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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 8690444" data-attributes="member: 82106"><p>Right, and that was of course part of the genesis of the idea of skills. Greyhawk's thief has 'Open Locks' and 'Find/Remove Traps' for exactly the same reason. The GM is very unlikely to possess the skills of a locksmith (or even a picklock) or a trapsmith (as if some such thing even formally exists). So the very notion of a player describing the sequence of actions required to disarm all but the most rudimentary traps (deadfalls and such) is a non-starter. I'd note that in 1e AD&D the description of F/RT is slightly rewritten to make it clear that it only really applies to 'small mechanical and magical devices', so by a strict reading if you want to avoid a deadfall you have to describe it NARRATIVELY even in 1e, though 99.9% of all AD&D GMs didn't notice that (its a bit less clear in Greyhawk, though the best interpretation is still similar). Gary certainly seems to have been pretty hostile to the idea of skills in any case, although the option started to creep in around the time he got the boot.</p></blockquote><p></p>