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Message: <blockquote data-quote="El Mahdi" data-source="post: 5609003" data-attributes="member: 59506">Remember though, it's not just a Move Silently check, it's an opposed check against Listen - even in the real world.  You can ace your move silently check, but if someone aces their Listen check, it may not matter. For me (in the real world), it isn't about whether you make noise, it's about how your very presence affects the ambient noise of the environment. If you were to sneak up on me in an environment with a non-varying ambient noise in the mid volume range (good old white noise, like the sound from a central air system), unless you move reeeeeeaaaaaally slow, I will notice the change in pitch of the ambient sound caused by your body - even if you didn't make a single extraneous sound yourself.  (Even if you do move reeeeeeaaaaaally slow, I still have a decent chance...)  I do this all the time with my wife.  She'll try to sneak up on me, and do a pretty good job at not making any noise, but I'll hear the change in the sound of the air and without turning my head say "Hi Babe..." (to which she usually responds "How do you do that?!?").<img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/laugh.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":lol:" title="Laughing    :lol:" data-shortname=":lol:" />  However, she did get me the other day (on accident).  I was in our kitchen making dinner, with a tv on in the kitchen and the a/c running.  I didn't notice her when she came home from work until she actually came into the kitchen.  I didn't really see or hear her either, I think I just subconsciously heard a change in the sound of the tv and jerked my head around (and there she was).  She was about 10 feet away from me when I noticed her, which is pretty close for me.  Scared the hell out of me...and that doesn't happen very often.  She laughed for the next 5 minutes just because it's so rare for her to get one up on me like that (especially accidentally). Now if it's an ambient environment with natural or random changes in the pitch and volume of the ambient sounds (wind, talking, music, etc.) then it gets a bit harder for me, but I can still sometimes pull it off (like above with the tv).  I can probably notice someone in a constant ambient environment well over 90% of the time.  In a variable environment, it's probably more like 50/50. Incidentally, this is how stealth fighters can be detected also. Direct radar returns can be so small (depending on proximity to the receiver/transmitter) that they are usually filtered out as noise. But a supercomputer with multiple ambient receivers (monitoring ambient EM) can detect them sometimes through changes in the ambient environment. Like tracking a hole in the EM field, rather than tracking a positive return. Just like being cued by motion visually, the brain more often passively detects things not through the presence of something, but due to a change in the environment. Not everybody can do that, but I can. It's just a natural thing for me. I have very sensitive hearing and can naturally hear very small changes in pitch.   I also have a wider than normal frequency range: 10 hz to about 24 khz - as opposed to 20 hz to 20 khz (and well above the norm for my age which is more like 30 hz to 16 khz), and an excellent spatial sense.  I can quite easily hear those so called "ultrasonic" ringtones that some kids use on their phones (so adults don't hear it). But don't just take my word for it though.  Due to working in aircraft maintenance in the Air Force, I was required to have annual audiogram tests.  When I retired, my low and high frequency sensitivity had dropped off a little bit from my baseline (down to as low as -50 db for extreme frequencies), but from 375 hz to 18 khz I still have a sensitivity of -90 db across the board.  The audiogram testers always thought I was some kind of freak. Despite being a drummer and working on aircraft in the Air Force, I've been able to maintain this by jealously protecting my ears.  On the flight line I always had earplugs in when aircraft were running (or power units, etc.), and always wore dual protection when in close proximity (earplugs and headsets).  The downside is high frequency noise like from a tv tube or other electrical appliance (motors, lights, etc.) sometimes just bug the hell out of me.  It's like having a mosquito hovering by my ear. Gamewise, this is why I give blind creatures/characters a serious bonus to Listen checks.  It's as much about the sensitivity of the ears as it is the development of spacial processing in the brain.  Studies show that blind people actually use the same parts of the brain for sound, that sighted people use for spacial and visual processing.  They "see" their environment in 3D using sound.  I've never practiced this or tried to develop it, but in a pinch I can do a pretty good job navigating by sound.  If I was deprived of sight for a long enough period of time, I'm betting I could function pretty normally that way.   Not that I would want to lose my sight, but if god forbid it did happen, I'd probably acclimate pretty quick.  For me, going deaf would be a nightmare.</blockquote>

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