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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hriston" data-source="post: 6989296" data-attributes="member: 6787503">That isn't the way I conceive of it. Encounter distance is limited to either visible or audible distance, whichever is greater. Let's take your room as an example. The human has said he wants to stay quiet to avoid notice from anyone who happens to be out in the hall. For simplicity, let's say that the room's interior is not visible to anyone not within the room itself. So unless sound is made that can travel outside the room, the room is the limit of any encounter area. I like to use the audible distance table found on one of the published DM screens (I forget which one). It gives an audible distance of 10 to 60 feet for someone trying to be quiet. Because it's a 2d6 roll, it usually comes out to 35 feet, so let's say the DM determines that any quiet noises the human makes have a chance of being heard out to 35 feet. Now how big is the room? Assuming the human is standing in the center of the room, if the room is at least 70 feet in diameter there is no chance of someone in the hall hearing the human, and encounter distance is limited to the room. If the room is small enough to permit sound to travel beyond it's perimeter, however, then encounter distance extends out into the hall. It doesn't seem too complicated to me. Also, whether the human evades the notice of someone in the hall or not doesn't change the distance at which he could possibly be detected. I'm not sure what you mean by "parameters of future encounters". Since I'm the DM, I have a pretty good idea of what sort of things are out there for the PCs to encounter, but I don't have to figure everything out before hand. In particular, when the question of whether a creature can hide or not comes up, I just do what it says in the hiding rules. I determine whether circumstances are appropriate for hiding, namely do the walls provide an obstruction for the purpose of hiding? If I want to account for random factors, such as air currents and humidity, I roll 2d6, which tells me how far sound travels. If not, I might go with a number like 35 feet. Let's say the room is only 20' x 20', and the human is standing in the center of the room. I would have to roll a 2 for the audible distance of the human's quiet noises to only be 10 feet. Otherwise, the walls obstruct vision for the purpose of hiding, and the human is not in full view and can try to hide from passers by.</blockquote>

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