Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Jeff Wilder" data-source="post: 1802148" data-attributes="member: 5122">I may not have explained myself very well.It's not precisely that I want searching to be a challenge ... it's just that I'd like it to be something that requires a little bit of thought on behalf of the players.Here's another example:Say the PCs find an in-use kitchen in a dungeon complex.&nbsp; After subduing or killing the inhabitants, they want to search the kitchen.&nbsp; Well, it has all the usual dungeon-kitchen amenities ... fireplace, bread oven, chopping block, pots and pans, and so on.As it happens, the head chef keeps a stash of Whatever hidden behind a loose brick inside the fireplace (but within reach from outside).As players seem to expect things to work nowadays, a Search check of DC Foo should find the stash of Whatever.I don't like that.&nbsp; I'd like to encourage the players to specifically seach the fireplace, upon which they get a chance for a Search check to find the whatever.I've tried doing this in games: &quot;Yes, it was hidden in the fireplace in the kitchen.&quot;&nbsp; &quot;But we Took Twenty searching the kitchen!&nbsp; We should have found it!&quot;That's tough to argue with.&nbsp; One tack I've used with some success is pointing out that when they take the time to cleverly hide something -- say in their room at the inn -- then by their logic a thief can find it by Taking Twenty on a search check.&nbsp; That their efforts at finding a clever hiding place are meaningless.Anyway, what I'm wondering is if the rules (other than Rule Zero) support me in my preference, maybe some place I've overlooked.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Jeff Wilder, post: 1802148, member: 5122"] I may not have explained myself very well. It's not precisely that I want searching to be a [i]challenge[/i] ... it's just that I'd like it to be something that requires a little bit of thought on behalf of the players. Here's another example: Say the PCs find an in-use kitchen in a dungeon complex. After subduing or killing the inhabitants, they want to search the kitchen. Well, it has all the usual dungeon-kitchen amenities ... fireplace, bread oven, chopping block, pots and pans, and so on. As it happens, the head chef keeps a stash of Whatever hidden behind a loose brick [i]inside[/i] the fireplace (but within reach from outside). As players seem to expect things to work nowadays, a Search check of DC Foo should find the stash of Whatever. I don't like that. I'd like to encourage the players to specifically seach the fireplace, upon which they get a chance for a Search check to find the whatever. I've tried doing this in games: "Yes, it was hidden in the fireplace in the kitchen." "But we Took Twenty searching the kitchen! We should have found it!" That's tough to argue with. One tack I've used with some success is pointing out that when they take the time to cleverly hide something -- say in their room at the inn -- then by their logic a thief can find it by Taking Twenty on a search check. That their efforts at finding a clever hiding place are meaningless. Anyway, what I'm wondering is if the rules (other than Rule Zero) support me in my preference, maybe some place I've overlooked. [/QUOTE]

Verification