Sunday, 27 November 2022

Script: Stealth in GURPS

Script: Stealth in GURPS

Another video transcript.

You know the classic party composition – a fighter, a cleric, a wizard, and a rogue. What is the main skill of the rogue? That’s right, Stealth. Is Stealth simple in GURPS? Hell no, it’s very confusing. You would expect something that comes up very often in games, and Stealth does come up often, to be clearly explained, but it just isn’t. So, let’s make sense of it. This is going to be useful for me, and, hopefully, for you as well.

 

First of all, what skills are used to do stealthy things in GURPS? GURPS has three stealth skills – Camouflage, Shadowing, and Stealth. Let’s talk about Stealth first, because it’s one of the most complicated skills, and definitely the most complicated stealth skill. What might be surprising, is that Stealth in GURPS is less granular than in D&D 3.5. If you remember, that system had Hide and Move Silently as separate skills, but in GURPS, Stealth covers both of these applications.

                Stealth has four applications – concealing yourself anywhere except in a totally bare room, move silently, stalk game, or follow someone without being noticed but not through a crowd – for that use Shadowing!

                Sounds simple, right? Things get more complicated – Stealth works differently depending on if there is somebody specifically on the alert for intruders or not. If nobody is on the lookout, then you make an unopposed Stealth roll. If somebody is on the lookout, this becomes a Quick Contest of Stealth against Perception or Observation. Things get more difficult when you have to sneak through an area that has somebody on the alert for intruders and somebody who is not. In that case, your Stealth roll will be contested against some creatures, but not others.


                To explain how it works, let’s make a flowchart. First, you have to determine whether you are simply sneaking past an unaware target or if there’s somebody specifically on the alert for intruders.

-          If you are sneaking past an unaware target, simply roll Stealth with all the appropriate modifiers described in the skill – I will talk about them later – and all bonuses from advantages and equipment.

-          If you fail, then we have another split.

o   If you are in the target’s arc of vision, then he makes a Vision roll to notice you. This Vision roll is modified for range using the normal range penalties, is modified by your posture (use melee attack penalties), cover (use to-hit penalties), darkness, your Size Modifier, and certain modifiers from your advantages and equipment. You should keep in mind that a person using Stealth very rarely counts as a person in plain sight, so most of the time, there is no +10 bonus for that.

§  If he succeeds, he spots you.

§  If he fails, he does not spot you.

-          If you succeed on your initial Stealth roll or in any other case, the target might still hear you! The target rolls Hearing modified for background noise (remember that total silence is very rare), and at a penalty that depends on how well you rolled your Stealth. I will show you a fragment of the Loudness Levels table from page 21 of GURPS Powers: Enhanced Senses. This table says that a failed Stealth roll produces a sound that can be heard with an unmodified Hearing roll on a distance of 1 yard. Each step on this table, which usually means each doubling of distance, imposes a -1 penalty. So, if you failed your Stealth check while you are 4 yards away, the target can hear you with a Hearing-2 roll. A critical failure on Stealth gives a base hearing distance of 8 yards. A successful Stealth roll has a base hearing range of 9 inches. This means that if you succeeded on a Stealth roll while 1 yard away from the target, the target can roll Hearing-2 to hear you. A critical success on a Stealth roll gives a base hearing distance of 1 inch. This means that if you critically succeeded on a Stealth roll while 1 yard away from the target, the target can roll Hearing-5 to hear you. It is easier to just determine the penalty for a failed Stealth check then add an additional -2 if you actually succeeded or -5 if you succeeded critically.

Then, if the target failed to detect you, he is unaware of your presence. If he succeeded, he might be aware of you, but depending on the distance it might be too late.

 

That’s too many rolls, isn’t it? Especially if you include smell. You can simplify this process by making the target only roll against their best sense for that specific case. Or, if the target is unaware, you can simply treat a successful Stealth roll as successfully sneaking up to the target within one yard. This is absolutely okay, and, if I am correct, this is actually how it is supposed to work. All the complications that I have talked about earlier arise from the Loudness Levels table. It’s all up to you, you have to choose the resolution mechanic that suits your game.

 

But what if the target is on the lookout for intruders? Then you have to roll a Quick Contest of Stealth versus the target’s Perception. The same modifiers apply, and depending on your relative position, the target might be using Vision, Hearing, or both. You may either roll them separately or, just like I said before, use the best sense for that situation. If you lose in this Quick Contest, you get spotted. But you might ask, if this is resolved as a Quick Contest, how does Hearing work then? You must know the base hearing distance, but there’s no such thing as failure or success in a Quick Contest, so you cannot determine your base hearing distance from it. Fortunately, Kromm has a post on the forums that states that in this case, your base hearing distance is equal to your Move. I will link this post in the description.

 

I hope that this is clearer to you now, and I really hope that I did not make any mistakes – this is not something I am an expert in. Now, I’d like to mention modifiers that the Stealth skill takes. First of all, it is penalized by your encumbrance level. If you are hiding from sight, then you are at -5 to hide in an area without “natural” hiding places, or +3 or more if there are many hiding places. You are at -5 when trying to fool those with Discriminatory Smell. Also, if you are trying to move silently faster than at Move 1, then you are at -5 to Stealth. Again, Kromm suggests replacing the last penalty with a penalty equal to your Move. There are some additional modifiers that depend on the surroundings, gear, advantages, disadvantages, and many other factors, but the ones I listed are the most generic ones.

 

One question that might arise is how often do you have to roll Stealth? Do you have to roll every second while you’re hiding? I recall seeing Kromm say on the forums that you only have to roll again if the conditions change for the worse for you, but I cannot find that post for the life of me.

 

I would also like to link some reading material for you.

First, an unofficial GURPS FAQ post about Stealth where Kromm explains some things about Stealth.

Second, another forum post that presents a house rule that expands the Stealth mechanics, making them both more intuitive and granular, while staying within the existence rules framework. Definitely check this one out, it seems to be very good.

Third, I’d like to give a shout-out to a GURPS blog called GURPS: Shooting things for fun and profit. The author of the blog has two posts that describe everything related to Stealth and Camouflage in great detail. While it is intended for games set in contemporary time periods, it is nonetheless very useful for low-tech or ultra-tech games. Give it a read. All links are in the description.

 

                I mentioned Camouflage. How is it different from Stealth. First of all, Camouflage is an Easy difficulty skill. Unlike Stealth, it only works against Vision, it does not hide you from Hearing or Smell. It can be used to Camouflage your position or to at least break up your outline to give a -1 to hit you with ranged attacks. Unlike Stealth, Camouflage can work on others – you can use it to camouflage another person, a vehicle, a camp, or a trap. Unlike Stealth, Camouflage always is opposed by Vision in a Quick Contest. It does not replace Stealth, but it can complement it. For example, if you fail a Stealth roll while camouflaged and get heard, the target must still see through your camouflage to find you! The aforementioned Stealth guide that I linked in the description also talks about Camouflage in great detail.

 

                Finally, there’s Shadowing, another skill for stealthy characters. This skill is more limited – it lets you follow another character through a crowd unnoticed. Roll a Quick Contest of Shadowing vs. the subject’s Vision every 10 minutes. If you lose, you lost the subject; if you lose by more than 5, you were seen. Once the subject is aware of the fact that you are shadowing him, roll a Quick Contest every five minutes: your Shadowing skill vs. his Shadowing or Stealth skill. If he wins, he eludes you. If he loses by more than 5, he thinks he eluded you. If you critically fail, you lose him and follow the wrong person. And that’s basically it. As you can see, this skill is only useful in urban environments.


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