Statting accessibility "except when watched" and mechanics thereof?

[Kelly Pedersen]

Originally Posted by Extrarius

How do you determine that when it isn't somebody actively staring at them?

If there is a melee going on, and the character is near it but not participating, would you say nobody is looking, or would you make rolls (either basic rolls or a contest) to see if anybody counts as "looking", or something else?

I think what I'd do, to simplify matters a bit, would be to roll a Quick Contest of the character who wanted to be unobserved's Stealth or Shadowing, against the highest Perception or Observation among all other parties (which would include allies), giving the opposition a +1 for every other person in the combat. So if there was one person looking to be unobserved, and 8 other people in the fight, the person with the best Observation/Perception would roll with a +7 bonus.