This week we once again take a closer look at an area of the rules which has shown improvement during the course of the playtest. Stealth is often a critical part of RPG parties. Rangers and Rogues, while never pigeon-holed into stealthy gameplay, are nevertheless the most likely to fall into that style of play. Although some classes have internal options that improve a character's stealthiness, the complete independence of skills from class makes this style of gameplay accessible to any character that wants it.
Yet, despite its accessibility in terms of options and rules elements, stealth occupies a curious intersection of narrative and gameplay which makes it difficult to implement in both a smooth and effective way. Perhaps even more than social skills, it's inherently meta-gaming from a player perspective. While the impact of this weirdness is low when it comes to player use, it quickly becomes more problematic when there are foes that try to use stealth against the party. Many times, the simple act of a GM rolling dice is enough to put a party into paranoid watchfulness. Since it's a good instinct, it's also very difficult to break.
Additionally, stealth gameplay sometimes results in many negotiations between a GM and player. Assuming that you do not break stealth, how long does your character go on its current stealth check? What activities are intensive enough to require a new check? Do special senses completely negate a character's stealthiness? How does one go about locating an invisible creature? Through the playtest process, Realm of Runes has evolved to have good answers to all of these questions, and has developed a system of Stealth, Perception and senses that makes these interactions run exceptionally smoothly, all without requiring any input from a game master that might accidentally give players information their characters should not rightfully have.
First, let's talk about stealth itself. The basic stealth action is to Hide. When you Hide, you choose a sense that you are trying to hide from. While this is probably vision, and vision is the easiest to hide from, you can attempt to hide from any sense you are aware of. Stand very still to hide from tremorsense, or be very quiet to hide from hearing. The onus is on the player to choose, and a character can hide from multiple senses simply by using the Hide action multiple times. Because it takes an action to Hide, this can lead to tough decisions in combat. How much of your turn do you devote to hiding from senses? One Stealth Skill Perk, Foil Senses, speeds this process up by causing you to Hide from all possible senses at once, without requiring that you specify which ones.
When you Hide, you tend to stay hidden. Realm of Runes makes a distinction between casual observers and active observers. A casual observer never even makes a check to notice a hidden creature, it requires an active observation to find one. This active observation is accomplished by the Seek universal activity, where you pick a limited area you wish to scrutinize and then attempt a Perception check. By default, a hidden creature does not have to make a check at all. The DC to Seek a creature can never be worse than its Stealth DC. Experts or better in the skill have the option to roll a Stealth check at the time that they Hide, and use the result of the check to set their DC if it's better. In this way it is only the entity that is looking for hidden creatures that must always roll. The hidden party is truly hidden, even from the game mechanics.
Assuming that the hidden party simply stays put, this is the extent of the interactions that is required from stealth. But what if you want to move around while hidden? If any part of your movement will be through an area with unobstructed line of sight to a creature you want to hide from, you have to use the Sneak activity. This special version of the Stride action requires a Stealth check during your movement to determine whether or not you are noticed while you go. Once the activity is resolved, however, your state reverts back to simply hidden, which is to say it requires an active observation to find you once more. Be careful, however, as Sneak can only function for you if you are hidden from all of a creature's precise senses. If you are hidden from vision but not smell, for example, a foe with smell as a precise sense will automatically notice you moving even if you Sneak.
This interaction raises the importance of precise senses as opposed to imprecise senses. All entities in Realm of Runes have some combination of precise and imprecise senses. For most player characters, their only precise sense is usually some type of vision, possibly low-light or darkvision, and imprecise senses are hearing and smell. Monsters can have more exotic senses, such as tremorsense or life sight, and player characters can upgrade their imprecise senses to precise senses through perks or even gain entirely new senses through the use of magic and alchemy.
Senses work through line of sight, and Hiding is effectively blocking that line of sight. While this terminology references vision, it works just the same for hearing, smell, or any other sense. Just as an opaque object blocks line of sight for vision, a stinking cloud blocks line of sight for smell and a wall of sound blocks line of sight for hearing. There are three perception categories that describe the relationship between any two creatures: seen, sensed or unseen. Seen is fully visible by at least one of a creature's precise senses. This is the default state for those that are out in the open. Sensed is when there is no line of sight to a precise sense, but there is one to at least one imprecise sense. Sensed creatures have concealment, which impairs a creature's ability to target with effects that require specificity. Finally, unseen is no line of sight at all, by any senses. A creature is totally unaware of any unseen creatures, and cannot choose to intentionally target them by any means.
Since Hide effectively blocks line of sight, and Sneak prevents you from establishing line of sight while you move, Hiding and Sneaking are very simple. Seeking creatures, on the other hand, can use their Perception to re-establish line of sight, either partially or completely. All of this works smoothly and quickly. But what happens when a creature becomes totally invisible to a sense? Invisibility functions as an unbreakable obstruction to line of sight for a sense. When casting the invisibility spell, for example, the caster chooses which sense at the time of casting. Invisibility cannot be simply overcome by Seeking, but that does not mean that it cannot be circumvented. This is where having imprecise senses is important.
Consider a monster that has become invisible to vision. Your character cannot see it with your eyes no matter how hard you try. But you have other senses, like hearing, even if those senses aren't typically ones you can rely on. When a creature uses the Seek activity, it chooses which sense it wants to use to Seek with. This sense can be an imprecise sense! Using an imprecise sense this way comes with a pretty steep penalty, but it can still work if you roll well enough. Similarly, line of sight to an imprecise sense is enough to establish the sensed condition. So while becoming invisible to all of a creature's precise senses is always helpful, it does not simply remove you from its realm of perception. A creature that is invisible to vision will still need to Hide from other senses, and Sneak if it moves, lest it give itself away somewhat. At least it will never be worse than concealed if it remains invisible to all precise senses.
Stealth is an important aspect of fantasy RPG gameplay, and the system in place in Realm of Runes has been tuned to make this area of gameplay functional, while also being simple to resolve and avoid accidentally giving paranoid players extra information. Next week we'll once again take another deeper delve into an important area of the rules: Lies and Lie Detection.
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