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<blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 7004310" data-attributes="member: 29398">Uncertainty, where certainty is not realistic, is good.For things like trap finding/disarming, secret door searches, and nearly all social interactions uncertainty is very much in play.&nbsp; All a DM has to do is ease off on absolutes &quot;You disarm the trap&quot; and add in qualifiers much more often &quot;You think you disarm the trap&quot;.&nbsp; For secret door searches and such-like I always roll in secret as they've no way of knowing whether there's anything there to find at all.&nbsp; I'm not sure there needs to be anything more to it, but on any failed roll a DM should be able at her discretion to give false information e.g. telling someone they find a trap when the roll is '2' and there's in fact no trap there at all...or is there?As far as things like this causing players to distrust the DM - WTF?&nbsp; It's the DM's job, in part, to keep the players guessing; and if that's enough to cause distrust I can't help you there.&nbsp; And as players we have to accept the very realistic fact that every now and then we/our characters are going to mess up big time no matter how careful we are and that the consequences are gonna hurt...or kill.Lan-&quot;certainty, like so many other things, is on a non-binary sliding scale&quot;-efan</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Lanefan, post: 7004310, member: 29398"] Uncertainty, where certainty is not realistic, is good. For things like trap finding/disarming, secret door searches, and nearly all social interactions uncertainty is very much in play. All a DM has to do is ease off on absolutes "You disarm the trap" and add in qualifiers much more often "You think you disarm the trap". For secret door searches and such-like I always roll in secret as they've no way of knowing whether there's anything there to find at all. I'm not sure there needs to be anything more to it, but on any failed roll a DM should be able at her discretion to give false information e.g. telling someone they find a trap when the roll is '2' and there's in fact no trap there at all...or is there? As far as things like this causing players to distrust the DM - WTF? It's the DM's job, in part, to keep the players guessing; and if that's enough to cause distrust I can't help you there. And as players we have to accept the very realistic fact that every now and then we/our characters are going to mess up big time no matter how careful we are and that the consequences are gonna hurt...or kill. Lan-"certainty, like so many other things, is on a non-binary sliding scale"-efan [/QUOTE]

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