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Finding someone by scent in a city
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<blockquote data-quote="Guest 6801328" data-source="post: 8098269"><p>I would say that if the dogs are trained to this task, and they have an item, then yes it works. Good solution to a problem. No dice rolls needed. All that's needed is some colorful narration.</p><p></p><p>The only question is if you want to throw some challenges in their path and give them a chance to do some more problem solving. If there's time pressure, then the obstacles (as per [USER=97077]@iserith[/USER]'s suggestion) could mostly be about time delays. If there's no real time pressure, then ask yourself what the purpose/goal of the obstacle and the consequence are. If it's just, "Well, there needs to be <em>some</em> dice rolling" then skip it.</p><p></p><p>What I would avoid are any kinds of checks that don't involve conscious decisions about trade-offs. For example, it might be tempting to have a false scent, and the "handler" has to make a Wisdom:Animal Handling check to notice that the eager dog is now following a trail of bacon grease (or whatever). So let's say the player fails the check, the trail dead-ends at a bacon cart, and the players realize they've made a mistake. Except....they didn't <em>really</em> make a mistake, did they? They didn't face a choice and make a wrong decision. They were just told to make a roll, which they failed.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Guest 6801328, post: 8098269"] I would say that if the dogs are trained to this task, and they have an item, then yes it works. Good solution to a problem. No dice rolls needed. All that's needed is some colorful narration. The only question is if you want to throw some challenges in their path and give them a chance to do some more problem solving. If there's time pressure, then the obstacles (as per [USER=97077]@iserith[/USER]'s suggestion) could mostly be about time delays. If there's no real time pressure, then ask yourself what the purpose/goal of the obstacle and the consequence are. If it's just, "Well, there needs to be [I]some[/I] dice rolling" then skip it. What I would avoid are any kinds of checks that don't involve conscious decisions about trade-offs. For example, it might be tempting to have a false scent, and the "handler" has to make a Wisdom:Animal Handling check to notice that the eager dog is now following a trail of bacon grease (or whatever). So let's say the player fails the check, the trail dead-ends at a bacon cart, and the players realize they've made a mistake. Except....they didn't [I]really[/I] make a mistake, did they? They didn't face a choice and make a wrong decision. They were just told to make a roll, which they failed. [/QUOTE]
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