Talking Stealth in the DS RPG.

You can find the Pre-Order page here.
You can find the download page for the new Stealth Beta and the Talking Stealth article here.
You can find the comment form here.

Talking Stealth. by Mark Ellis Harmon and Susan Van Camp

Stealth is a basic skill that compliments other skills and gives the GM and Players a way to expand the abilities of their characters.

When building out a character Stealth skills plays a role in thievery, scouting, hunting, assassinations and a number of additional background concepts. To allow starting characters the ability to sneak around hamlets as they grew up we put a very low CP on the Stealth Anchor.

While stealth is a commonly needed skill, it has been associated with thievery in the minds of the general population in Elethay, Neutral and Jikadell dominated areas of the world. Some bandit gangs and barbarian tribes have made stealth a fundamental part of their way of life, and proudly use it. This has not helped stealth's reputation, but it does give a hint of where one may find a Mentor. Mentors in hamlets, villages and towns work diligently to keep their skills secret. When discovered they are labeled as thieves, no matter what the truth is. When the local constables go out to round up "the usual suspects" everyone known to possess Stealth is on the list.

As we designed these Stealth skill cards we tried to give a sense of what they are meant to do. We always design cards with "loose" rules to allow players and GM's to apply the skills in new and creative ways. We realize that this policy causes questions, but making specific rules reduces the role-playing possibilities. A few people will attempt to abuse the cards. As usual we rely on the players to use these skills in the spirit of the game and help other players understand that abuse reduces the games fun. As a last resort the GM can use rule 3.4 to control card use. Try not to make your GM resort to this.

There were several additional cards for Stealth in the early Beta stages. We rejected them for a number of reasons. Some did not fit the Grandilar background. A couple were just too mechanical and "felt" wrong. Others seemed to interfere with role-playing and the flow of the game.

The cards we dropped because they would be better when role-played were Sneak Attack and Set Ambush. The plans, actions and role-playing of the characters controls these actions better than a card does.

We dropped Combat Stealth because defining it was just too complex and the result was just rules mechanics. A player can use Ind's to use stealth in combat. From the players description of what they are doing the GM can determine how it affects combat by granting extra damage, DEF or any other MOD that seems appropriate.

When a terrible two occurs when using stealth skills the player can create and role-play their own characters difficulty, or they can just tell the GM and let her imagination go to work. Both ways can be highly entertaining for the group in general.

If the stealth user gets an exploding dice roll the skill may succeed without comment, or the GM may grant additional bonuses in the game.

Classic Compatibility. Classic Stealth and Thievery anchors do not work with 2.0 Stealth. There are also Deluxe Era cards like Pick Locks, Disarm Traps, Pick Pockets and Quick Fingers that do not combine with 2.0 Stealth cards.

As usual we will carefully read any comments on these cards that players and GM's send us through the forms on the webpage.