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<blockquote data-quote="Vyvyan Basterd" data-source="post: 6252618" data-attributes="member: 4892">This got old for me long ago. It's very Gygaxian (or at least falsely attributed to him). This can lead to adversarial situations where the players feel the DM is trying to trick them, i.e. &quot;DM: You never said you looked up!&quot;This can lead to adversarial situations where the DM feels the players are trying to cheat the system, i.e. &quot;Players (after yet another 5-foot step): We search, we look up, is there anything on the floor? Is there anyhting on the celing? We listen! What do we hear? Is the hallway an illusion? I make my save to disbelieve!&quot;I prefer to assume that a party in dangerous situations (which they tend to get themselves into alot) would stay alert. Then I call for a roll in the exact moment they would walk into that pit trap or ambush, etc. Make the check, you spot the danger in the nick of time. Fail the check, you walk right into it. It makes it active for them and reduces the disconnect between DM and player expectations, while limiting the meta-game thinking of rolling as soon as you enter an area.Of course if the party asks to search before proceeding I won't deny them.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Vyvyan Basterd, post: 6252618, member: 4892"] This got old for me long ago. It's very Gygaxian (or at least falsely attributed to him). This can lead to adversarial situations where the players feel the DM is trying to trick them, i.e. "DM: You never said you looked up!" This can lead to adversarial situations where the DM feels the players are trying to cheat the system, i.e. "Players (after yet another 5-foot step): We search, we look up, is there anything on the floor? Is there anyhting on the celing? We listen! What do we hear? Is the hallway an illusion? I make my save to disbelieve!" I prefer to assume that a party in dangerous situations (which they tend to get themselves into alot) would stay alert. Then I call for a roll in the exact moment they would walk into that pit trap or ambush, etc. Make the check, you spot the danger in the nick of time. Fail the check, you walk right into it. It makes it active for them and reduces the disconnect between DM and player expectations, while limiting the meta-game thinking of rolling as soon as you enter an area. Of course if the party asks to search before proceeding I won't deny them. [/QUOTE]

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