Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Imaculata" data-source="post: 7161132" data-attributes="member: 6801286">I've played in groups where any player that ventured into a town would immediately yell: &quot;I keep an eye out for pickpockets!&quot;. It is probably a learned behavior after some unpleasant experience with a DM that would allow pickpockets to rob the PC's blind at every opportunity, unless they explicitly made it clear that they were watching out (and even then they would have to make a spot check, which is just silly).I tend to assume the PC's are at least some what competent, and that monsters and pickpockets are not lurking at every turn. I want my players to feel like they won't get screwed over by the DM the moment they let down their guard. This also places less focus on perception skills.In my campaigns, I presume that the players are keeping an eye out for anything suspicious wherever they go, unless they are currently occupied with a distracting action. They don't need to make a roll, unless they try to attempt something that I consider difficult. I'll give the players hints when something is afoot, so that they can respond, rather than some sort of gotcha. If one of the players is keeping watch, I presume he'll be able to hear anything suspicious, and if he has dark vision, he might be able to see it too. No roll is involved, unless the players state they want to know where the suspicious sound is coming from, or if they can tell if its some kind of animal or a human.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Imaculata, post: 7161132, member: 6801286"] I've played in groups where any player that ventured into a town would immediately yell: "I keep an eye out for pickpockets!". It is probably a learned behavior after some unpleasant experience with a DM that would allow pickpockets to rob the PC's blind at every opportunity, unless they explicitly made it clear that they were watching out (and even then they would have to make a spot check, which is just silly). I tend to assume the PC's are at least some what competent, and that monsters and pickpockets are not lurking at every turn. I want my players to feel like they won't get screwed over by the DM the moment they let down their guard. This also places less focus on perception skills. In my campaigns, I presume that the players are keeping an eye out for anything suspicious wherever they go, unless they are currently occupied with a distracting action. They don't need to make a roll, unless they try to attempt something that I consider difficult. I'll give the players hints when something is afoot, so that they can respond, rather than some sort of gotcha. If one of the players is keeping watch, I presume he'll be able to hear anything suspicious, and if he has dark vision, he might be able to see it too. No roll is involved, unless the players state they want to know where the suspicious sound is coming from, or if they can tell if its some kind of animal or a human. [/QUOTE]

Verification