Good squire, hand me my ten foot pole, I've some poking to do.
This is a pet peeve of mine: my character is a professional adventurer in an area known to be dangerous. He's always checking for traps and I shouldn't have to say so over and over. I can accept that in certain scenarios, either he looks for traps or he does something else important like chasing the villain, but he's never going to simply forget all his training and experience just because I forgot to say "I check for traps."
Thats why as a DM, I ask for a Perception roll of the first to enter a room if they dont say anything, so that maybe he spots something to investigate further.
I also accept retconnings of stuff like Stealth if they didnt say it out loud but would obviously be stealthing as a rogue.
Its better that than having people shout the same things over and over like a badly programmed npc
There's never a legitimate reason for a statue to be inside a structure (as opposed to in a public square), unless you're in a temple or shrine to a friendly god and it's their statue.
You assume adventures follow similar logic. For example, when was the last time you encountered latrines, garderobes, or outhouses? Or thought about things like "how come this remote temple on this mountain has no food prep area?"
Nobody ever thinks that a tribe of lizard men, after the party slaughters half the scouting party made of mostly the most healthy of males, won't make the rest evacuate and take valuables with them?
DM that plays. That clearly a trap but lets trigger it and see what happens.
DM tip: the real trap is that the players put themselves in danger by spending too much time searching for traps. (Perhaps a routine patrol overtakes the party due to wasted time; or perhaps there is literally a timed trap or whatever.)
I use my ten foot pole to touch every surface within reach from outside the room.
Send the chickens in!
