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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 6500600" data-attributes="member: 7006">As with everything, using Passives is just a tool.  And as the DM, you decide if the tool is useful to you (in which case you use it), but if it isn't, you don't (and your particular game doesn't suffer because of it.)Some tables enjoy rolling (for example) every 10 feet to search for traps and/or secret doors.  There's player agency in that.  Other tables find that takes too long, so the idea of using Passives speeds things up.  Some tables like using Perception for all of these rolls.  Others prefer a more equitable split between Perception and Investigation, so they institute different rules or decision points on when one is used versus the other.  Some tables are okay with just assigning standard DCs to find secret doors or traps, and if they all are higher than a party's highest Passive, so be it.  Others prefer more randomization, so the DM might roll "design" or "conceal" checks for the trap or door to determine how well or poor the trap/door was built and/or concealed at the time it was made, to create more random DCs to be noticed with PP.The rules are broad and flexible enough that every table can determine for themselves how wide open or narrow they want their rules for these things to be... and they hammer the rules into the shape they ultimate are happy with.</blockquote>