Stealth and other movement skills

[Ragitsu]

How does Stealth interact with certain movement skills? For instance, if you're trying to climb quietly and out of sight, do you just roll Stealth along with Climbing? If so, how much is Stealth penalized (if at all)?

[DouglasCole]

Originally Posted by Ragitsu

How does Stealth interact with certain movement skills? For instance, if you're trying to climb quietly and out of sight, do you just roll Stealth along with Climbing? If so, how much is Stealth penalized (if at all)?

I suppose you could either float the stealth bonus/penalty to the climbing skill, or maybe just roll the lower of Stealth or Climbing, in the manner that I think you roll either a weapon skill or riding, whichever is lower.

[Kromm]

I make just one roll and compare it to both skills. It's straightforward to adjudicate failure: If the roll is good enough to make both, you climb silently. If you fail only Stealth, you climb noisily. If you fail only Climbing, or Climbing and Stealth, you flail or fall, which isn't stealthy. For instance, for someone with Climbing-12, Stealth-14, a roll of 3-12 means a stealthy climb, while a roll of 13+ means a not-very-stealthy botched climb. For someone with Climbing-14, Stealth-12, a roll of 3-12 means a stealthy climb, a 13-14 means a noisy climb, and 15+ means a not-very-stealthy botched climb.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Kromm

I make just one roll and compare it to both skills. It's straightforward to adjudicate failure: If the roll is good enough to make both, you climb silently. If you fail only Stealth, you climb noisily. If you fail only Climbing, or Climbing and Stealth, you flail or fall, which isn't stealthy. For instance, for someone with Climbing-12, Stealth-14, a roll of 3-12 means a stealthy climb, while a roll of 13+ means a not-very-stealthy botched climb. For someone with Climbing-14, Stealth-12, a roll of 3-12 means a stealthy climb, a 13-14 means a noisy climb, and 15+ means a not-very-stealthy botched climb.

Nice.

I've always made two rolls, but I can see how that might increase the risk of critical failure. Your way, however, means that Luck gets a boost in capability, in that it can affect two skills at once if you roll badly.

The two skill checks will often have different modifiers, but that just changes the effective skill instead of the roll, I guess.

[Kuroshima]

Originally Posted by Icelander

Nice.

I've always made two rolls, but I can see how that might increase the risk of critical failure. Your way, however, means that Luck gets a boost in capability, in that it can affect two skills at once if you roll badly.

The two skill checks will often have different modifiers, but that just changes the effective skill instead of the roll, I guess.

My gripe with this, would be that it makes impossible for the not so competent climber, not so sneaky guy (Climbing 10/Stealth 10) to climb noisily....

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Kuroshima

My gripe with this, would be that it makes impossible for the not so competent climber, not so sneaky guy (Climbing 10/Stealth 10) to climb noisily....

True.

And climbing silently probably ought to be harder than climbing without caring how noisy you are. One is 'all out' and the other forces you to keep other things in your mind than just how secure your grasp is. I've always imposed the -2 penalty for 'doing two things at once' when someone is using Climbing and Stealth at the same time.

[PPoS]

Yes, although Kromm's suggestion is interesting (and might be fitting in some circumstances), I usually just apply a penalty for the main skill in use (i.e. climbing).

[Ragitsu]

In any event, I assume the climber's speed will be reduced to Move 1 if they want to try non-penalized Stealth at all?

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by Icelander

I've always imposed the -2 penalty for 'doing two things at once' when someone is using Climbing and Stealth at the same time.

Mass Combat has a rule on running two battles at once that I like to adopt for situations like this. Rather than a flat -2 to both rolls, you have to take a total of -4, separated between them as you like.