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General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Is "Passive" (for Passive Perception) really the right term??
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<blockquote data-quote="DND_Reborn" data-source="post: 8700957" data-attributes="member: 6987520"><p>Ok, so "passive", as in passive perception (or other "passive" scores) has always bothered me a bit because the mechanic is 10 + your total modifier.</p><p></p><p>Why 10?</p><p></p><p>Well, my understanding is that the designers chose 10 because it was supposed to represent your "typical" effort (roughly average on the d20).</p><p></p><p>Then they chose the term "passive" for it... And, yeah, that is what bugs me.</p><p></p><p>"Routine" would be better, because passive (to me) represents "non-active", as where doing a task over and over would be "active" or "routine".</p><p></p><p>I mean, think about it, something that is "passive" is better than nearly half of your active attempts?</p><p></p><p>So, someone is trying to stealth past you, against your Passive Perception. But, you aren't really trying to perceive---you're just there. But your score is based on your average result if you <em>were</em> trying to perceive. Now, to be clear, when you are <em>trying</em> to perceive you are actively looking for something/ listening/ searching/ etc. In this case, you aren't. But, still using the 10 + modifier...</p><p></p><p>Anyway, it seems to me if a passive perception score was <em>actually</em> passive, it should be 5 + modifier or something. Then we could also just have the whole "Take 10" for routine tasks or have a "Routine/ Typical/ Whatever? Score" of 10 + modifier.</p><p></p><p>Just throwing this out as I am working on other stuff...</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="DND_Reborn, post: 8700957, member: 6987520"] Ok, so "passive", as in passive perception (or other "passive" scores) has always bothered me a bit because the mechanic is 10 + your total modifier. Why 10? Well, my understanding is that the designers chose 10 because it was supposed to represent your "typical" effort (roughly average on the d20). Then they chose the term "passive" for it... And, yeah, that is what bugs me. "Routine" would be better, because passive (to me) represents "non-active", as where doing a task over and over would be "active" or "routine". I mean, think about it, something that is "passive" is better than nearly half of your active attempts? So, someone is trying to stealth past you, against your Passive Perception. But, you aren't really trying to perceive---you're just there. But your score is based on your average result if you [I]were[/I] trying to perceive. Now, to be clear, when you are [I]trying[/I] to perceive you are actively looking for something/ listening/ searching/ etc. In this case, you aren't. But, still using the 10 + modifier... Anyway, it seems to me if a passive perception score was [I]actually[/I] passive, it should be 5 + modifier or something. Then we could also just have the whole "Take 10" for routine tasks or have a "Routine/ Typical/ Whatever? Score" of 10 + modifier. Just throwing this out as I am working on other stuff... [/QUOTE]
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