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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Raven Crowking" data-source="post: 5016004" data-attributes="member: 18280">Yeah.  I tried to be clear in the first post, but was perhaps not as successful as I would prefer.Well, in the example as given, there is literally nothing in the sewer but a straight tunnel and some muck.  There are not a lot of decision points to gloss over.In a forest, there are going to be decision points that prevent the same easy level of glossing, but one can still gloss a little:Player:  We head off the trail, going north. DM:  What are you trying to do?  Do you head north for a bit and turn, head north for an hour?  A day? Player:  We'll head north until nightfall, unless something happens first. DM:  Okay.  You head generally north through an area of rolling pine country.  Occasional boulders and small rocky outcrops break from the ground -- some of these are so large that you must find a way around them -- and there is an undergrowth of thick bracken.  The forest seems quiet, but there are a few birds and squirrels about...... Player:  Hold on.  What kind of birds?  What kind of squirrels?  I remember the black squirrels from the 1e Monster Manual 2! DM:  Red squirrels mostly.  This is pine country, remember!  The birds are mostly nondescript....small and brown.  Wrens, maybe, or sparrows.  There are a few more colourful birds.  You see a crow or two, and it sometimes seems as though the crows might be watching you as well. Player:  I don't like these crows.  They may be familiars! DM:  True, but the ranger and barbarian know well how crows sometimes follow folks hoping for carrion. Player:  Okay.  But we'll keep an eye on them. DM (rolls for wandering encounter):  The rest of the march goes uneventfully enough, and a sliver of a moon rises in the sky well before the sun sets.  (The DM rolls for wandering encounters, and discovers a monster lurking nearby -- two dozen orcs!)  There is a smell of wood smoke on the area, and up ahead to your right, maybe 30 yards away, more or less, you can hear voices raised in boisterous song.  From the sounds of them, they're goblins of some kind. etc.Well, to be fair, if there was a secret door down there, and nothing else, I would treat it the same way.  So, there's your consistency.  In both cases, I would roll a couple of dice behind the screen.  With a secret door, to see if they found it, without, to ensure that they weren't completely sure.I would also be very happy to elaborate on anything the players found interesting.  Perhaps by opening the grate at the far end, and securing a rope, the PCs can have a sneaky getaway planned!  It isn't my job to tell them what they find interesting!If the players decided for sure there was a secret door down there, and wanted to look more thoroughly, I would ask "How much time do you want to spend doing that?", make any appropriate checks, and move the game along.If they wanted me to describe the passage foot-by-foot, I would do that.What I would not do is describe the passage foot-by-foot if the players didn't insist upon it.  Any more than I would describe chewing food mastication by mastication at the inn, or force the players to haggle when buying equipment if they are willing to pay the asking price.RC</blockquote>

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