Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Quickleaf" data-source="post: 5678008" data-attributes="member: 20323">[MENTION=710]Mustrum_Ridcully[/MENTION] Having reread your OP I'm struck by the binary approach that seems to be common with perception/insight checks. You see it or you don't. They're lying or they're honest. That's not how I run them in my games - I prefer more of a spectrum of detail - and what I like about your idea from the OP is that it provides more of a dynamic spectrum rules-wise.You bring up a good point that there isn't a solid set of guidelines for when to use a passive vs active check. IME passive checks are good to use as group check scene openers or transition points. Who is surprised? Everyone whose passive Perception is below this value. Who was left in the hall and begines in the midst of the poisone gas attack? Everyone whose passive Insight was too low to pick up on the diplomat's innuendo. When you're framing a scene that's a good time to use passive checks as written.However once the game is afoot and players' antennae are alert, I think we need to look at information checks differently. It's no longer sufficient to say "truth" or "lie", because the scene is occurring at a greater level of detail. A common trouble with puzzles in D&D is there's little inventive for the PCs to actually engage with the puzzle's headspace; instead the payoff is usually in figuring out a way to avoid it altogether and still get where you want to be. Thats not a bad thing, but engaing with the puzzle on its terms should also be meaningful too. The way around this is to build incentives into the process of solving te puzzle - bits of information or treasure that are revealed each step of the way, for example.Why not something similar for exploration/interaction encounters? So right out of the gate the PCs might know the Duke is lying, but they need more information. Why is he lying? Whose side is he really on? What kind of leverage might the PCs use to sway him? These are the real challenge in the encounter, not "is he lying?" Their initial Insight checks might give them guidance for what sorts of leading questions to ask, but it's not the entire DM Secrets textblock on a silver platter.</blockquote>

Verification