Inconspicuous in Combat, Take Two

[LordSmerf]

As i mentioned briefly in the Inconspicuous Death thread we've been toying with a way of using the Inconspicuous skill in combat.

This is based on the personal preference locally that if you don't assess in combat you don't see anything but what is directly in front of you. What we were thinking was, possibly through the use of a Training Skill, you may Script "Inconspicuous" in combat.

We were thinking something like this:

If you have Inconspicuous scripted on the same action that someone has an Assess scripted you treat it like an Perception vs Inconspicuous roll. If you script multiple consecutive Assesses each one adds an extra die to your Perception roll up to a maximum of half your Perception bonus dice (like Aiming).

If you fail to spot someone who is using Inconspicuous in combat you don't notice their presence. This means that you can not script actions against them. We acknowledge that this is very powerful, but we feel that it is balanced by the fact that the only way for it to work is for you to be scripting Inconspicuous on the action they assess on, otherwise they do spot you. So far it seems that effective use requires you to script Inconspicuous for most of your actions...

We're looking for impressions from people who aren't as close to the situation as we are. Does this seem to be an interesting rule? Does it add something to the game? Is it balanced?

Thanks...

Thomas

[Kublai]

Using Inconpicuous and Stealth in combat is fine and we do it occassionally. It counts as a physical action. Use the standard Per vs Skill test to see if spotted.

As it is now, I believe the intent of the three different Perception tests - Glance, Look, and Assess(?) - grants you larger fields of vision and more levels of detail. A glance gives you information on the opponent in front of you. A Look covers from shoulder to shoulder. An Assess(?) gives you information about the entire battle.

I think granting extra Perception dice is way too powerful. It would also set a precedent for non-combat situations, which is a bad thing.

[LordSmerf]

The third level of assess is "Search" i believe.

You have an interesting point about the extra dice being powerful. I agree, but we did want it that way. As for setting a precedent, i definately hope that's not the case, the idea was for this to be the same as aiming which would hopefully be following an earlier precedent.

Basically what we're aiming for is: it's hard to be inconspicuous in combat. If anyone is really paying attention then you'll probably get spotted. Think about it, if you are inconspicuous in combat people don't really take note of you, but in a combat situation you don't have random, uninvovled citizens walking through the combat zone (i hope).

Thanks for the feedback though, and i'll talk with the group about eliminating the bonus dice for successive actions...

Thomas