Perception

[Darren Hill]

Let's say your travelling along the road minding your own business, and the bandits are about to launch an ambush. The GM is a generous sort and decides there's a chance you might hear or see some sign of the undisciplined rabble. What skill would this PER task be against?
There doesn't seem to be a perfect fit, but survival looks like it could fit. However...

You're now walking in the wrong part of the urban slum at night. What skill would you roll against to notice something out of the ordinary here?

[Salamander]

I would have the contest against the protagonist's raw PER Stat.

[Lance D. Allen]

There are rules for detecting sneaking characters on page 40 (revised) under the Sneak skill heading. To summarize, the sneaker rolls his AG -vs- Sneak, and the sneakee rolls Per -vs- a TN based on the chart on the top of that page.

If the bandits are hiding in the woodline rather than moving, you could use the rules for Camouflage, on page 33 instead.

I've had a bit of fun with these rules. The last session of my first attempt to run the game had a character sneaking past the bandits, without ever knowing they were there. It was rather amusing.. Both the character and the bandits made their sneak rolls, but their PER rolls were insufficient to detect each other.

[chade0]

If the bandits are hiding in the woodline rather than moving, you could use the rules for Camouflage, on page 33 instead.

Yeah, but what should the TN be? If I understand correctly, the TNs on page 33 are for those who are searching for someone. What if you're just travelling and walking on a road, how difficult would it be to spot camouflaged bandits?

[Lance D. Allen]

In the case where you're not even looking for them, I'd not even bother with perception. I'd have the bandits attack, then make the players roll surprise. Generally, if someone has successfully hidden themselves (1+ successes) and you're not making an effort to look for hidden people (0 successes) it seems like a clear-cut case of the hiding being the more successful attempt. It's just a matter of whether or not the characters are quick enough to react when it goes from passive hiding to active ambush.

Your mileage may vary. If you choose to give a PER roll for them to "notice" the hiding, I'd use the TNs under search, but bump 'em up by 2 or so, to denote the fact that they're not actively searching.

[Ashren Va'Hale]

blindsided, tn 13.


If you want the PC's to live anyways as any semi comepetant bandit witha free shot should kill his target.

otherwise you could have the pc's survive via burning luck points.

"You ride a long and your purse drops off your belt, as you look down to see what happened an arrow wizzes right by where your head used to be, you suddenly wonder where you packed your brown pants."