How exactly do you deal with perception? I am a fairly new Gm and my players seem to walk into every single room and all roll perception 1-2 times EACH, to me this has become quite tedious, I also give them opposing perception checks to stealth creatures and sometimes secret doors, I really just tell them to roll whenever there is something to see, I KNOW I'm doing this wrong hence why I'm here, by RAW you can do unlimited perception checks but that just means they will never fail so what are some of the ways you deal with passive perception, active perception and opposing perception?
Give them one roll per something to perceive. With a new roll if they have reason to look more/harder. So opposed stealth? One check. Unless something tips them off that something is there and to check again just use that one result.
Also taking 10 is something you can do for them if it's a passive/hidden checks.
I find most the time players try this because they know there's something to see if you have them roll perception. So they want to see it. Maybe have them roll perceptions when there's nothing to see. The best part is seeing how paranoid they get when they can't see anything even on a nat 20.
Thirk IV: I walk through the door.
Sir Stimley: I follow with the hostage.
GM: The next room is dank and mildewy with a faint undercurrent of animal waste. Broken wooden rails appear to have once divided the areas along the walls into stalls, but now the wood is scattered into rotted piles. At the far end is another heavy wooden door. Stimley, you notice some bones poking out of one of the wood piles.
Thirk: I check the walls for secret doors.
GM: Are you just looking around carefully for them or poking the walls and such?
Thirk: Both, but I'm poking with my javelin just in case.
GM: You spend a few rounds testing the walls and looking for seams, but you don't find anything. Your captive chuckles to himself.
Stimley: What's so funny?
Captive: Oh, nothing, keep poking around! I'm sure nobody will hear all the noise.
Stimley: Quiet, you! I storm into the next room.
GM: Just as you're about to throw open the door, you hear some muffled metallic "clanking" from the other side.
Stimley: Like a mechanism?
GM: More like mail.
Stimley: @!@#. I stop.
Thirk: That was most un-knightly.
Stimley: Sounds like somebody's readied an ambush.
Thirk: Huh, I didn't hear anything. Well, best not keep them waiting! I draw my battle axe and throw open the door. For Grimjaw's Glory!
Note that it's not an exact science; it isn't clear how often passive checks ought to be made for ongoing stimuli. I generally give them each round unless the stimulus is particularly subtle.
Also, regarding unlimited Perception checks: Yes, eventually they will notice something unless its DC is above their 20-roll. (Remember, there's no auto-fail or auto-success on natural 1 or 20.) That's not a bug. They can even take 20 on the roll if they're willing to spend a full minute looking/listening. Just remember to apply distance and other penalties.
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Taking 20 on perception takes 2 minutes each time they do it.
The easiest way to reduce the time all these perception checks take is to assume all of the character are taking 10 unless they specifically say they are perceiving. That way they walk into the room, you describe what they notice without rolling, and the game moves along.
If that's still causing too many rolls, you could also restrict the players to one roll to detect anything before they automatically start taking 20.
If active searching were a Standard Action, yes, it would take 2 minutes to take 20. Since an active Perception check is only a Move action, you can do it twice per round, for a total of 20 in 10 rounds, or one minute.
Action: Most Perception checks are reactive, made in response to observable stimulus. Intentionally searching for stimulus is a move action.