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<blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 7514210" data-attributes="member: 7006">Whether or not the party finds these things via PP all comes down to what the DCs are.&nbsp; If the old school dungeon is asking for people to declare and find stuff, I would presume the DCs were high enough that no one in the party was going to have a PP (or in my particular way of running it, PI) high enough to detect them.&nbsp; Which means things go right to where the game normally runs, which is the group declares what they are trying to do and if those action could be potentially successful you have them roll checks just like normal.At the end of the day, all my methods do is make it such that creatures or object which had rolled horrible rolls to hide are going to be noticed regardless of what anyone in the party was doing.&nbsp; Even if a PC was rear-guard of a marching order and reading a book at the time... the orc band who rolled a collective '3' on their stealth check could be noticed by that party member.&nbsp; A group of orcs that bad at hiding deserves to get noticed even by the most distracted individuals.If as a group you can't roll a group stealth check that beats a 5 + WIS + proficiency Passive Perception check, you don't deserve to force some PCs to skip the first round due to surprise.&nbsp; <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink&nbsp; &nbsp; ;)"&nbsp; data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />But let's also be honest here... more often than not, the PCs that *are* &quot;distracted&quot; are going to be failing Passive checks anyway.&nbsp; Because most of the time the monsters who would attack from hiding actually have some skill in it, and their checks will be such that they will beat &quot;distracted&quot; PPs more often than not.&nbsp; So &quot;distracted&quot; party members will usually fail to notice threats because a 5 + WIS + potential proficiency kinda sucks for most PCs.&nbsp; And for those PCs to notice or search for anything, they will have to declare that they are stopping doing whatever it is that is &quot;distracting&quot; them, and roll a regular Perception or Investigation check like normal.My way just avoids me having to waste a few seconds in the moment to decide on every hidden thing &quot;Is this a situation where Passive applies or not?&quot;&nbsp; Forget that.&nbsp; I just always assume Passive awareness is going on for every PC... check the DC of the hidden thing against their passive numbers (subtracting 5 when applicable to the &quot;distracted&quot; ones)... and if the DC was higher, then I just keep quiet and wait for them to make the active choice to scout around looking for stuff.&nbsp; But if someone's Passive *was* high enough, then I tell them &quot;You see and hear the bushes up ahead rustling&quot; and then they can decide what they want to do.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="DEFCON 1, post: 7514210, member: 7006"] Whether or not the party finds these things via PP all comes down to what the DCs are. If the old school dungeon is asking for people to declare and find stuff, I would presume the DCs were high enough that no one in the party was going to have a PP (or in my particular way of running it, PI) high enough to detect them. Which means things go right to where the game normally runs, which is the group declares what they are trying to do and if those action could be potentially successful you have them roll checks just like normal. At the end of the day, all my methods do is make it such that creatures or object which had rolled horrible rolls to hide are going to be noticed regardless of what anyone in the party was doing. Even if a PC was rear-guard of a marching order and reading a book at the time... the orc band who rolled a collective '3' on their stealth check could be noticed by that party member. A group of orcs that bad at hiding deserves to get noticed even by the most distracted individuals. If as a group you can't roll a group stealth check that beats a 5 + WIS + proficiency Passive Perception check, you don't deserve to force some PCs to skip the first round due to surprise. ;) But let's also be honest here... more often than not, the PCs that *are* "distracted" are going to be failing Passive checks anyway. Because most of the time the monsters who would attack from hiding actually have some skill in it, and their checks will be such that they [B]will[/B] beat "distracted" PPs more often than not. So "distracted" party members will usually fail to notice threats because a 5 + WIS + potential proficiency kinda sucks for most PCs. And for those PCs to notice or search for anything, they will have to declare that they are stopping doing whatever it is that is "distracting" them, and roll a regular Perception or Investigation check like normal. My way just avoids me having to waste a few seconds in the moment to decide on every hidden thing "Is this a situation where Passive applies or not?" Forget that. I just always assume Passive awareness is going on for every PC... check the DC of the hidden thing against their passive numbers (subtracting 5 when applicable to the "distracted" ones)... and if the DC was higher, then I just keep quiet and wait for them to make the active choice to scout around looking for stuff. But if someone's Passive *was* high enough, then I tell them "You see and hear the bushes up ahead rustling" and then they can decide what they want to do. [/QUOTE]

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