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Message: <blockquote data-quote="howandwhy99" data-source="post: 6327453" data-attributes="member: 3192">As an old school gamer I for one don't agree with everything in that booklet. I applaud any attempt to clarify what early D&D was like and what people talked about, but there was endless rules discussion out of game about balance and correct level for things like monsters, magic items, and spells. The quoted method isn't early D&D because it's using skills (checks), but dice rolls are part of that game. They enable the abstraction of very complex situations into simple odds for any player attempted action. And those odds are expressed by the chance inherent to the roll. If we explore a room 30'x20'x10' high and there are 5 of us working together, 2 humans, an elf, and 2 halflings, then the odds of our group are unique, yet pliable. So is the chance of the room based on its size, composition, contents, possible traps, lots of stuff. When we make a roll, we spend time. A set time based on all those factors above. When we fail and make another, we spend more time. It's up to the players on when they want to quite rolling/searching or when they switch back (or forth) to more specified actions.I heartily applaud too D&D Next for allowing player-directed discovery, but it should never be a requirement. All those scrupulously detailed searching actions might still result in a roll of chance (but hopefully a better one). Rolling isn't bad, but it needs a predetermined structure prior to the roll derived from the progressing situation of the game. Rolling could be a strategy based on the limited session time availableOr the desire not to get involved with searching, but rather just roll until you find something or quitOr the use of a preset SOP you've already worked out speeding up game playOr the first few times you've played so you haven't thought to try and search specificallyOr the belief that there isn't anything of value to really specifically search in the room.Or a hundred other reasons.I'm not trying to come down on you. It's not really about doing one or the other. But doing either should be navigating the maze of the game. Something not currently supported.</blockquote>

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