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Message: <blockquote data-quote="iserith" data-source="post: 7165586" data-attributes="member: 97077">Some thoughts to consider:First, players don't "do Insight checks." They take actions and those actions must be described per Step 2 of the basic conversation of the game. If part of your concern with your game is that they aren't very imaginative in their descriptions, players calling for rolls (if that's a thing in your game) instead of describing what they want to do naturally contributes to the issue. An ability check is not an action. A check is a mechanic the DM may or may not call for after a player has described what he or she wants to do. "I do an Insight check" doesn't tell you anything about what the character is actually doing.Second, what about the ally approaching them for help was out of the ordinary from the perspective of the PCs such that you'd think the characters would be suspicious of the NPC's truthfulness? If you telegraphed nothing out of the ordinary (outside of this ally from town turning up the wilderness), then it's normal for the players to just go along with that. If your description was somehow "off" though or otherwise inconsistent with what they normally expect, then you might see a player say something like, "I'm suspicious. I'm examining NPC's body language and mannerisms here to see if something is amiss." At that point you could ask for a Wisdom (Insight) check if you're not sure whether the character would detect something is not quite right about this NPC. A success might mean you reveal the NPC isn't exactly who he seems to be. A failure might mean that the character is unable to notice anything about the NPC's behavior to verify or allay his or her suspicions.That said, you may telegraph something being "off" about this NPC during the initial setup to the scene and the players don't pick up on it or don't care and go along with the NPC anyway only to be ambushed later. But at least they can look back and say "You know what - it did seem strange that..." followed by whatever oddity you described and kick themselves for not examining the situation further. This way, the players view the ambush as fair and trust in the DM is maintained. It also reminds them how important it is to pay attention and act on what the DM describes rather than trying to go to the mechanics every time an NPC opens its gob because the DM's description is lacking.Finally, doing everything as I mention above means you don't have to mess about with "secret rolls" before the game or whatever. You can be completely transparent and still get good, fair results. All combined, you should start to see more description out of your players (which seems to be what you want) and it will be easier for you to adjudicate, too.</blockquote>

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