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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mannahnin" data-source="post: 8723127" data-attributes="member: 7026594">And again (like a broken record) D&D is full of hazardous situations.  And the examples of the wall and the room with the assassin or trap are just examples.  Do you get, finally, that I need to know where the PCs are standing to fairly adjudicate traps, and determine who might be affected, among many other things which can happen in the game?If I present you a room, and your character stands in the doorway looking for traps, or for treasure, or for a hidden enemy you think might be in this room, there is a reasonable chance that the PC won't be able to see them from the doorway.  There is a nonzero chance that they will become obvious if he moves some place in the room where he gets a clear view of the sought thing.  If you refuse to tell me where in the room your character moves, I am unable to adjudicate whether a) you find the thing you're looking for without even needing a roll, b) you get another opportunity for an ability check, or c) you trip a hazard of some kind.I already determined what chances there were to see the hazard (we haven't established yet in the example if it's a pit trap under the rug or an assassin totally hidden by an alcove, out of LOS) from the door.  It was not successful.  What does the PC do next?We don't know yet.  I haven't written up the whole encounter area, or thought through what the assassin was prepared to do, like I would have in an actual game.  It is a truism that if a creature is completely out of LOS of another creature, and the second creature moves into a position where the hidden creature is now completely revealed/in LOS of the moving creature, hey, presto, you can see him now!  So I need the player to tell me where his character is moving.  That way I can fairly rule on whether he now has clear LOS or doesn't.This is again needlessly interpolating a hostile attitude.[USER=67338]@GMforPowergamers[/USER] uses Athletics checks for climbing walls.  He's made that clear. He's not exactly strict on the rules in the book.The material point in the example was simply to illustrate that IF there is a hazard present in the scene, the DM needs some explanation from the characters about what elements of the scene their characters are interacting with, so we can tell whether the PCs have to deal with the hazard or just avoid it. And if there is NO hazard in the scene, skipping past players describing actions telegraphs to them that there was no hazard.It's not three card monte.  I'm not cheating the players.  Please stop that.D&D has traps in it.  D&D is a game in which the DM has secret information about those traps, and the players need to make smart decisions to avoid them.  Or we can run them the naughty word way where they just pop up willy-nilly and inflict damage/force saves without PCs getting a chance to spot them or make smart decisions based on gathered information within the scenario to avoid them.Maybe the whole palace garden grounds have that poisonous ivy in various spots.  Maybe the PCs have opportunity to interrogate a gardener and find out about the ivy. Or to read the groundskeeper's notebook in his little office/maintenance building.  Maybe the PCs can use that information to just avoid the ivy-covered walls, or maybe they stumble into them.   <img class="smilie smilie--emoji" alt="🤷‍♂️" src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f937-2642.png" title="Man shrugging    :man_shrugging:" data-shortname=":man_shrugging:" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" /></blockquote>

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