I’m relatively sure you’ve read blog posts and watched YouTube videos on Passive Perception, Passive Investigation, and Passive Insight. If so, thank you for giving one more article on it a try.
I don’t like the way the DMG handles passive skill checks. And I don’t like many of the other homebrew takes on it, either. Me? I prefer to think about those six checks–3 passive and 3 non-passive–as passive vs. “active” and what the terms passive and active might mean and why you would need BOTH scores.
I know. I know. You’re probably thinking, “But the DMG mentions being able to see that secret door (or whatever their example is) ‘in passing’.” Unless a secret door ISN’T secret, I don’t believe it should be discovered/seen ‘in passing’.
BUT I do believe that it can be sensed in passing. Maybe there’s a little airflow felt coming from a wall that looks solid. Maybe the rocks/stones/tiles/bricks look a slightly different color or differently worn or faded in a patch and your eyes just kinda’ noticed it.
THAT would be “Passive” Perception.
So what then?
Now the player is likely to ask to do an “active” Perception or Investigation check. They get close to that wall, start trying to feel where the breeze is coming through or feeling for a seam that might indicate a door there.
If they succeed on their check and a door actually is there, great!
If they fail or there’s no door there, well, maybe the color difference was a trick of the light, the breeze just from air blowing around a corner, or something.
Some PCs have higher Passive Perception scores than they might regularly roll on active Perception checks. Why would this be unless you were using something like what I’ve just described? Why bother having a regular Perception, Investigation, or Insight roll modifiers at all if the PCs have higher passive scores in one or more of those areas?
And I also like this system because it allows a bit of an in-game way to alert players to things that you might want them to know about but can’t just outright meta in their direction while still maintaining the drama of the dice-rolled skill check.
Give it a try. Think of “Passive” Perception more like a Spidey-sense–Spider-Man, right?–and less like an automatic success. That door is HIDDEN, right? The goblin in the bushes really is doing a great job of hiding, isn’t he? Maybe the PC notices the goblin’s kerchief through the leaves of that bush and thinks, “That could be a flower or that could be something ready to ambush us.” They make their Perception check and realize they can see the outline of a goblin through the leaves, blending in beautifully. But not blending in enough! And the ambush is foiled.
This works for NPCs as well. Just think of all those times in movies when a guard hears a noise and actively investigates. Sometimes they find something. Sometimes they don’t. (And sometimes they get the necks broken or throats slit…but that’s another discussion…)
What are your thoughts on Passive Perception, et al.? Let me know in the comments below!