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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jgsugden" data-source="post: 7329576" data-attributes="member: 2629">The simplest way to explain and utilize active and passive perception: Passive perception is always on and requires no actions.  If you'd apply disadvantage (perhaps because they're asleep or distracted), it has a 5 penalty.  If they'd have advantage (because they're suspicious, perhaps), it will be at a +5 bonus.  Advantage and disadvantage are generally added at the discretion of the DM for these passive uses.  Those +5/-5 are directly from the PHB, btw.If they wish to elect to use an action to look around, it is active perception, but they effectively have their passive perception as a floor on this check because passive is always 'on'. As a result, the 'range' on active perception is really only 11 values wide (effectively (10 + perception) to (20 + perception)) with 50% of the time it being the floor value. One approach to consider: The PCs are the heroes of the story.  They're supposed to detect dangers and counter them most of the time.  Failing to detect an enemy should be a rarity, not the norm, if you want them to feel like heroes rather than zeroes.</blockquote>