03-08-2013, 07:45 AM | #31 |
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: Estonia
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Re: When does one use Scrounging?
I have lost items for good this way, once I lit a fire in my fireplace during some other chores. I'm rather sure I burned my oven mittens as a fire-starter as they have been never seen since that day.
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03-08-2013, 08:48 AM | #32 | |
Banned
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Europe
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Re: When does one use Scrounging?
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More generally, whatever kind of Search skill I end up including in Sagatafl (I doubt I'll have separate Searching and Scrounging ones), it'll be more about searching quickly and efficiently (because of having established systematic methods), and perhaps being able to routinely overcome one's natural squeamishness at interacting with corpses and slimy stuff and so on, and maybe sticking one's hand into strange places in such a way as to minimize the risk of scraping against rusty bits of iron. No such skill lets you do anything you flat out wouldn't be able to do without it. They (or it) just lets you do it a lot faster, and a lot safer, and in a fashion that's a lot less impeded by problems and hurdles. |
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03-08-2013, 08:50 AM | #33 | |
Banned
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Europe
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Re: When does one use Scrounging?
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03-08-2013, 10:39 AM | #34 | |
GURPS Line Editor
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Montréal, Québec
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Re: When does one use Scrounging?
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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.
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Sean "Dr. Kromm" Punch <kromm@sjgames.com> GURPS Line Editor, Steve Jackson Games My DreamWidth [Just GURPS News] |
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03-08-2013, 01:32 PM | #35 | |
Petitioner: Word of IN Filk
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Longmont, CO
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Re: When does one use Scrounging?
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__________________
“It's not railroading if you offer the PCs tickets and they stampede to the box office, waving their money. Metaphorically speaking” --Elizabeth McCoy, In Nomine Line Editor Author: "What Doesn't Kill Me Makes Me Stronger" |
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03-08-2013, 03:06 PM | #36 |
Join Date: Sep 2007
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Re: When does one use Scrounging?
I'd think Observation also covers the times you're not hidden, as Rocket Man describes. You know tactics to keep out of sight while Observing in the first place -- but when you're not out of sight, you also know how to Observe without obviously focusing and staring at your target of interest, taking notes in your little notepad, glancing at your watch every time security guard walks by, and all that, when you "case the joint".
Acting skill alone means you fool people into thinking you're just another shopper/tourist/cubicle dweller, but you won't learn anything just by hanging around and Acting. Observation lets gather information while you avoid attention-getting, out-of-character actions that would blow your Acting role and roll, much as it lets you not do stupid things to obviate your Stealth/Camo roll. |
03-08-2013, 03:18 PM | #37 |
Dog of Lysdexics
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Melbourne FL, Formerly Wellington NZ
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Re: When does one use Scrounging?
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03-09-2013, 12:44 PM | #38 | |
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: Estonia
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Re: When does one use Scrounging?
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In case I'm scouting a street surrounding a open air restaurant I probably wont need an acting roll because well people just welcome to sit down there and order stuff - but I would need an observation roll for you know again not to be obviously looking at sensitive stuff. * It greatly makes sense. Thank you was kind of twisting my brain actually without it. Talking 'bout restaurants and sensitive stuff and what not made me somehow think that lots of pervy guys might have a point or at least improved default for peep-tommery/tom-peepery, y'know to "observe" themselves some T&A of that waitress etc. Lots of them obviously don't :D |
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03-09-2013, 12:56 PM | #39 | |||||
Dog of Lysdexics
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Melbourne FL, Formerly Wellington NZ
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Re: When does one use Scrounging?
Heres some quote from Kromm onn Observation and stealth
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