Hey fellow D&D players.  I am a dinosaur from the AD&D days that is coming back to the game after 40-ish years away.  I am playing in my first campaign of 5e as a Bard and if I play a second campaign I am looking at the Rogue as my next character.  Because of this and the fact that I am observing everything as a new player, I would appreciate some benefit from your experience as a Rogue player in 5e.

Back in my day, we did mostly dungeon crawls.  These are quite out of favor these days it appears, but my party is in the middle of a classic dungeon crawl.  We have a rogue and he is very happy to play the role of the rogue, but other players are unhappy letting him be the star every time we approach the next door.  If I were the DM, bad things would have happened already but our DM is pretty forgiving of poor tactical play.

So in my day, as we approached coming down the hallway we would toss a bundle of rope on the floor ahead of us and then tap the floor-walls and ceiling with a ten foot pole to trigger any traps ahead of us.  We had to worry about light so we usually cast some sort of light spell or had a few mundane items with light cast on them to help.  Many of us played elves or dwarves with darkvision but if you had any humans you had to think about light.

As we inched up to the door, the thief (we didn't call them rogues back then) would approach the door making a close inspection of the floor and walls to look for signs of a trap and to look for secret doors, trap doors and all that.  Only after he rolled for success on that did he inspect the door itself.  We noted the material, the hinges, the 'mechanism' any markings on the door, did the door open in or out and everything.  We often set a lookout back a little on the corridor and the thief would next listen at the door or even try to look inside.  After this he would slowly and carefully try the handle to see if it was locked.  All this was done with two other characters ready to pounce if anyone came through the door suddenly.  If the door was not locked and there were no sounds or lights detected from the other side, we got ready and opened the door in an attempt to open it silently.  If it was locked, then we tried to defeat the lock and then open the door silently.

Well, in opening 20+ doors at Saturday's session I don't believe our rogue ever stopped to listen at the door even though I asked him to listen at the door a couple times.  If he did listen at the door, I suspect this was one of the times there would be nothing to hear.

So, since this is the first basic role of the rogue in the party, what is the contemporary method of getting through a door?  Do folks no longer wish to have a procedure for going through the door anymore?  Is it just a simple "I pull out my thieves tools and try to pick the lock - roll the dice - enter or beat down the door?" or is that just how my table of low experience players think it should be done?

Thanks.

In my experience, trapfinding is boring, doubly so when someone else is doing it, and unless the DM wants to put a lot of effort into figuring out exactly how the traps work, the same is true for disarming them.  With that in mind, the general approach we take is the party is either being careful and checking for traps or in a hurry and not. 

In the first case, the party gets their highest passive +5 for advantage from multiple people to find the traps, then roll thieves' tools to disarm or if no one has proficiency, roll something appropriate to avoid/trigger safely.  In the second case, everyone rolls separately and whoever fails has to deal with whatever happens when the trap goes off.

We usually search for traps, but we don't go through the hassle that we did back in my 2e days.  Occasionally there are traps, but they aren't as oppressive as they were back int he old days.  I do not miss that at all.  Gygax was all about his traps, gladly, those days are passed.

It really varies by group and adventure. As Lunali points out, exhaustive searching can be tedious and time-consuming both in-game and out, so unless it's established early on that it's warranted, it just annoys everyone at the table after everyone realizes they spent 10 minutes doing nothing for no reason. Even worse, if it's not established up front that the every inch of the dungeon could have a lethal trap, the first time the players inadvertently spring one, it's going to leave a really bad taste in their mouths.

I wouldn't say dungeon crawls have fallen out of favor so much as the style of dungeon crawl where traps are lethal and poorly telegraphed. The problem with "every single tile and door could have a trap" is that the process of checking for traps doesn't involve any interesting or meaningful decisions. The DM is relying on the players to get bored of checking and slip up.

On the other hand when there's clues in the environment suggesting the presence of a trap or secret door, players become engaged and if the trap is sprung, they feel like they made a mistake, not like the DM sucker-punched them.

I started playing D&D in the late 70’s under the original rule set and I restarted about a year ago after a 30 year break.  I have an inquisitor rogue with great powers of perception and stealth so I’m the party scout.  And I will say I’ve fallen into numerous traps by not checking the floor (usually when I get hasty).  

The basic mechanics are still there but changed somewhat to make the game flow better.  Passive and active perception checks are common.  And my DM uses detailed maps with subtle visual clues that the whole party (in visual range) can help with.  Disarming traps and opening locks are still necessary.  Though 20 locked doors in a single run seems overkill for session play and party balance.

I will admit to a like for all classes and I’m always wanting to try a different role in multiple ongoing campaigns.  But somehow I always seem to have one active rogue.  Because they are just a ton of fun.

p.s. There is nothing rogue-ish about listening to a door.  You may not want your plate wearing Paladin to clank up to it.  But anyone can roll a perception check to see if they hear sounds.  But only those with thieves tools proficiency and slight of hand should be fiddling with traps and locks.

I definitely agree that there should be some checking for traps. I would never go into a door without checking it. I also agree with Lunali that it can be irritating to go through that whole detailed procedure. As a DM, I usually just let my players say that they're checking for traps, instead of going into immense detail. Then, they can make an investigation check to look for the traps. I just assume that they're going through some routine, as it can be tedious to describe the process over and over again.

In my experience, the best way to allow this to work is the party develops a standard procedure, which lays out the steps.  The DM automatically rolls the dice and then narrates the results.  The party is asked to make a decision at each step.  This way the party doesn't have to rehearse the same dialogue for every closed door.  But it still leaves the party wondering if this one has a trap until they commit to opening the door or fiddling with the lock.  Having a standard procedure like this is just another variation on having a standard "marching Order."

My wider problem was that the other players in the party got tired of not being the star every time we came to a door.  Eventually they were running down the hallways ahead of the rogue, and I do mean running.  Me and one other player sometimes got lost trying to keep up with them.  The DM had to pick up our icons and place them in the proximity of the party.

The second problem, for me, was that the rogue failed to listen at the door many times, and we just opened the door without taking any ready actions.  If we were not wearing some plot armor, that's how I feel about it, the DM could have wrecked the party a couple times.

The interesting thing is we are going to the second level in the next session and the DM has already told us he is instituting a mechanic that will make it imperative that we hurry because every so many minutes we will have to make an exhaustion check due to the extreme heat.  So the problem is guaranteed to get worse.  I'm not the rogue and I feel the DM is taking away the rogue's time to be in the spotlight.

It is true that contemporary D&D is no where near as interested in setting traps.  Apparently there was a classic D&D module released in the 70s where traps were more significant than the monsters.

A rogue's time in the spotlight is their turn in combat plus whatever they've chosen to for their character's focus.  Traps are one thing they can focus on and they are something that rogues are more likely to focus on than other classes, but they are by no means the only or even the primary place for a rogue to shine.

As an aside, you don't take ready actions before initiative is rolled, otherwise both sides would have readied actions and you'd need a way to decide which goes first.  The closest 5e has is surprise, where if a group is caught flatfooted it takes them a moment to react.

Just have a bard. They should be able to disarm traps pretty well, and can hold their own in a fight.

I feel bad for all these campaigns without traps, or deadly traps, or infiltration and information gathering settings, and etc.

i feel bad that someone suggested a rogues best time to shine is combat. As that invalidates most of the rogue subclasses.

i don’t know if it’s how DMs are running them or how players are playing them, but I feel bad.

Mr. OP. The long and short of it, is everything depends on your DM, his campaign, and how he runs things.

Quote from 5PercentGlory >>

I feel bad for all these campaigns without traps, or deadly traps, or infiltration and information gathering settings, and etc.

i feel bad that someone suggested a rogues best time to shine is combat. As that invalidates most of the rogue subclasses.

 Not at all what was suggested.  Campaigns still have all those things, we just skip the boring 20m description of every single thing the group is doing to detect traps. 

I suggested that a rogue's time to shine is combat AND whatever they chose for a focus for their skills.  For some rogues this means trapfinding, for others it's talking to people, some focus on infiltration, some are knowledgeable about the world.  I feel bad for all the rogues that get forced to be the sneaky trapfinder just because that's what people assume they are.

I, too, played in BECMI/1e days and well remember my trusty 10 foot pole. I think the overall philosophy on traps has changed a lot, and on dungeons for that matter, bit I'll stick to traps. Traps now are more designed like puzzles. Where in 1e we had tons of chests with poison needles in them, that's kind of gone away. Those traps aren't really as fun (is the current thinking), since its just a matter of the thief or rogue, or nowadays any character who has a thieves' tool proficiency, remembering to say they check for traps first. And if they don't remember, or they roll poorly, someone pays a hit point tax from the trap and then you open the chest, but its all over pretty quick. And really, it ended up as just a sort of pointless way to take some HP from a character. I've heard there was a Mike Mearls idea, from before he started at Wizards, so 3e days, that the more interesting traps are the ones you can see. So the old style would be a covered pit trap that maybe someone falls into and loses some HP, but then just climbs out and everyone moves on. The new style is a big pool filled with acid or lava or what have you and now the party has to figure out a way past it, so it becomes more of a problem solving/teamwork exercise. Not traps as much as environmental hazards.

And there's also more of a focus now on why the trap is there. In a 1e dungeon crawl, we never much though about why someone would put a pit trap in a random hallway that doesn't seem to lead anywhere of consequence, or who would have maintained it, or any other practical considerations (at least in my group of middle school friends). Now, traps are placed deliberately by creatures to protect their lairs. And if it's well-designed, the creature will have an exit strategy, or at least a way to allow themselves to get past the trap easily (which creates a weakness for the party to find and exploit, which makes it more interesting).

As far as the rest of the party begrudging the rogue a chance to do their thing, that's just childish selfishness. I honestly don't know what to tell you about that, except to maybe call them out on it, out of character. As for not listening at doors, that seems like weak DMing for not having that come back to bite the party from time to time. Really they should only have to do it once or twice for the party to learn the lesson.