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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sir Whiskers" data-source="post: 1300145" data-attributes="member: 6941">Generally I encourage players to Take 10 - it dramatically speeds up the game and avoids those absurd situations where a character fails a simple check - like the ranger who can't tie a simple knot in a rope. That begins to look more like Keystone Kops than heroes. I've adopted the house rule that unless the players say otherwise, I assume they (and NPC's) are Taking 10 when doing mundane tasks.This raises the important consideration of when to give the PC's the option to roll checks and when do NPC's roll (vs. Take 10). If everyone always Takes 10, the system becomes static, so sometimes I'll have the NPC roll - the NPC may not win most of the time, but he will enough to add some suspense. If it's just haggling, I won't bother. If the character is trying to steal the merchant's purse, time to roll dice! The character can still Take 10 - and hope the NPC doesn't roll well. Or he can roll, and hope he doesn't roll badly. BTW, the choice of Taking 10 or rolling doesn't actually change the odds significantly: the average roll is 10.5, just 2.5% better than Take 10. Having the character roll just gives the player a sense of greater control. Of course, if Take 10 won't succeed (for instance when trying to pick a lock), then the character has no choice if he wants to succeed.</blockquote>