I've been thinking a lot about searching recently, especially given this thread on Search for Treasure & Secret Doors:
http://forum.yeoldeinn.com/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=2666&hilit=Searching+furniture
and my own previous searching uncertainty idea:
viewtopic.php?f=38&t=5067
and have come up with the following idea:
The


A Hero may make a COMBINED search for traps+secret doors+treasure in a room/corridor. When a hero carries out a Search action, roll


On anything other than a

This

If they roll a

The search radius is the hero's current MPs - so the Barbarian is rubbish at searching, which is as it should be! The heroes need to spread out to search properly, which is realistic. The Dwarf has a special skill "Dungoneer" which doubles their search radius.
Treasure chests: I like Bareheaded Warrior's rule on this:
Bareheaded Warrior wrote:14.7 Looting Treasure Chests
Treasure Chests are always locked.
14.8 A player character standing adjacent to a treasure chest in a room that does not contain any monsters may as an action force open the chest and loot (pick up) the contents.
14.9 If the chest is trapped, then this action will trigger the trap and he will suffer the consequences but will still pick up the contents.
14.10 A player character who is the Dwarf and/or is equipped with the Tool Kit and is standing adjacent to a treasure chest in a room that does not contain any monsters may as an action attempt to disable the lock on the chest and loot (pick up) the contents.
14.11 Disabling a lock on a Treasure Chest
To disable a lock on a chest, roll a standard die (if the player character is a Dwarf AND has the Tool Kit then add one to the total) if the score is four or more then you have successfully disabled the lock and can access the treasure (if the chest is trapped then you have disarmed the trap), otherwise you have forced open the chest, and if trapped, then you have triggered the trap. Either way you get the contents.
Examples
Example 1
The elf enters the room and declares they are searching. They roll


They do not roll a

Zargon tells them they have found two traps, and indicates the positions of two traps of their choice on the board. Note there are three traps in the room, therefore one trap is undiscovered, but the elf doesn't know if there are more traps, or any undiscovered treasure = tension! This adds the false negative scenario that the original rules are missing in my opinion. Should another hero enter the room and also search for traps, risking a WM appearing?
Say they roll


You can imagine rolling a


Another option is for Zargon to roll the WD+D6 behind the monster screen...

Example 2
The elf enters the room and searches for treasure. They roll


Not only do they not find any treasure, but a wandering monster appears adjacent to the door and can move/attack normally. Note the monster does not need to attack heroes in the room; they can move and attack the Dwarf too, who is not in the room! My own homebrew uses the "tackle zone" idea from Blood Bowl/AHQ (ie you can't just walk past someone through their 8 adjacent squares), so in this case the Orc can walk around the edge of the room and attack the Wizard!
This makes the Wizard more vulnerable to wandering monsters, but this vulnerability can be avoided by positioning the heroes carefully and spread out to protect him/her even when there are no monsters present - something they would do in reality! None of this casual walking around a dungeon...
Example 3
The Barbarian enters the room, and searches for traps. They roll


They do not roll a

The Barbarian only has 2MP, so only the lower two traps are shown; the pit trap next to the cupboard is NOT revealed as that is more than 2 squares away.
The Elf, who forgets the Barbarian isn't good at searching, walks towards the cupboard and sets off the trap! Oh no!
Effects of this mechanic
Basically the Quest is a little harder more thought needs to be given to searching, and there more tension:
WMs can appear even when searching for traps / secret doors in addition to Treasure
These WMs can move and attack any hero
Hero placement prior to searching becomes relevant to be able to find traps effectively (ie overlapping search radii) and to protect the weakest character
Some heroes are better at searching than others
False negatives are introduced (ie the heroes are sometimes unsure if they have found all the traps if the D6 roll was low), which adds tension
Mind points become more relevant
Heroes are differentiated more through how good/bad they become at searching
These decisions make the game more fun and seaching a bit strategic
All this from only one



Thoughts?