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Message no. 1
From: Georg Greve <greve@*******.HANSE.DE>
Subject: SR: Professionalism and Perception
Date: Tue, 25 Mar 1997 12:16:40 GMT
Hi Everybody !

Yesterday I again had one of these weird perception situation where a
highly professional character at stealth wouldn't even notice a truck
going by if that truck had put sneakers on... there are several
situations: An excellent sniper, instantly knowing where to hide to
take his shot, but having no idea where to look to avoid getting
shot. A skilled runner that could find a path through a minefield not
knowing how other people would cross it and so on (you get the
idea). This is kinda ridiculous in my eyes, so I think there should be
something made up for this. Right now I had the following idea:

If a character wants to use perception that is somehow skill-dependent
(like stealth for spotting other stealthy people, athletics for the
best path through some obstacles and so on - GMs decision) he adds
half his skill (round down) to his perception, because knowing how to
do things helps you watching out for people doing the same stuff.

O.k. - that's basically it - any comments ?

Later,
Georg

--
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| Georg Greve greve@*******.hanse.de |
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Message no. 2
From: David Buehrer <dbuehrer@****.ORG>
Subject: Re: SR: Professionalism and Perception
Date: Tue, 25 Mar 1997 07:29:08 -0700
Georg Greve wrote:
|
| If a character wants to use perception that is somehow skill-dependent
| (like stealth for spotting other stealthy people, athletics for the
| best path through some obstacles and so on - GMs decision) he adds
| half his skill (round down) to his perception, because knowing how to
| do things helps you watching out for people doing the same stuff.

My basic philosophy is to use common sense for perception tests. If
there's a good chance that the characters could miss something, then I
have the players role dice. If the PC is pretty well trained and has a
lot of experience with something (a rigger knowing what the sound of a
minigun cycling up to speed sounds like) then I'll give a little bit to
that PC, and make him role for more information (after they've declared
they're looking for the minigun). However, if it's something integral
to the storyline, then all bets are off. If I want the PCs to chase a
guy into the sewers of Seattle, then they will come around the corner
just in time to see the manhole cover sliding into place.

I feel that judgements like these can add significantly to the mood of
a game. And, I don't like adventures to die just because everyone
fails a basic perception test.

-David
--
/^\/^\/^\/^\/^\/^\/^\ dbuehrer@****.org /^\/^\/^\/^\/^\/^\/^\
"His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking
alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free."
~~~http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/1068/homepage.htm~~~~
Message no. 3
From: Mike Elkins <MikeE@*********.COM>
Subject: SR: Professionalism and Perception
Date: Tue, 25 Mar 1997 10:08:39 -0500
Adding dice, even divided by two, can sometimes get abused (although your
specific suggestion sounds OK to me), so what I prefer to do is something like
this: make a stealth roll against some target, and every success (or two
successes) reduces the target number for your perception test by one. That
way, once the TN is 2, it boils down to how good you are at noticing details(your
int), while in bad circumstances (high TNs) it provides a cruicial edge. Make
players take a complex action to analyze the situation if they want to use their
skills like this, by the way.

Double-Domed Mike
Message no. 4
From: Justin Pinnow <jpinnow@*****.EDU>
Subject: Re: SR: Professionalism and Perception
Date: Tue, 25 Mar 1997 10:27:54 -0500
Perception tests have modifiers that affect the TN. My vote would be to
come up with some number at the time and modify the TN with it. If
someone was trying to notice something related to their profession, they
may have an easier time doing so than their comrade. Just come up an
appropriate modifier, and lower the TN by it. Easy as pie. :)

Justin :)
--
_____________________________________________________________________________
Justin Pinnow
jpinnow@*****.edu
Message no. 5
From: Droopy <droopy@*******.NB.NET>
Subject: Re: SR: Professionalism and Perception
Date: Tue, 25 Mar 1997 18:57:32 +0000
> From: Georg Greve <greve@*******.HANSE.DE>
> Organization: Nightmare on Coin Street
> Subject: SR: Professionalism and Perception

> If a character wants to use perception that is somehow skill-dependent
> (like stealth for spotting other stealthy people, athletics for the
> best path through some obstacles and so on - GMs decision) he adds
> half his skill (round down) to his perception, because knowing how to
> do things helps you watching out for people doing the same stuff.

Why not use the average of the skill and intellegence? Or you could
have them use their skill dice and turn those successes into a
modifier for the perception check. (I kinda like that second one.)


--Droopy
droopy@**.net

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