*I posted this in another thread, but thought it might deserve its own.*
I was under the impression that the activity you do during Exploration Mode is used to determine your initiative at the start of a battle. Specifically, the roll you make to determine how good you are at that activity is also your initiative roll. That's how my group has been doing it and it works fantastically well - combat starts so organically - but it appears we may be playing it wrong.
Under Avoid Notice it says to make a separate Stealth roll at the beginning of combat to use as your initiative. Why? That character has already rolled a Stealth check. Why are they rolling another one? Am I fundamentally misunderstanding something? How do you play it?
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IMHO, if you have just rolled stealth, then you should keep that number for initiative. If you rolled it some time ago, say 10 minutes or more, then it doesn't seem unreasonable to call for a new roll.
Personally my group doesn't roll for "Exploration Stealth" until there is an enemy to hide from and then it's also for init. Unless the whole party is using stealth (usually with Follow the Expert) and wants to avoid the enemy entirely (and the enemy doesn't notice the party).
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ClanPsi,
Yes, I think you have been doing it correct. It is very uncomplicated, and does work well.
I think in some cases, there would be some groups that were using Avoid Notice, but didn't roll immediately, in which case you would need the Stealth roll, or as Wheldrake mentioned perhaps it was quite a while since it was last done.
But, honestly, I think they way you are approaching captures the idea, and there is no need to complicate it.
Cheers!
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Personally my group doesn't roll for "Exploration Stealth" until there is an enemy to hide from and then it's also for init. Unless the whole party is using stealth (usually with Follow the Expert) and wants to avoid the enemy entirely (and the enemy doesn't notice the party).
I've been taking a slightly different approach: let players roll the relevant check when they initiate their exploration tactics, then let that check ride until it actually matters. This stops your players from making useless perception checks on every door to check if it is trapped, for example. They just roll once, and you use that roll the next time there is a trap, secret door, or other hidden thing. If a combat begins, you can use that roll for initiative.
It also works for avoiding notice-- just carry the stealth roll over until there is something that would potentially see them and then compare the roll to the relevant perception DC.