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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JiffyPopTart" data-source="post: 8490767" data-attributes="member: 4881">Here is where your preference veers away from mine.I have been playing some form of RPGs since I was in 3rd grade way back in the early 80s.  Over this long span what is "fun" to me has changed quite a bit.In the 80s and 80s I was entertained by playing through the micro actions my character engaged in.Party finished a combat in a monster barracksWe check for traps on each little thing.We check all the bodies for loot.We turn over the table to look for hidden drawers.We look behind all the tapestries for hidden spaces.We poke all the piles of debris with a pole.Etc...Over time this sort of thing got really stale and not fun.  When you do the same things over and over you aren't cleverly approaching a new scenario, you are just going through routine that takes up way too much table time for little enjoyment.Now my gaming style has shifted.  I allow for a level of abstraction towards the PCs to remove the monotonous repeating actions and keep the focus on the newness in each encounter.  The existence of a Perception score allows me to bundle the 20 minutes real time of searching Into a 5 second roll.So, for example, rather than have the players verbally tell me they want to listen at, search for traps on, peek under, or smell each and every door in a dungeon, we instead have a SDP (Standard Door Procedure) that gets applied automatically the rests of which are narrated as part of the door description based on a couple skill checks."You come upon a fairy sturdy door.  It's locked but not trapped and you hear the sounds of fire and smell smoke from within." is how my games are  not just "There is a door, what do you want to do?"Similarly each character starts with an SAP (Standard Adventurers Pack) which contains contents not itemized on a character sheet.  If a player needs an item that most adventurers would know was necessary, it's probably in the pack.  If it's iffy, then I let them roll to see if they had one.</blockquote>

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