Stealth is indispensable for any professional spy or thief or avocational rogue. Its IQ prerequisite and DX success roll all but excludes high-ST characters, but it they are not unheard of in the community of sneaks.
The DX roll success mechanic strikes me as odd, since it puts the ball in the stealthy person's court instead of that of the person who might be seeing them, but it is simple to implement at the table and it works. Still, questions come up, like when someone is trying to use stealth to remain unnoticed when looking in on a room with two or more people in it and one of them has Alertness; it seems reasonable that Alertness would require the sneak to roll an extra die to remain unnoticed, but that is only implied by the rules rather than explicitly mentioned. If Stealth instead added dice to a character's IQ roll to notice someone using the talent, the mechanic would be cleaner and it could work against some while failing against others instead of the all-or-nothing result of the listed method. I can see this alternative being especially appropriate for when an adversary has Stealth, since it gives the PCs more agency.
Conversation starters:
- Stealth says one can move without being noticed. Do you impose any limits, or allow full MA?
- What actions, if any, do you rule negate a character's Stealth if they take them?
- Do you impose any environmental prerequisites for the use of Stealth in a given place?
- Do you allow any other talents to give a bonus to using Stealth?
- If someone trying to be eluded has Tactics, should it give a penalty to Stealth?
- What animals or creatures should have inherent Stealth? (I'm looking at you, Long Lankin)
- What was the most memorable use of Stealth in your games?
11-13-2022, 09:23 PM
Talent/Spell of the Week: Stealth
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