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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 5398248" data-attributes="member: 82106">Yup, you and PBartender have it exactly! Stumbling around in the dungeon where there might potentially be traps (and where might there NOT potentially be traps) really isn't building up tension. The possibility always exists in any unexplored environment already, plus it isn't really very dramatic when the tension level is always at 100%. Pretty soon the players just start making active checks every 5' and the 'tension' dissolves into tedium.Passive Perception should work just like active Perception. The whole reason it exists with reference to traps and such is so that the players need not waste table time constantly rolling checks. Instead they can assume the characters are being reasonably cautious and get on with it. You should describe things the same way when a passive check succeeds as you do when an active one succeeds. Exactly what the characters sense is up to the DM but in either case I favor simple description of the condition that comes to their notice, disturbed dust, etc.The real tension and the real utility of traps in general is when the trap has been detected. THEN you have tension. Generally speaking the 4e trap design philosophy isn't focused on hidden gotcha type traps that spring up in the middle of nowhere. The real utility for traps is as part of the story, part of the atmosphere, and as encounter elements. A random hidden pit trap in the middle of a hallway sounds great in theory but it isn't really all that exciting in practice. The trap goes off, the victim takes damage, the rest of the party extricates them from the trap, they get some healing, they go on. Even if said trap is more intricate and constitutes an ongoing problem (like a stress trap) it is better off placed in a specific location and it is almost always more interesting if the trap springs AFTER the players know it is there and can make some checks or take precautions.In terms of other ordinary uses of Perception like listening at a door the tension already exists. Hearing the enemy on the other side can heighten it. I don't see how the possibility of rolling below your passive number changes anything there. Passive is just a shortcut to avoid stupid numbers of active checks. If the PCs are actively checking then they should roll and they will suffer the possibility of a low roll and the advantage of a high roll. A PC rolling low might just have been unlucky and the monsters happened to be making less noise than usual for that few seconds, or vice versa with a high roll. The luck of the dice is just a part of the game, and an added source of tension at that.</blockquote>

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