I Search for X....

I was writing through the search rules of 7dRPG the other day, and wondered about the role of searching in role playing games. Now searching is such a common activity, I think it's second only to combat, that is deserves a little attention and thought. First off, what does searching do?

It Slows Up the Game
Haha, yes, I am being sarcastic here. Searching, and the declaration of search takes up a huge amount of time in roleplaying games. This covers the 'golden oldies' of searching, such as:

• "I search the hall ahead for traps."
• "I search the treasure for traps."
• "I search the door for traps."
• "I search the room for traps."
• "We search the monsters for treasure."
• "We search the room for treasure."
• "I look ahead for ambushers."
• "I search the [object] for [thing]."

These are all such common searches that they have almost become punctuation-like in their application in roleplaying games. They are essentially, gotchas, inviting the referee to surprise the party whenever the party doesn't search for something ahead of time. Thus, the party gets burned, and they start ad-nausea searching everything in their path, every 10' square of hallway, every door and lock, every tapestry and dungeon furnishing, and especially anything a referee mentions in a description.

Take a 20
Two rules were specifically developed in d20 games with this obsessive compulsive disorder in mind, the banal 'take a 20' rule, and 4th Ed's 'passive search' rule. First rule first. 'Take a 20' says 'I take so long at this that I roll every possible result, including a 20' - yes, that says what it means, I sit here rolling again and again until I do it. The Ta20 rule is fundamentally flawed in the following ways:

• It assumes you allow repeated rolls for a task
• It eliminates the possibility of critical failure and triggering the trap (I know this has been ruled out of Ta20, but in reality, it's application is scant)
• It encourages mathematical play instead of creative play
• It ruins pacing

I like the possibility of one-check binary failure at tasks, you make your skill roll, you fail at picking the lock, and now you must find another way around. Rolling until you do it is munchkin-ism at heart, and assumes the system you are playing with has no 'repeated attempts' penalty. Ta20 is now a reflexive reaction to a skill roll where time is not a factor, and it slows down the pacing of a game. In situations where repeated rolls are allowed, I like subsequent attempt penalties, since they simulate the looming specter of failure, and puts a premium on raising your skills in the first place. The points you put into skills should matter, and allowing infinite repeats devalues that.

Binary failure is important! That d20 roll is 'your chance at making it' in the universe, and the roll you make is 'your one shot' - it is that way in combat. Roll bad, and fate does not smile upon you, and you miss the blow, fail the task, and blow it. It's this way in games like Arkham Horror, if your investigator fails a skill check called for on a card, it fails, and you take the negative result and move on. If the skill check is to get past a door that you must absolutely get through, well, either the referee must wing it, the adventure was poorly designed, or the party needs to think of another course of action.

Passive Search
Back to search. D&D4's 'passive search' comes in play now, basically, this is an 'always on' rule that assumes characters are walking along an always 'taking a 10' at every moment of their existence. Any search task with a DC below a character's passive search rating is auto-found without a roll. This eliminates the need for always rolling search rolls every step of the way, and in d20's search paranoid world, is a huge improvement and time saver. The origins of this rule are the same as Ta20, because it assumes characters are forever alert and in a Ta10 state.

Why do we assume the natural state of things is an 'average roll' of 10? Can I assume this in combat? Again, humans love to put order on chaos, and assuming an average roll as the natural state attempts to put some order on the nasty flat-distribution of the d20 die. There always has to be that wild chance of failure, that chance to roll a "1" and totally miss the obvious, and the elimination of the mathematical statistical ruination of the game.

This is not a statistics course, this is a RPG, and your scores and skills matter the 'moment they are called upon.' If your Dwarf in that moment of need rolls a "4" and blows it, he blows it, let's handle the negative consequences and move on. Besides, there is no such thing as an "average roll" with a sample size of one on a flat distribution. Ta10 on a single event, like a search roll of spotting something, is a statistical fallacy, since there would be no average roll on that single event.

Back to Rolling Everything Again?
Without Ta20 and passive search, where are we? Obviously, back to rolling everything again. Yes, searching uncovers huge design flaws in roleplaying games, and especially in classic 'dungeon crawl' fantasy. But I can say paranoid searching in dungeon crawls is part of the fun, and in earlier D&D games, there was no search skill - if you as the player were smart enough to say what you were looking for and where, you found it. The thief's "find traps" skill was always a bit of a genre-break for old-school games anyways, since realistically, everyone searched using the verbal method.

The answer I feel is to eliminate the need for endless searches in these games, and make searching one of those 'special events' again. With a search skill, you will need to aggregate things a lot, one roll to search a room or group of monsters for loot, and then say what you found based on success. One roll on an entire hallway for the party's scout to see if traps or ambushes are found. One roll to check out a room to check for hidden items, secret doors, or other concealed loot. Do not roll for the obvious, and only require a roll for the special. If it has a chance of forking the plot, revealing a danger, or giving out a reward - roll.

While you're at it, support the old-school 'investigative play' method whenever you can. If a character pulls the drawer out, and the player is smart enough to have the character check the bottom of the drawer for an envelope taped to it - give it to them without a roll! That experimentation and creative play should be encouraged, and the dice left on the table to be used for the important stuff.

Lots of game design goodness today, and a whole lot of thoughts to put in the game when the search rules are written out. You will see these come up in the game when we put out the beta, so you shall see these subjects again. In a way, these thoughts apply to many of the skill rolls in the game, so this is quite an important discussion, and gives the game a unique flavor (based on design). Hopefully, this makes you think about when you (as a a referee) call for a search roll, and supporting creative play.