04-05-2009, 03:04 AM | #21 | ||
"Gimme 18 minutes . . ."
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Albuquerque, NM
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Re: The game mechanics for a stealth sneak-up and backstab?..
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I'll try to do the math on what an opposed roll would look like against guys with differing perceptions tomorrow. Quote:
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04-05-2009, 03:27 AM | #22 | |
Join Date: Jul 2008
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Re: The game mechanics for a stealth sneak-up and backstab?..
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It seems like distance ought to provide benefits to inaudible movement. Listen modifiers have a clear enough scale, but I don't know what the baseline distance is. |
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04-05-2009, 04:00 AM | #23 | |
GURPS FAQ Keeper
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Kyïv, Ukraine
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Re: The game mechanics for a stealth sneak-up and backstab?..
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04-05-2009, 04:27 AM | #24 |
Join Date: Nov 2006
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Re: The game mechanics for a stealth sneak-up and backstab?..
We usually roll once per new action that could possible loud.
So e.g. once for opening the door, once for movement to the victim, and once for the attack (where failing the last roll might only mean that the victim gets a dodge at -5 or something). |
04-05-2009, 05:08 AM | #25 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Platform Zero, Sydney, Australia
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Re: The game mechanics for a stealth sneak-up and backstab?..
I find the statistics work differently because of the way I deal with the rolls:
It's only a Quick Contest if observer is alert. If they're just standing around (as most sentries are actually likely to be, really, especially regarding behind them) they don't get a roll at all unless you fail your Stealth roll. Which means, taking Crakkerjack's example of 16 skill, that they only get to to roll if that 1.9% chance turns up... and then they may well fail anyway. Which means, against a Per 10 guy (who shouldn't be on watch anyway, but hey, your hiring practices may be more stringent) it ends up being a 0.95% chance, which raises your odds over 20 rolls to more like 83%, I think. |
04-05-2009, 03:05 PM | #26 |
Join Date: Sep 2006
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Re: The game mechanics for a stealth sneak-up and backstab?..
So it sounds like everyone has different ways of doing this. I'm trying to figure out a consistent way to approach the problem as well, because it seems rather difficult to arbitrate.
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04-05-2009, 04:33 PM | #27 | |
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Seattle, Washington, USA
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Re: The game mechanics for a stealth sneak-up and backstab?..
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Is there a downside?
__________________
“What all the wise men promised has not happened, and what all the damned fools said would happen has come to pass.” ― William Lamb Melbourne |
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04-05-2009, 06:30 PM | #28 |
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Ottawa, Canada
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Re: The game mechanics for a stealth sneak-up and backstab?..
Myself, I use the following rules:
When sneaking up on someone who isn't really paying attention or expecting anything (i.e., the typical average person walking down the street as part of his everyday life), it's an uncontested roll against Stealth. If you fail the roll, the margin of failure will indicate at what range the other people will eventually notice you. On a success, you can get right up to them. When sneaking up on someone who is paying reasonable attention for people moving about - such as a typical guard or sentry, or a worried pedestrian paying attention because he's in a bad part of town - then it's a single contest of Stealth. Your margin of victory will determine at what range such a person will notice you (i.e., compare when the penalties due to range to your opponent's sense rolls will be at such a point where you would no longer win, and that's where you're spotted). With a high enough victory, you can get right up to the guards unnoticed. When sneaking up on someone who is paying a lot of attention - i.e., because he specifically believes someone is there, or because an alarm has been sounded, etc., then it becomes a contest each second. To me, the trick for this is that "paying a lot of attention" is defined as the person specifically taking a Concentrate maneuver as his maneuver for the turn, and he's concentrating on paying attention to his surroundings. Note that the latter case is a rare situation, but happens. No matter how someone claims that he's paying attention while on guard, the sheer boredome and routiness of always watching the same place will cause distractions or your mind to wander a bit, so you can't always give 100% of your focus on your surroundings all the time. This is why most situations will be the middle one, where only a single contest is needed. On the other hand, the last one can come into play with very single-minded opponents (a robot or security system who can focus his complete attention on watch), or when a former screw-up has sounded the alarm, etc. Also, it gives a benefit in the middle of combat to any PC who decides as a one-off to take a Concentrate maneuver to "look around to see what's happening" as they can roll again and perhaps notice that group trying to sneak around to flank them. Anyway, that's how I run it in my games. Last edited by Kallatari; 04-05-2009 at 06:34 PM. |
04-06-2009, 10:28 AM | #29 |
Join Date: Aug 2007
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Re: The game mechanics for a stealth sneak-up and backstab?..
Hmmmmm, seems like a good reason to give a robot sentry compartmentalized mind.
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Tags |
sentry removal, stealth |
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