I am working on converting the Book of Ruins (an old Judges Guild book), and I ran across something that made me want to get different opinions. One of the adventures says that there is a 25% chance per round of attracting the attention of occupants in another room. I was thinking of converting that to Listen Checks, but was curious what people might consider an appropriate DC for that. I am most interested in hearing why you feel it should be that value. Thanks for your input.
Coverting Percentage Chances to DCs
- Thread starter sjmiller
- Start date
Patryn of Elvenshae
First Post
Well, I'd just use the base DCs and modifiers from the listen skill.
EDIT:
So, to hear the PCs talking is a Base Listen DC of 0. The people in the other room are probably 10-20' away, so the new DC is 2. If they're listening at the door, then it's a DC of 7. If they're away from the door, then it's 17. If they aren't paying attention (like, are playing cards), then increase the DC by 5 (to 12 or 22).
If the PCs are trying to be quiet, then use the PC's Move Silently rolls to set the Base DC, and modify as above.
SRD said:
EDIT:
So, to hear the PCs talking is a Base Listen DC of 0. The people in the other room are probably 10-20' away, so the new DC is 2. If they're listening at the door, then it's a DC of 7. If they're away from the door, then it's 17. If they aren't paying attention (like, are playing cards), then increase the DC by 5 (to 12 or 22).
If the PCs are trying to be quiet, then use the PC's Move Silently rolls to set the Base DC, and modify as above.
harmyn
First Post
A DC 15 would be about right for that. But if you are running the adventure why worry with the change? Why not just roll the d% and be done with it. A room of goons w/o any real Listen Skill would have about the chance of hearing it. I would simply leave as is and move on to monster stat conversion issues. But that's just me.
The monsters are easy to convert in this, as they are orcs, kobolds, and an ogre. The fact that I am sending this to the folks at Judges Guild to post on their website is why I asked about this. I personally would just keep the roll of 25%, but then I am old fashioned. I was thinking a DC of 15 would be right, I was just being lazy about looking it up.harmyn said:
Patryn of Elvenshae
First Post
The reason to change it is that a 25% chance of hearing the PCs is just that - a flat percentage chance.
It doesn't matter if the PCs are sneaking about, wearing padded shoes, etc.; they're just as likely to be heard as someone banging around, knocking vases off of pedestals, and making other assorted loud mistakes.
It doesn't matter if the PCs are sneaking about, wearing padded shoes, etc.; they're just as likely to be heard as someone banging around, knocking vases off of pedestals, and making other assorted loud mistakes.
harmyn
First Post
Patryn of Elvenshae said:
And in the old rules they had Move Silently as a thief skill so you would have rolled that to not be heard. Given the basic assumption on the d20 DC15 I suggested above, it was generally assumed that some form of combat or other very loud comotion was going on. Not a simple pilferer looking about for easy loot. I remember some old Role Aids modules that gave similar percentage chances, and they always involved a combat situation. Not being sneaky.
But without the plainly stated combat aspect in the original post and therefore your not making that assumption your statement is a valid point about the benefit of the Listen DC. Under the old system it would have been left to common sense.
Last edited:
Patryn of Elvenshae
First Post
I'm sorry - I can't understand what your objections are. Can you try again?
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