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<blockquote data-quote="soviet" data-source="post: 9007864" data-attributes="member: 6925338">No, there is a value to traps in a certain kind of play. I agree that 'I roll to detect traps' is empty, mechanistic play. But when I want to run this sort of game (so, like, not Other Worlds or something) I don't revert to a roll like that. Instead I will ask the player what they do - how do you open the chest, go through the door, etc. If they 'guess' correctly, bully for them, they find the trap or secret door automatically. If they don't use proper caution or look in the right place then I will use detect traps or an equivalent reflex check to 'save' against it in the nick of time. This can be an effective technique for building suspense and improving immersion/verisimilitude. There is certainly a tension here between 'this is a colourful bit of exploration that improves my game' and 'I have just conditioned my players to closely examine every object in the world for fear of a gotcha'. So I don't generally make my traps too complex or well hidden, and I am pretty liberal in terms of what counts as accurate searching (so no pixel bitching about 'you should have turned it counter-clockwise', and so on), and just as importantly I am clear in my signposting about when such caution might be appropriate and when it might not ('yeah you open it fine, there don't seem to be any traps or anything'). I might give false positives sometimes (asking about approach when it's not relevant) but never any false negatives (traps completely out of nowhere).</blockquote>

[QUOTE="soviet, post: 9007864, member: 6925338"] No, there is a value to traps in a certain kind of play. I agree that 'I roll to detect traps' is empty, mechanistic play. But when I want to run [B]this sort of game[/B] (so, like, not Other Worlds or something) I don't revert to a roll like that. Instead I will ask the player what they [B]do[/B] - how do you open the chest, go through the door, etc. If they 'guess' correctly, bully for them, they find the trap or secret door automatically. If they don't use proper caution or look in the right place then I will use detect traps or an equivalent reflex check to 'save' against it in the nick of time. This can be an effective technique for building suspense and improving immersion/verisimilitude. There is certainly a tension here between 'this is a colourful bit of exploration that improves my game' and 'I have just conditioned my players to closely examine every object in the world for fear of a gotcha'. So I don't generally make my traps too complex or well hidden, and I am pretty liberal in terms of what counts as accurate searching (so no pixel bitching about 'you should have turned it [I]counter[/I]-clockwise', and so on), and just as importantly I am clear in my signposting about when such caution might be appropriate and when it might not ('yeah you open it fine, there don't seem to be any traps or anything'). I might give false positives sometimes (asking about approach when it's not relevant) but never any false negatives (traps completely out of nowhere). [/QUOTE]

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