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Passive vs Active Perception...
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<blockquote data-quote="iserith" data-source="post: 7329587" data-attributes="member: 97077"><p>I think it's a little misleading, thanks in part to "passive" in "passive check" being thought to mean the characters are necessarily acting in a passive manner when that isn't the case. By referring to an ability check as an "active check," it reinforces this misconception in my view. As well, I try to be very precise in my language when discussing the rules and "active perception" isn't a thing.</p><p></p><p>It also gets tangled up in the idea that players are asking to make checks instead of, or in addition to, describing what they want to do. This blurs the line between the DM and player roles as I see it. I might take an action in combat to do the Search action and have an expectation of rolling since an enemy is hiding. Outside of combat, it's not an action and there's no particular expectation. My character might be Keeping Watch in which case my passive Perception applies when the DM determines surprise.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="iserith, post: 7329587, member: 97077"] I think it's a little misleading, thanks in part to "passive" in "passive check" being thought to mean the characters are necessarily acting in a passive manner when that isn't the case. By referring to an ability check as an "active check," it reinforces this misconception in my view. As well, I try to be very precise in my language when discussing the rules and "active perception" isn't a thing. It also gets tangled up in the idea that players are asking to make checks instead of, or in addition to, describing what they want to do. This blurs the line between the DM and player roles as I see it. I might take an action in combat to do the Search action and have an expectation of rolling since an enemy is hiding. Outside of combat, it's not an action and there's no particular expectation. My character might be Keeping Watch in which case my passive Perception applies when the DM determines surprise. [/QUOTE]
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