Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Balesir" data-source="post: 5694284" data-attributes="member: 27160">I think this is a key weakness.&nbsp; The alternative I can think of that appeals to me far more is to give bonuses for actual, meaningful choices.&nbsp; In other words, supposing the object of the search is a statue, give the option to focus the search - on the statue's head, say - to get a bonus for hidden things in the area focussed on and a penalty everywhere else.&nbsp; This prevents the &quot;shopping list&quot; approach in an attempt to hit the particular &quot;hot button word&quot; selected by the DM but still rewards engagement with the game world.&nbsp; It also opens scope for two searchers focussing on different parts of the search target, thus giving &quot;second string&quot; searchers a possible role in boosting search capability other than &quot;Aid Another&quot;.It fast becomes a problem, in my experience, because the &quot;exploring with words&quot; fast becomes a rote script of all the imaginable aspects of every common situation or feature, combined with a tedious &quot;20 questions&quot; about every unusual feature.Giving the players meaningful choices to make could be a good thing; allowing them to list all the choices they can think of and letting them take all of them I think is a recipe for tedium.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Balesir, post: 5694284, member: 27160"] I think this is a key weakness. The alternative I can think of that appeals to me far more is to give bonuses for actual, meaningful [I]choices[/I]. In other words, supposing the object of the search is a statue, give the option to [B]focus[/B] the search - on the statue's head, say - to get a bonus for hidden things in the area focussed on and a penalty everywhere else. This prevents the "shopping list" approach in an attempt to hit the particular "hot button word" selected by the DM but still rewards engagement with the game world. It also opens scope for two searchers focussing on different parts of the search target, thus giving "second string" searchers a possible role in boosting search capability other than "Aid Another". It fast becomes a problem, in my experience, because the "exploring with words" fast becomes a rote script of all the imaginable aspects of every common situation or feature, combined with a tedious "20 questions" about every unusual feature. Giving the players meaningful choices to make could be a good thing; allowing them to list all the choices they can think of and letting them take all of them I think is a recipe for tedium. [/QUOTE]

Verification