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Message: <blockquote data-quote="iserith" data-source="post: 7102361" data-attributes="member: 97077">I look at it this way:As DM, I can't assume or establish what a player's character is doing. That is not part of the basic conversation of the game. Only the player may say what his or her character is trying to do. Therefore, a passive check is the mechanic for resolving a character's action which a player must have described at some point. That action will also be something the character is doing repetitively or "in general."Which is why you'll see me checking in with the players on what their characters are doing in general while adventuring. That typically means just one task - keeping watch for hidden dangers (traps and monsters), tracking, foraging, drawing a map, searching for secret doors, navigating, etc. I will also ask for their marching order since being able to notice traps (if nothing else) depends on what rank they are in relative to the location of the trap. If these tasks at any point have an uncertain outcome, then I will resolve that uncertainty with a passive check. If they choose at any other point to perform some other singular task, I have to decide whether or not that distracts from the task they are performing in general in addition to determining if that task has an uncertainty. This would be resolved with an ability check.Recalling lore (with uncertainty) is always an ability check for me, not a passive check. Or at least so far. No circumstance has arisen for this task to be performed repeatedly or in general which would call for a passive check. When I describe the environment, I am describing enough for the players to act with agency in the fictional world. Recalling lore tends to be an action players take to gain some additional benefit.Passive Insight might be used by me if a character is in a social interaction challenge and isn't doing anything that potentially distracts from being able to read body language and interpret mannerisms. (The task would also have to have an uncertain outcome as usual.) So you'd probably see the a few PCs engaging in the conversation and one person hanging back observing and advising the talkers with whatever the passive check might turn up. It honestly doesn't come up a great deal.I'm actually not a huge fan of including DCs in a published adventure unless it very clearly states the specific goal and approach that are determining the difficulty in succeeding. Because in my view, we can't settle on a DC until the player has described the goal of the character and the approach to achieving that goal.</blockquote>

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