# Play the game boldly!

Every other answer seems like it's from one DM to another, so here's this from a player's perspective:

> **Player:** I go about five feet down the hall, and I check for traps.

> **DM:** Roll Perception, please.

> **Player:** Is 15 high enough?  

> **DM:** That's adding your key stat, training, and a bonus for the circumstance because I know you're moving slowly, right?  

> **Player:** [*Beat.*] Right.  

> **DM:** You see nothing, I mean, it appears to be a dusty tiled hall.

> **Player:** Okay, I another five feet forward and check for traps.

> **Other Players:** [*In unison.*] O, come on!

*Yawn.*

Another answer suggested not hiding traps, which is one way to do it, I guess, Maybe. But that is *still* boring and approaches things wrong.
 
Think about marching order. DMs ask players to have a marching order because DMs like to roll for surprise.

> **DM:** Marching order, please

> **Players:** We'll put the fighter and barbarian in front, the wizard and cleric in the middle, and the rogue out back about twenty feet behind so he can flank. Tell us when the encounter starts, okay?
 
But even *that* is boring, right? Handling traps like wilderness encounters would be a start. Just *invert* the standard marching order. Instead of the DM rolling Perception for the fighter, the DM's rolling it for the rogue.

Here's something even better. Rather than making the traps deadlier, more interesting, or requiring *even more* talking, try this:

> **DM:** Okay, team, after you crush that bugbear, the darkness yawns in yonder doorway.

> **Player:** I charge through it. I don't even care if anyone follows.

> **DM:** Okay, so you're running fast, and [*pauses to roll*] it looks like you've tripped a trap. [*Rolls again.*] Bam! The bear trap closes on your leg. Take 7 damage. How would the rest of you like to proceed?

> **Other Players:** Well, we will quietly walk down the hall, hoping our slow movement allows us to spot traps. Yeah, and if this guy can get himself out of that bear trap, that's swell.

> **DM:** So the rogue is in front? Sorry. Force of habit, guys!

> **Other Players:** Um. Yeah.

> **DM:** Okay. [*Rolls dice.*] So, just as you move through the torchlight to a corner you spot a small silver knob at shoulder height.

> **Player:** Hey, guys, just pull on it! Okay? *Please?*

That impetuous player is trying to tell the DM that things are boring! I am telling you that you would *never* read *that* book. So don't make four other people *live* it.

It just comes down to how you play the game. I did a whole 300-page Paizo adventure path in *D&D 3.5e* with a player who always led, and checked for traps please every five feet. My impetuous character was reduced to cartographer.

Talk through how a situation will be handled. Repeat what the characters decided to do, add a description of the consequences, and move the story forward. Don't get bogged down by traps everywhere.