to just advance ... and nothing happened. It later became clear that Matt wanted to set up the rivers as a travel challenge.

I don't want to talk about the river challenge thing. That's an oopsie that happens to the best of us. What I instead want to talk about is how choosing to end it with "[...] what do you do?" caused the players to react in a certain way. We all have an almost instictual reaction that comes with that phrase. It's something GMs say when there is danger lurking around the corner or something important could happen from the actions you are about to take. This caused me to think about what kind of phrases I use when I gm and what kind of phrases I react to as a player and what expectations they trigger in me and others in my group.

So here is a list of the ones I found:

• "👉 [Name] your action/move ?!"
Alternative: "👉 [Name] 3 .. 2 .. 1 .. !"
By either naming or pointing at the player, maybe reiterating the danger at hand, and asking for an immediate response or a countdown to put even more pressure on the player. This will to be understood as a high stakes danger situation where something needs to be done right now to avert the bad thing from happening. The expectations here are that not just the player will be playing at high speed but the GM as well. Be prepared to make rulings and don't slow the game down.

• "[...] what do you do?"
Alternative: "[...] how do you react?"
This line is used right after dropping a ticking bomb on the players lap and will be understood as a slow danger situation. Players see it as that and react as such, thinking that there is an action required to get out of the scene or progress. Don't use this if nothing is required of the players.

• "Is there something you like to do (before ...)?"
Alternative: "[...], do you want to add something?"
Most often used in montages, this is a deescalated phrase where the player are given room to do/describe something before the story moves on. The scene will be perceived as basically finished and what ever will be said is just detailing. Because of that, the expectation is that it's safe and there won't be danger jumping them. Importantly, it does not require an action from the players, but the players should let the GM know if they don't want to do/add something so the GM doesn't wait for them unnecessarily.

• "[...], do you want to continue?"
Alternative: "[...], you know that right?"
This kind of phrase is used after add information that the GM considers worth pondering over and might make some players rethink. When a GM describes something like that they want to know if the players want to change their plans or continue with what ever they were doing. It's the GM way of making sure that the players understand the situation they are in. On the player side this is often seen as a signal from the GM to reopen the discussion and debate about what approach would be appropriate.

• "How/Where/Who do you [...]?"
This one is my preferred way of passing on the ball right after a neutral exposition dump. In the example with the rivers this would be the question that would start the intended discourse, "how do you cross the rivers?". Keep in mind what your players came here to do and then ask leading questions that will progress the story. This one is exceptionally context dependent as to how players react to it.

Closing Words

This is probably nothing ground breaking or anything, most people kind of know this already more or less. I still thought it would be worth to write it up and have a discussion about it. If we can reduce time waste in our limited game time it should be given some thoughts.

Also cultural warning. Language works differently in different parts of the world. I myself am European and might use words in a different way then a native English user would.

Any way let me know if you encountered similar stuff.