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General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Perception, Passive Perception, and Investigation
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<blockquote data-quote="iserith" data-source="post: 8203515" data-attributes="member: 97077"><p>For Observant, I run it as written, but the key thing is that in my games, if you want to be the guy or gal who notices all the threats (monsters, traps), that's the only task you're doing, unless you're a ranger in favored terrain. You can't navigate, draw a map, forage, track, or search for secret doors. I take care to ensure that these activities are valuable in context so that there's a meaningful choice as to what to do. Source maps are worth gold. Navigating keeps the party from getting lost and going off course. Foraging keeps food and water stocked or turns up valuable trade goods. Tracking allows the party to look for trouble (XP!) or avoid it. Secret doors always lead to treasure, short cuts around dangers, or safe places to rest. So yeah, be Observant, whip out that 20+ PP! But know that you probably won't be doing this other stuff. Plus depending on your marching order, you might not be able to notice threats at the front of the party unless you're in the front rank. That means you're likely the meat shield for people behind you.</p><p></p><p>I think a character trying to influence locals to giving up useful information would be fine for a Charisma check and a player establishing the character is working to deduce who to talk to and what the rumors all mean could be a Charisma (Investigation) check, if a check was called for. I find I don't have to go out of my way to design traps and secret doors though because that's firmly in the scope of Dungeons & Dragons anyway.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="iserith, post: 8203515, member: 97077"] For Observant, I run it as written, but the key thing is that in my games, if you want to be the guy or gal who notices all the threats (monsters, traps), that's the only task you're doing, unless you're a ranger in favored terrain. You can't navigate, draw a map, forage, track, or search for secret doors. I take care to ensure that these activities are valuable in context so that there's a meaningful choice as to what to do. Source maps are worth gold. Navigating keeps the party from getting lost and going off course. Foraging keeps food and water stocked or turns up valuable trade goods. Tracking allows the party to look for trouble (XP!) or avoid it. Secret doors always lead to treasure, short cuts around dangers, or safe places to rest. So yeah, be Observant, whip out that 20+ PP! But know that you probably won't be doing this other stuff. Plus depending on your marching order, you might not be able to notice threats at the front of the party unless you're in the front rank. That means you're likely the meat shield for people behind you. I think a character trying to influence locals to giving up useful information would be fine for a Charisma check and a player establishing the character is working to deduce who to talk to and what the rumors all mean could be a Charisma (Investigation) check, if a check was called for. I find I don't have to go out of my way to design traps and secret doors though because that's firmly in the scope of Dungeons & Dragons anyway. [/QUOTE]
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