Quote:
Originally Posted by Gnome
I would love to hear more detail on use of this skill. I'm never sure how much I should focus on the "without letting others know that you are watching" part of the skill description on 211.
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Threads about that abound . . . I'm hoping somebody bookmarked a few (I didn't!). Here's a summary:
Observation doesn't replace Camouflage, Shadowing, or Stealth, ever. If you don't want to be seen, you also need a skill suitable to the situation. What the "not letting others know" part of the Observation skill specifically means is that
the act of using the skill doesn't give away the game on its own – that is, the skill teaches you how not to poke your telescope lens out the window, catch the light on your binoculars, or lean so far out of your hiding place that somebody sees you there. The skill doesn't teach you how to hide in the first place. Without Observation, the GM has carte blanche to say that your great Camouflage, Shadowing, or Stealth roll is for naught, because you're doing something
dumb to mess with it. However, if all you have is Observation, "not letting others know" can certainly cover using a telescope or a shotgun mic from so far away that nobody can make the Vision roll to see you anyway.
In actual play, the way it works is that you declare what you're doing to be sneaky and then roll normally for that: NPC's Vision or Hearing vs. your Stealth, his Vision at -10 because you're 100 yards away and not in plain sight, his own Observation vs. your Camouflage because you're in the bushes, or whatever. If you're not detected, go ahead and use Observation. The act of using that skill never allows a new roll for detection, forces a new role for hiding, or compromises your old roll for hiding. However, you cannot say, "I have Observation, and it says it's about not letting others know, so I'm going to use it instead of Stealth to hide." That might let you hide your telescope, but you'll be standing in plain sight right behind it . . .
The one exception is in direct observer vs. observer contests. In that case, the GM might prefer not to roll two Quick Contests of (say) Stealth vs. Observation, because turning four margins of success into two margins of victory, and then comparing two margins of victory to get one margin of victory, is painful on the brain. Settling matters as a Quick Contest of Observation, letting a concealment skill act as complementary to each, is good enough.