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<blockquote data-quote="Charlaquin" data-source="post: 8712178" data-attributes="member: 6779196">Maybe you missed my earlier post responding to you about the matter, but when you gave the full context, I said I agreed with you, that death absolutely was random and unfair. You really never had an opportunity to make an informed decision, it just… happened, through what might as well have been automated processes.This is not how I run the game, because I consider the feeling of agency so important. If it were me, first of all the trap would have been telegraphed in some way. Something in the description of the environment to tip you off that there might be a trap. This gives you the opportunity to initiate looking for the trap, rather than a roll behind the screen happening automatically. Then, if you did decide to try to look for the trap, assuming you didn’t eliminate any chance or consequences of failure with your action declaration, I’d have told you the DC you needed to find it. Also, failure wouldn’t have meant you had no idea there was a trap there, it just would have meant you hadn’t found the trap in that 10-minute turn. Then you’d have the information to decide to keep looking (taking up another turn, risking the possibility of wandering monsters) or risk going on anyway.These kinds of procedures are essential to how I run the game because I never want a death to feel like there was nothing you could have done to prevent it. It’s paramount to me that the players feel like their decisions are the primary factor in determining what happens, not just random chance.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Charlaquin, post: 8712178, member: 6779196"] Maybe you missed my earlier post responding to you about the matter, but when you gave the full context, I said I agreed with you, that death absolutely was random and unfair. You really never had an opportunity to make an informed decision, it just… happened, through what might as well have been automated processes. This is not how I run the game, because I consider the feeling of agency so important. If it were me, first of all the trap would have been telegraphed in some way. Something in the description of the environment to tip you off that there might be a trap. This gives you the opportunity to initiate looking for the trap, rather than a roll behind the screen happening automatically. Then, if you did decide to try to look for the trap, assuming you didn’t eliminate any chance or consequences of failure with your action declaration, I’d have told you the DC you needed to find it. Also, failure wouldn’t have meant you had no idea there was a trap there, it just would have meant you hadn’t found the trap in [I]that[/I] 10-minute turn. Then you’d have the information to decide to keep looking (taking up another turn, risking the possibility of wandering monsters) or risk going on anyway. These kinds of procedures are essential to how I run the game because I never want a death to feel like there was nothing you could have done to prevent it. It’s paramount to me that the players feel like their decisions are the primary factor in determining what happens, not just random chance. [/QUOTE]

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