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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Stalker0" data-source="post: 5397634" data-attributes="member: 5889">I've seen passive skills used a number of ways.In general, I go with one of two models: A lot of passive or little passive.If I'm going a lot of passive, then pretty much perception becomes a passive skill in its entirety.Player: I listen at the door, passive perception is 30.DM: Alright you find X.Players: Alright we go into the roomDM: Checks his sheet of passive perception numbers: Alright you all find X.Otherwise, I just ignore passive perception entirely and have people roll all the time.If I'm using passive perception for traps, then what I do is keep the passive perception and roll and active hide check for the trap. This is a one time roll representing the difficulty in finding the trap and prevents the binary issue.I will note however, that there are mechanical repercussions to use a passive system vs an active one. For example, sense motive checks.Bluff vs Sense Motive is actually entirely in the favor of the SM people in most Dnd settings. The reason is I'm rolling one man's bluff against several people's sense motive....and only 1 sense motive check has to succeed to see through the bluff.Now with a passive system, I am only really rolling against the highest SM in the party. With an active system, I am rolling against every person, because if anyone rolls high it could become the skill I have to beat. That makes the check actually a lot harder.</blockquote>