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Help me nail down this 'take 10, take 20' nonsense
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<blockquote data-quote="AuraSeer" data-source="post: 1823661" data-attributes="member: 1331"><p>He doesn't know the difference. I rule that taking 20 on an informative skill means looking until you either find something, or until you are convinced that there's nothing to be found. </p><p></p><p>When a PC makes a regular check to search a door, and finds no traps, I tell the player, "You do not see any traps." The character knows he may have missed something. But if he takes 20 and still finds no traps, I tell the player, "You are certain that there are no traps." The player knows there's a possibility that his character is not skilled enough, but that's metagaming; as far as the PC is concerned, the door is safe.</p><p></p><p>This works for all the informative skills that don't have a visible goal: Search, Spot, Listen, Gather Information, Survival (when looking for tracks), and probably some more I'm forgetting.</p><p></p><p>If you don't allow taking 20 on Search at all, what mechanic do you use when a PC decides to search a particular place as well as possible? Maybe the BBEG just ran down a dead end hallway and disappeared, so the party searches high and low for the secret door he used. Do you allow just one ordinary Search check for each party member, or what?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="AuraSeer, post: 1823661, member: 1331"] He doesn't know the difference. I rule that taking 20 on an informative skill means looking until you either find something, or until you are convinced that there's nothing to be found. When a PC makes a regular check to search a door, and finds no traps, I tell the player, "You do not see any traps." The character knows he may have missed something. But if he takes 20 and still finds no traps, I tell the player, "You are certain that there are no traps." The player knows there's a possibility that his character is not skilled enough, but that's metagaming; as far as the PC is concerned, the door is safe. This works for all the informative skills that don't have a visible goal: Search, Spot, Listen, Gather Information, Survival (when looking for tracks), and probably some more I'm forgetting. If you don't allow taking 20 on Search at all, what mechanic do you use when a PC decides to search a particular place as well as possible? Maybe the BBEG just ran down a dead end hallway and disappeared, so the party searches high and low for the secret door he used. Do you allow just one ordinary Search check for each party member, or what? [/QUOTE]
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