Best of the Web: Passive Perception, Accents, & 30 Minute Dungeons

Passive Perception Checks
Methods & Madness has added to the ongoing discussions on when to have perception checks for spotting traps or hidden things. The basic problem is that when the GM calls for a perception check everyone knows there is something to be found. Calling for fake checks to hide that fact just fills the game with tedious rolls.

OpenQuest has a Perception skill, I suggest using such a skill as a passive check.

To do a passive check the GM just adds a value of how well hidden any trap/hidden thing and anyone with a perception level higher than that value immediately notices the hidden thing (but not necessarily how to work/open/disarm the thing). If a player states specifically that they are looking at the statue or wall or whatever can roll their perception skill the normal way to determine success, getting a second chance of sorts.

I feel that this encourages the player to dedicates a few improvement rolls to Perception or at the very least to encourages the party to hire someone with outstanding eyesight to come along.

Passive Weight Limit
Shouting Into The Void had an interesting post about using weight limits on bridges in war-games. This made me think about how similar situations in role playing games. A couple of dudes in plate armor could be heavy, and traps and opening secret doors could be based on the weight of who steps upon the trigger.

So how to use this in OpenQuest? GM marks on their map how many ENC it takes to trip a trap or to make a bridge or floor collapse.

I read somewhere (not in OpenQuest but most of the children of RuneQuest are similar enough in mechanics that it doesn't matter) that "each SIZ point is roughly equal to 4 ENC" so if one takes the SIZx4 then add the ENC of what a character is carrying a total ENC can be derived. If that number is near the ENC limit of the trip the trap or make the bridge or floor collapse the characters might hear creaking or some warning sign, if they are above the number....

This not only puts value on the the SIZ characteristic (beyond damage bonus) but it makes ENC more important. Reversing the math also works to determine if a character can squeeze into a tight place. Take the characters total ENC carried divided by 4 and add the result to the characters SIZ. It's inexact but easy and useful and there are few things that unnerve a character like tight places in which they might not be able to defend themselves properly.

Accents
Monsters and Manuals has a very helpful post on British Regional Accents. Long ago I read a book that talked about how to write in the various accents but this post has videos so you can hear them which is far superior as a role playing resource.

30 Minute Dungeons
The Bogeyman's Cave has put together a little self-challenge. This seems like a good way to populate a sandbox rapidly.  Here are the details.

• A Hook 
• General Background 
• 3 Combat Encounters 
• 3 "Empty" Rooms 
• 2 Traps 
• 1 NPC 
• 1 Weird Thing To Experiment With 
• Some Treasure 
• A Magic Item

Maps aren't generally included with this, as it is a writing challenge and not a cartography challenge, but I might go back and make some.

Blog Roll
A trio of RPGG creators from different viewpoints who have joined forces for an occasional podcast called Inappropriate Characters so I'll add them to my blogroll together.

• RPG Pundit - He's hated by many for his politics but his products Lion & Dragon, Dark Albion: The Rose War, and Dark Albion: Cults of Chaos are first rate. As is Arrows of Indra which has me scratching my head and wondering why more folks haven't picked India as a place ripe for adventure. His blog is entertaining if overly concerned with defining what is and isn't the OSR.
• Venger Satanis - Venger likes things on the sleazy side, his name, and a product line titled "like a fucking boss" and it's no surprise that he's got a number of haters. Venger came to my attention with a sourcebook about a Alternate Manhattan based on 80s movies No Escape from New York that I found very entertaining (but which no longer appears for sale on DriveThruRPG. That was good enough to get me to try Revelry in Torth, and Islands of the Purple Haunted-Putrescence, and his entire Like a Boss line. All of which are all very readable and sparked my creativity enough to search out his blog and read it regularly.
• Postmortem Studios  - Of the three I found James ‘Grim’ Desborough first when I was obsessed with zombies and Runequest and ran across his products Bloodquest and Blood. I got the games primarily for weapon and monster stats (I buy most games to pull apart as I suspect most folks do) and searched out his blog soon after. Grim Jim doesn't post as often as the other two, and like the other two he's caught up in strange internet hate for something he supposedly said. Now he's got a Tales of Gor a Role Playing Game based on the Gor books by John Norman (which is daring to say the least). The game is powered by Open D6 which I don't know so I haven't picked it up yet but will at some point.