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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ariosto" data-source="post: 5415057" data-attributes="member: 80487">Well, the fact is that we were finding traps (and reading and climbing and sneaking and hiding) without the Thief class -- just as our characters were not falling off their horses for want of the Cavalier! It was not something that "required significant adjustment" for us.The fact is also that there were:1) Dwarves that "note slanting passages, ☆Traps☆, shifting walls and new construction in underground settings"2) Cleric spell of ☆☆☆Find Traps☆☆☆3) Sword Primary Power of ☆Trap☆ Detection4) Wand of Secret Doors and  ☆Traps☆ DetectionThere were plenty of other spells and magic items that could also be useful, but they did not have a specific "Traps" reference. Neither, of course, did a 10' pole, 50' of rope, a large sack, a quart of wine and a Hobbit.This attitude of needing a special rule for everything is in my view ruining the game by reducing "everything" to umpteen rules for shifting a piece one space on a square-gridded board. We already had that kind of thing up to our ears before D&D came along!A general rule is not "no rule". A fundamental, common sense general rule is that our imaginary people in their imaginary world can do the same things that real people can do in the real world. We don't need a line in a book to specify that they can LOOK at things and thereby SEE them -- much less a rule for each specific case (Look in Box, Look at Rocks, Look at Bagel and Lox ...).D&D by its nature is not conveyable in a text of comprehensive prescription. We cannot play it without the ability to extrapolate from exemplary description and carry on with our own imaginative and rational faculties. Anything less is something else.If you want something else, then you want something else -- but so do people who dis D&D because they prefer Old Maid or Scrabble. Trying to make everyone's favorite dishes at once in the same pot just ends up producing a mess that nobody finds palatable. An actual buffet of different dishes -- or different games -- lets people choose what they like.</blockquote>

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