Lone Wolf Fists: Skills pt. 3: Sneak attacks and the detecting thereof

Senses has been an interesting skill to work on. You may have noticed, astute reader, that the first three tiers are broadly "What a normal person can do" followed by "what a skilled person can do" followed by "the limit known of human capability".

Those heights of human capability are difficult to quantify. I've been going by Olympic records in the case of running speed and lifting strength. Intellect was a peculiar one; I basically strapped more geniuses together to simulate the powers of beyond-human intelligence.

But senses has been fascinating. The true range of what human beings perceive (and can process tactically) is extraordinary. Like for instance, meet the man who can echolocate:

Daniel there begins that video riding a bike via echolocation. Clearly, this is a sense within human parameters. Therefore it's got to go on the lower part of the chart, something reachable by normal humans without magic.

That left me with a lot of space on the upper reaches of the chart; how many ranks until your scent is as keen as a wolf's? Or your eyes able to focus like a microscope on the bacterial world? What senses lie beyond that, so far divorced from human capabilities?

And that was half of the problem with senses. Because senses is also the stealth skill.

I feel like that decision requires justification (why not wed it to Agility, similar to other games hiding mechanics?)

A few reasons. The out-of game rational came first in this case; tie too much to your dexterity equivalent, and you make it unambiguously the best stat: it becomes the dreaded "one true build", which you want to avoid for variety and strategy's sake.

If I split it between two stats (Agility to hide, Senses to seek) I'm still favoring Agility; it's the proactive skill, as it's wed to your ability to sneak attack, while Senses is merely your insurance against sneak attacks.

So fusing the ability to sneak attack with the ability to detect it allows a "Senses build" style of character a unique, proactive strategic option, with a built-in ranking system between such combatants (the sneakiest sneak character would have a clear advantage, incentivizing the less sneaky one to pursue a different tactical approach rather than direct stealth competition).

There is in-game rational behind it as well; the sharper your senses, the better you're able to account for your own obviousness. In this way, senses is a broader skill, representing a control of situational awareness, rather than just sense acuity. This meshes with our overall design paradigm of broadly capable, ranked characters nicely.

Also, because every character has every skill, sneak builds can never catch a powerful character at a complete disadvantage; they still have Focus Slots and the Effort Pool, and their sets can be used for Senses as well as any other skill.

Characters with a strong investment in sneaking will have a clear advantage in this tactical approach, but not to a game-crippling degree. Of course, I expect that such characters will invest in poisons or other tactical diversification, but that's part of a healthy metagame. As long as sneaking is one of many viable strategic paths, it's part of the careful imbalance of a tactically challenging design.

So without further introduction, the Senses skill:

Senses

The skill of the five senses, situational awareness and physical subtlety. When characters need to get information about their surroundings, move and hide, or notice minute detail, they use this skill. Use Senses when you must:

• Hide or sneak
• Detect anything with the five senses
• Gather details from your environment

Senses Effect Chart

Rank 0 / Mortal: Unrolled Observe any obvious thing with the five senses. Hide in a perfectly concealing spot, like behind a concrete wall or inside a chest

Rank 1 / Capable Mortal: Result 10-19 Notice subtle or hidden details, like the outline of a hidden door or a camouflaged soldier. Hide in a reasonably concealing spot, such as deep shadows or a dense shrub

Rank 2 / Peak Mortal: Result 20-29 Notice well-hidden or extremely subtle details: you could uncover a spy’s false identity by observing their body language or smell a poison in cooked food. Hide in a partially concealed spot, such as a dim room with no furniture or sparse vegetation

Rank 3 / Enhanced: Result 30-39 Use a hyper-elevated sense to substitute for another, such as using echolocation to “see” in complete darkness or scent to sense the emotional state of another through their pheromones. Hide without camouflage by unobtrusively occupying your environment, minimizing your shadow, and angling your body to flow with your surroundings

Rank 4 / Superhuman: Result 40-49 Push your senses to mind-boggling levels; see the tiniest flea, or to the limit of the horizon with perfect detail; hear every conversation within a city block with absolute clarity; feel the minute imperfections in soil from hundred-year-old track. Hide from the mind’s eye; even as the most noticeable detail of your surroundings, the mind refuses to see you unless you draw attention to yourself

Rank 5 / Titanic: Result 50-59 Push past the membrane of senses to the truth that underlies them; see through solid objects with x-ray vision; “see” the layout and all inhabitants of a complex by feeling the vibrations in its wall; determine the exact chemical composition of anything via smell. Hide by walking behind light and thus becoming invisible, save for a feint blur of motion when you move

Rank 6 / Minor God: Result 60-69 Detect details as the most sensitive of scientific instruments; you can focus your eyesight as keenly as a telescope or microscope, flawlessly revealing the mysteries of astral and molecular reality. Hide from mechanical detection; x-rays, radar, sonar, thermal imaging, etc.

…

Rank 7 / Demigod: Result 70-79 Perceive the rough shape of the fabric of time. In addition to the present, you may perceive any event in the past or near future with the same subatomic scrutiny as the previous rank. Hide from the past, diminishing your importance in memory and historical records so that your identity vanishes from the world’s recollection

Rank 8 / Major God: Result 80-89 Perceive the fabric of time and reality in great definition; you can perfectly perceive any place, no matter how concealed, on the same planet as you as though you were observing it directly. You could see through the planet’s crust and core to the other side, or backwards in time to witness the past as clearly as the present. Hide from the weft of fate, so that you cannot suffer Zui consequences or be detected by any magic


Stealth

A character may hide with a Senses action. They cannot be observed or attacked until they are detected by another character’s Senses action of equal or higher result.
A hidden character will reveal themselves by attacking or performing any conspicuous or noisy action.

However, any attack launched from stealth has a powerful advantage. Defenders cannot use any Techniques to bolster their defense against such strikes; they must rely on defenses from their Effort pool alone.

A character launching an Attack with a Subtle weapon does not lose the benefit of Stealth. These weapons are prized by assassins
Techniques that bolster Senses can be used to defend against surprise attacks. Other prized defenses can defend against them as well; these will describe their defensive capabilities under their Power entry.

Once revealed, the character is revealed to everyone in the Scene and must take a Senses action again to regain the benefits of being hidden.