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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Li Shenron" data-source="post: 5863111" data-attributes="member: 1465">The RAW itself isn't particularly difficult, but putting everything together in a scenario usually is.Just a couple of general suggestions:- ask your players to take it easy and accept that the RAW is a simplified system, because if they start reasoning too much you can get into endless (and mostly useless) debates, which anyway are most commonly fueled simply by their desire for their PCs to succeed- forget about the idea of pretending that the whole party of PCs can be sneaky... a group of rogues can be sneaky, but unless the whole party has invested in stealth skills, they just won't be; consider this "a feature, not a bug" of the RAW because in fact it is. And it is not true that this makes it useless for a Rogue to be sneaky "because everyone else spoils it": it just means that the Rogue will do the sneaky tasks while the others wait or do something else. The "sneaky task" doesn't always have to be "walk past the guards" -> if you're the DM, avoid at any cost to put this kind of situations in a place where the PCs have no other route to go or tactic to employ!Off to the RAW...Move Silently VS Listen- The normal Move Silently check is very simple, just remember to add armor check penalty for both armor and shield. Personally I always ask for a roll (taking 10 is a bit debatable here, so avoid arguments and go for the roll which is more fun). Speed of movement is technically half, but typically in 99% of the cases it's irrelevant, so you don't need to normally apply penalties for speeding it up.- The Listen check suffers distance penalties (-1 every 10ft) plus additional penalties if there's a closed door (-5) or a wall (-15) between. I suggest you default to Take 10 instead of rolling! Use the minimum distance during the whole movement to determine the penalty.- IMHO you can handle the whole "sneak past the guards" with one only check, but it's better instead to require additional checks if the PC is attempting something more complicated, for instance sneaking into the guards room + grabbing a key hanging from the wall + sneaking out: this could be more exciting if you divide it in 3 checks.- Remember that circumstance bonuses/penalties are your DM's best friends to adjust the difficulty depending on the situation and on what exactly the PC is trying to do without being heard (e.g. grabbing the key may be more difficult than moving -> give a -2 penalty to the Move Silently roll).Hide VS SpotThis skill is more controversial. It was mentioned by some of the designers (Monte Cook?) that it was originally intended more for "moving out of sight" rather than "staying out of sight". This is why the skill description focuses on movement.However IMXP the players (and NPC too) are much, much more likely to try and use this skill to find concealment and remain hidden or to try and walk within the shadows to get somewhere unseen. Unfortunately the RAW does not support this enough! There are no rules e.g. telling you how hard it is to spot someone hiding in foliage vs someone hiding behind a curtain etc.To stay hidden behind total cover or total concealment normally doesn't even require a roll (if no one has seen you when you moved into hiding). But unfortunately for everything else you have to make up House Rules.</blockquote>

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