"Standard Thief S***"

[Zaruthustran]

SOPs are terrific time-savers, by both obviating the need to repeat actions and by eliminating arguments. There's no "Wait, wait, that wouldn't happen--as a high level rogue, of *course* I'd be searching for traps".

Whether I play or DM, I work with the other players to write down SOPs for:

1. Marching order (urban / open areas / constrained areas)
2. Doors (searching / listening / opening / entering)
3. Camping (picking an area / campfires / cooking / watches / locations of supplies, bedrolls, animals, and latrine)
4. Spell preparation (default spell lists / times of spell prep / location of spellbooks & components)
5. Inns (all in one room or everyone in individual rooms? / watches / meals)
6. Shopping (does everyone go as as group, or do PCs split up to take care of individual transactions?)

The SOPs are assumed to be in affect unless the players say otherwise. By writing them down, everyone is clear on what is and isn't an SOP.

Listing SOPs forces the players to invest themselves in the world, think about how their characters behave out of combat, and allows the DM to narrate interesting encounters. For example, if the SOP is to eat local food at inns, the DM can just say "Make a Fort save". Without the SOP, he'll have to either say "the barmaid offers you a flagon of ale--do you drink?" or listen to players complain that "of *course* my character wouldn't drink ale in an alehouse!"

Big fan of SOPs.

-z

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

I agree, most of them were (except for that spears-in-the-sunlight trap, which I'd love to have an explanation for! ) That one was a good "example" of a spot check or search check in motion!

That was just a player messing with an NPC. There really wasnt any danger until the DM decided to incorporate it later.

 

[GreatLemur]

You get your chance to disable device after they are set in motion, which IS exciting.

That is an extremely good point.

 

[Michael Silverbane]

IMC, I houserule the Trapfinding ability to work like the elf's secret door finding ability...

A Rogue who merely passes within 5 feet of a trap is entitled to a Search check to notice it as if he were actively looking for it.

And I allow any class to find traps with any Search DC...

That masically means that only parties without a rogue, or parties that are extremely paranoid of traps, have to spend much time doing the "creep, search, creep, search" routine.

Later
silver

 

[Remathilis]

We've never really payed attention to time/dimension area unless the area is impossibly large or time is very short. For example, A rogue would only need to make one search check to find the pit trap 40' down the hall. Its just assumed he didn't find anything on the "phantom" rolls that came before it. After he handles that trap, he rolls again for searching until he comes to a new situation (like a door) or another trap.

(The idea came from Neverwinter Nights, where searching is an on/off element that finds things in view or it doesn't).

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

I elf the room!

 

[I'm A Banana]

"Okay, what's your Standard Thief S**** bonus?"

Though the advice from Mr. Ryan to jazz up the routine a little bit by giving him challenges that can't be found through standard thief stuff is a very good one.

 

[Imp]

I'm pro-SOP, but mostly, I try not to have dungeon crawls all the time. I like dungeon jogs better. Seriously, a place is not going to have a lot of denizens and a lot of traps unless they're designed to work in concert, and if they are, it's usually the monster that springs the trap when the time is right.

The old-school D&Dism where there can be a poisoned-stake pit trap in any ol' hallway, slowly dinging the adventurers unless they move even more slowly? Phooey.

I mean, you can use that to a point - pit the adventurers' need to find the traps that keep dinging them against a need for speed - but as a standard thing, it's not any fun.

 

[Graf]

I think this is good and really the only interesting way to play.

I allowed people to do it as the DM (i.e. they had to establish a proceedure and we would periodically confirm it) but it's really a good way to play.

Spending a bit of time developing tension is reasonably good, but they're a point when the players -shouldn't- have to constantly repeat repetitive actions.

Are the people who are irritated by it prefer if they spent hours saying "OK. I'm going to take another 10 foot step forward and search again"?

How is that fun? Did you really plan out a whole game session around walking through a corridor and looking for traps?
Maybe that's not what the players signed up for.

 

[Hussar]

In my World's Largest Dungeon game, SOP's rule. The rogue was frequently fired off down the room for long periods of time doing his rogue ****. The player told me that he was taking 20 for listen and searches at the door and taking 10 down the hall. Worked for me and made things MUCH faster.

With some 1500 or so rooms in the WLD, anything that sped up the crawl (and I do mean CRAWL sometimes) is a good thing.