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<blockquote data-quote="maelifisis" data-source="post: 5340562" data-attributes="member: 26170">That is SO true.&nbsp; If you've ever walked through a castle, Mayan temple or other old ruin, you have noticed just how many rooms are left bare.&nbsp; Tour guides have said how the people who restored the place found only rotted wood and other stuff so moldy and fallen apart that they could not always be identified.&nbsp; That is on the occasions they found anything more than a bare room.In an adventure, undefined rooms can be lots of fun.&nbsp; I often tell my players that the room is completely bare, or if I've decided it is full of debris, I'll say something along the lines of: &quot;You come to a room full of unidentifiable mounds of rotted wood and other materials that were, perhaps, furniture at one time.&nbsp; There is no telling what vermin - or treasures - may inhabit that mess.&quot;&nbsp; They love it and nearly always take the bait, doing search rolls and taking 20 when appropriate, as I roll for random treasure and the possibility of random encounters.&nbsp; Sometimes an undefined room can be a highlight to an already awesome adventure.&nbsp;&nbsp; The danger is letting random/unidentified rooms take precedence over the rest of your adventure.&nbsp; And after searching through several rooms, my team usually gets tired of calling the same actions and making the same rolls again and again.&nbsp; A trick we use to speed up the action is to do what we call a Quick Search: After the team has ensured the room has no threats, I use the modifier of the PC on the team with the best Search score, rolling secretly to see if they find anything.&nbsp; Or, if I have already decided the room has nothing of value, I roll a die (or dice for a large room), ignore the result, and tell my players they have found nothing of value.&nbsp; They move on and the game keeps a good pace.&nbsp;&nbsp; Just my two cents.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="maelifisis, post: 5340562, member: 26170"] That is SO true. If you've ever walked through a castle, Mayan temple or other old ruin, you have noticed just how many rooms are left bare. Tour guides have said how the people who restored the place found only rotted wood and other stuff so moldy and fallen apart that they could not always be identified. That is on the occasions they found anything more than a bare room. In an adventure, undefined rooms can be lots of fun. I often tell my players that the room is completely bare, or if I've decided it is full of debris, I'll say something along the lines of: "You come to a room full of unidentifiable mounds of rotted wood and other materials that were, perhaps, furniture at one time. There is no telling what vermin - or treasures - may inhabit that mess." They love it and nearly always take the bait, doing search rolls and taking 20 when appropriate, as I roll for random treasure and the possibility of random encounters. Sometimes an undefined room can be a highlight to an already awesome adventure. The danger is letting random/unidentified rooms take precedence over the rest of your adventure. And after searching through several rooms, my team usually gets tired of calling the same actions and making the same rolls again and again. A trick we use to speed up the action is to do what we call a Quick Search: After the team has ensured the room has no threats, I use the modifier of the PC on the team with the best Search score, rolling secretly to see if they find anything. Or, if I have already decided the room has nothing of value, I roll a die (or dice for a large room), ignore the result, and tell my players they have found nothing of value. They move on and the game keeps a good pace. Just my two cents. [/QUOTE]

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