Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Quickleaf" data-source="post: 6388361" data-attributes="member: 20323">Well, you know your players best, maybe they are content rolling dice at monsters? <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />I like old school play. However, the problem I have with old school "say to search" in this regard is that it rewards player skill with the game & familiarity with their particular DM's tricks. Worse, it has the tendency to train players to become painstakingly detailed in their search methodology, wasting valuable game time.** Note that if your group is hardcore into the old school mega-dungeon crawl vibe, you might not consider it wasted time. YMMV.As with a lot of my gaming philosophy, I like an "old school meets new school" approach here.The basic idea is, yes, keep encouraging the players to describe what they're doing. At the same time, as DM meet them in the middle. Only conceal stuff when there's coherent logic, and most of the time telegraph or foreshadow it (even if only subtly). Make searching have meaningful choices in one of 4 ways:<ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Opportunity costs: What could I be doing instead of searching? time spent searching could be spend investigating those magic pools, resting from injuries and repairing equipment, tracking the princess kidnapped by gargoyles, etc.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Dangerous search: Is searching here worth the risk? sticking your hand in the green mouth might get it severed, the sage's notes indicate one of the dozen doors may be trapped, the flagstones are cracking revealing a chams below, gas is filling the room, etc.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Moral dilemma: Can we live with the moral consequences of this search? unearthing the remains of a saint to find a clue, a black book with blackmail secrets that if revealed would condemn an allied NPC, a father swearing vengeance on the PCs if they search his daughter's room for the murder weapon, etc.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Mutually exclusive options: Do we search X or Y? Situations where searching one area precludes searching another, such as a vast chamber split by a chasm/barrier bridged by a long circuitous route, monsters are coming and there's only time for rogue to pick lock on one chest, angel's test means searching one chalice causes others to vanish, flames are consuming evidence and there's not enough time to search all scroll cases, etc.</li> </ol>This makes searching less about "aha! the DM doesn't get to screw us with traps and hide our treasure today!" and more about the WHY and HOW of searching. If you get the players to pause and ask a question amongst themselves then you're doing it right. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

Verification