Wow, I guess we just enjoy very different play styles. I don't want to make assumptions on how you run your games @
Gradine, anyone who gives as much thought to the game as you do is likely to be run a good game and I can enjoy all manner of GM styles if the GM is dedicated and cares about everyone having a good time.
But I have to say that I love the style of play that [MENTION=97077]iserith[/MENTION] describes. From how he describes his style, it brings me back to how we played 1e but without the annoying prepubescent "gotcha" style that immature DMs have. I like having to explain how my character is acting with the world. It makes the game more immersive for me to have to give some thought to specifying not just that I do something but how I do it, not just that I may have some knowledge, but how I have that knowledge. When other players do this, it makes the game more immersive for me. When everyone does it, its magic.
What I feel is missing in many of the games I play in, is that everything seems on autopilot until there is a "big challenge" or "combat." Or everything is reduced for a call for rolls and the players stating roll results.
As a DM, in my 1st 5e campaign, and the first game I ran after a long time of not playing TTRPGs at all, I started to get bored and disillusioned with many dungeons crawls once you had rogues in the mid tiers. It seems I either had to set DC levels for traps crazy high, in which case I could force auto passive-perception fails or they would notice every trap on autopilot.
The way I handled it at the time, was I wanted to play 5e RAW. So I would just describe that he notices something off about a wall the floor, etc. Then he would have to use his Investigation to see if he could tell if there was a trap or secret door. I would also in my descriptions give red herring descriptions. I would describe discolorations, etc. and the player would make investigation roles. But really, it was just more of the same. You notice something. I investigate...I got an 18. Etc.
Something was missing.
Iserith has laid out a clear play loop, that follows RAW, and would solve something that has been holding my games back.
Now, I think I might go easier on my players. I might telegraph more heavily with newer players. Also, I might help by asking some leading questions. How are you searching the room? How are you examining the statue? How are you inspecting the non-matching tile? Also, I think Iserith's patient explanations in this and other threads also have helped me better understand how to use other passive checks besides perception.
Anyway, I don't have too much to add to this already monstrous thread tangent, I've not thought about it as deeply as you all and don't have as much experience as a DM, but I think the comments about the playability and enjoyability of Iserith's games are off base. For me, they sound fun and have given me some ideas on how I might improve my games.
That is, in fact, exactly how I'd imagined your game play would be. There is, in fact, a red flag in your sample player response that makes me even more certain your style of DMing is incompatible with my style of play.
That I would have to, or be expected to, describe what I'm doing to the extent that I have to describe how I'm examining a thing without also moving closer towards, is the exact kind of pedantic, blow-by-blow detail of action I would feel obligated to narrate that is the reason why I describe your particular resolution mechanic as "not fun". Maybe it's because I have newer players, maybe it's because we all have very limited time to actually play, but pacing is extremely important to my games, and if that's the level of descriptive action I'd require of my players in terms of examining and interacting with every room (and every item in the room) we'd never get anything done.
Again, that's different from "badwrongfun", and you've both a) clearly put a lot of thought into how you handle these situations and b) don't seem to be maintaining it solely to play "gotcha" on your players, so it's entirely possible I could find myself settling in to your table eventually. But understand how this method of resolution might seem unfun to a player, or how it may be entirely unfair in the hands of a more dastardly (or at least antagonistic) DM. That's a legitimate style of play too, of course, but not one I personally enjoy in the slightest.