Hiding And Stealth in RP
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Hiding And Stealth in RP
Between ninjas, vampires, and all sorts of other character types- hiding and stealth have always been and are more and more so becoming a very popular addition to templates within the community. However, while many of us are all about using game mechanics to their full extent, we are still are role players. We pretend for the sake of accuracy and fun. Having said such, there are rules or guidelines one should follow if they are to use the skills of hiding and stealth on a role play character. The following are some do's and dont's that I think would be beneficial for those of us with stealth to keep in mind.
Stealthing with skill vs stealthing purely rply:
If your character is such a type that stealthing is a more regular thing, than you will most likely have the skill fairly high. Even if you have the stealth skill though, sometimes it can be more beneficial to roleplay stealth even if your character is perfectly visible ooc. Most good roleplayers will acknowledge that they do not have eyes in the back of their head, and not everyone has super amazing hearing either. The key is to be smart about how you role play stealthing, ie walking slowly, always using the cover of terrain, etc. Most importantly in this would be allowing yourself to make mistakes, so that the other person might hear you, just to make things more interesting. Now I'm not saying that roleplaying stealth is neccessary, you worked the skill and you absolutely have the right to use it. I do myself on many occassions, just try to keep it realistic. If you are in a 7x7 empty house with you and one other person, you should have a damn good excuse if you expect them not to see you. Sometimes using the stealth skill as oppose to just rping it is more beneficial as the person is completely unaware that you are following them, which can then make it more realistic. How you stealth is up to you, just try not to abuse the mechanics of the game or it looses its value. Personally I reccomend using both methods.
Hiding in plain sight:
This is generally not a good thing to do. In real life, you can follow people by blending in, and by sticking to the shadows and using terrain to your advantage. If someone is looking straight at you, there is nowhere to hide, so why do it in rp? I will admit that there are some exceptions. For example, certain kinds of vampires have abilities concerning shadow or the mind specifically, allowing them to fade from sight or convince the veiwer that they do not actually see anyone there. This is an exception, but a rare one still. The truth is that in most cases, even if your character is gifted at walking without being seen or detected (a drow for example), if someone is looking right at you it isn't going to work. So in short, try not to do this.
Attacking from Stealth (Ninjas, assassins, etc) Attacking someone from stealth can sometimes be a touchy subject as it borders the line on certain rp rules. One may argue that if killing on sight isn't allowed and roleplay is required before battle, attacking from the shadows is out of the question. Rules are put in place for a reason, but lets try not to enforce them so strictly that it eliminates potential for great rp. I know there are plenty of you who get giddy at the thought of making an assassination, and why not? When it comes to this, just keep in mind that there are ooc considerations to be made:
1)Generally you don't have to say where or when, but if you are going to try and assassinate someone you should tell them ooc that hey it may happen. This is common curtesy, and while some of you may argue that it kills the realism if they know that does not neccessarily have to be the case. Giving someone a heads up doesn't require you to give them all the details, its no more than a polite warning. That way you get to kill them without them knowing where or when, and they feel comfortable in knowing that when they get attacked durring dinner, its not some random guild pk taking out their vengence.
2)If you pop out of hiding in the middle of a tavern full of people and kill someone, unless you use some sort of distraction..chances are you wouldn't be able to just dissapear into thin air. So make a run for it, start a fire, whatever, but try not to insta hide and stealth to safety.
Getting Revealed
When it comes to stealthing, every so often you will be revealed. Unfortunately this can happen at the worst of times, but it is role play none the less, so roll with it. A stealther must understand that just as even the most skilled of characters can make mistakes, whether that mistake is an loud snapping twig or a hole in the ground. No matter what the case, you aren't perfect, no one is. When you get revealed, just be rational about it. If you get revealed but you are still behind the large group of people and no one is looking at you, than fine, dash behind a corner and try to re approach the group from another angle. If you get revealed in the middle of a group of people though, we get back to my second point- It is both unlikely and unrealistic that you could hide right in front of them. Yes yes there may be exceptions, but keeping our role play as realistic as possible makes it all the more enjoyable.
And Finally..
The points I have made on the subject are simple and reasonable enough. There is certainly other aspects to stealth that can be explained. There are also several related subjects that one should keep in mind, such as revealing and tracking. Those however I believe belong in a different essay and will not discuss here. I may make more additions to this writing as they come to me but for now I will end with some well written examples by an rper from Eruopa:
Ok, you can hide. Be it at the old Grandmaster level and nearly never fail...or just fail nearly constantly. It's handy to have, without it you can't really stealth..some hints and tips/guidelines follow. 1st Scenario
You're in the street, a fair few people are around, one or two are directly in front of you, they're guards, they look angry, they want to arrest you, one reaches out to grab you, you hide....STOP there. You cant hide when someones thisdamnclosetoyou maybe if theres some space around you or theres someone the other side of the street. I'm afraid it just shouldn't happen.
2nd Scenario
You're wandering along the street, see some guards noticing you, you panic, hide and don a disguise, good idea but with certain flaws. One the guards have noticed you, then noticed you hid. You haven't stealthed away. You haven't moved, I know the guards may come across as stupid but someone 'appearing' where you recently disappeared just may not fool 'em straight away. It may even cause them to take even more notice of yourself and area you just 'vacated'.
3rd Scenario
You pop your head around a wall and notice some guards, you run back around the corner and quickly hide. They didn't notice you as they were not looking your way. You stealth past them. They don't notice, they can't see the person who just hid around the corner as more than likely they cannot track around corners as only people with high tracking can realistically do this. Even more so when in town and on cobbles. You get past, you're safe...
4th Scenario
You're hidden and quite happily stealthing along and someone with the ever annoying Detect Hidden skill reveals you passively, you're now in view, more often than not, with the person/people looking at you. Do you look innocent and walk away, or draw even more attention to yourself and hide instantly again? I'll leave this one to you. Overall, hiding when in plain view of people is a slight no no. Use your common sense overall, go around a corner. Stand in a nook or cranny. Stand behind them. They have to use line of sight, so last I checked I never had any eyes in the back of my head and I'd be seriously worried if I saw a guard who did.
Written by Samson