There are many different skills to be aware of during this roleplay, but one of the most crucial skillsets to all characters are those concerning their stealthiness.
Though not all thieves need to be skilled in stealth (support personnel is also important), generally, the smaller the organisation you work for, the more people you need to do the sneaking and burglary itself. If you're a freelancer, you're outright required to learn stealthiness. If you work for a fairly large guild, you might find a comfortable and useful position for your character even if you don't prefer stealth. It's all about one's priorities and ideas on what feasible approach he wants to take.
1.) TYPES OF STEALTH
The RP doesn't restrict itself to just one particular type of stealth, instead offering each character several possible routes of how to deal with the challenge of blending in, avoiding detection and handling concealment well. However, the practicality and effectiveness of these variations on stealth can vary accordingly on the context of the exact situation and location they occur in.
a.) Light-and-Shadows Stealth
When anyone usually talks about stealth, the first thing to come to one's mind is the idea of remaining unseen when you do not wish to be seen by others. Out of sight, out of mind, preferrably to its logical extreme - becoming nearly ghost-like in your sneaking around. Unsurprisingly, light-and-shadows stealth has two major facets: 1. It is best conducted during night time or during weather with lowered visibility. 2. One must learn to navigate the often delicate and ambiguous line between shadows and sources of light, as there are hardly any clean-cut borders, just various degrees of transition.
Player professions of note: Lightsneaking teacher, Skulker, Adventurer
b.) Aural Stealth
Being unseen doesn't guarantee you complete discretion. Concealing the sounds you make with every single of your louder movements is just as important. And often, it can be even more difficult than simply hiding in the shadows or behind cover. Particularly if you want to pull it off in a satisfying way. Nevertheless, sneaking around quietly and not causing much ruckus is one thing you should certainly never underestimate during your training and experience gaining. While hard to master, the reward for finding a succesful pattern for silent-enough movement will reward you many times over, even in situations where you might least expect it. Much like with Light-and-Shadows Stealth, Aural Stealth can be seen as a small science unto itself, if not outright a complicated artform. It's not just about learning different patterns of loudness while walking, crawling or climbing, or about the choice of clothing you make when you set off for your latest thievy endeavour. The thoroughly studied knowledge about the loudness of various types of surfaces is what you should really start off with, as it will always be your essential “ABC of Stealth” (along with your knowledge on sources of light and their mutual differences). No surface is ever the same as the other, even if they consist of the exact same material. Wooden floors, doors and windows tend to be safe but might creak, carpets and padded surfaces mostly conceal you steps and movements, stone and tiled floors can easily give you away if you don't develop enough skill to work around their potential treachery… You are a thief. You are not a supernatural being, but for the sake of being unheard and thus unspotted, you might as well become one (at face value, to the commoners).
Player professions of note: Sounsneaking teacher, Skulker, Adventurer
c.) Disguise Stealth
This approach opts for the risky, but otherwise straightforward “hidden in plain sight” method of concealing one's own presence. Instead of creating a convincing illussion of non-existence, the focus is on creating as convincing an illussion of the genuineness of one's false identity. This stealth option is effectively available to everyone and can prove effective even for a dilligent enough amateur in the field. But it is most popular among those that dabble in the Master of Disguise specialisation (popular among freelancers and guildsmen alike). Disguising yourself is not merely an act of putting on the appropriate clothes, footwear, headgear and wig or fake moustache. Its complexities also involve learning how to modulate one's own behaviour and personal tics into an altogether different kind of behaviour and habits. Coaching and taming one's aural and verbal expressions is not to be underestimated either - sometimes, an otherwise brilliant disguise can fail purely on the basis of a few misplaced words and phrases, insufficient knowledge of the local situation and premises, or an unconvincing accent. Disguise Stealth is as much reliant on one's language and social skills as it is reliant on outward ruses.
Player professions of note: Master of Disguise, Gentleman thief / Lady thief, Shadowblade
Visual stealth
Visual self-awareness: The skill at keeping aware about one's own body movements while sneaking or hiding. Even in environments well suited to easy and effortless sneaking, there is no guarantee that the thief (or thieves) in question can't make the occassional mistake. Willingly or inadvertently… Before one can truly ponder skillfully skulking past well-lit areas, tricky patrols and hard to ascertain safety measures, he/she needs to know his/her own physical limitations and capabilities. This includes learning about one's own recurring mistakes and oversights while sneaking, such as inadequate speed or posture, inattention to the casting of your shadow, etc.
Spatial awareness and orientation: A skill focused on observing and understanding one's surroundings while sneaking, at any given moment. Exterior spaces, but particularly interior spaces of different sizes, heights, distances, and surfaces, all require different approaches to traversing them. There is also the issue of horizontal movement versus vertical movement. A thief, particularly a burglar, will often be forced to contemplate and attempt a vertical ascent or descent in order to get to his desired location or target. Being able to assess what places are safe or effective to tread, climb or crawl through might seem like a minor thing, but during sneaking, hiding and even escaping, this skill can turn into a matter of life and death.
Light-and-shadow intuition: A skill that is not easy to explain, and is even less easy to master. This is simply an individual's personal intuition (for lack of a better term) at assessing the transition from light to dark and from dark to light. Well, not always complete dark - rather, very dark shadows - but the aforementioned basis is fully in place. Shadows and darkness are the best friends of a stealthy thief. Having a knack for telling which shadows are visually safe enough, and which are only so-so or not safe at all, can sometimes be the tipping point point in whether one gets revealed and caught or not. The importance of this skill is quite high and it is improved only after several months or years of sneaking experience.
Shadow-skulking: Skill at hiding in shadows and shadowy spaces without drawing the attention of adversaries to oneself. This isn't necessarily a static matter, as it often involves a person moving around in the shadows, in order to decrease the probability of eventually getting caught. Shadow-skulking is a very essential skill for all thieves who specialise on classic, visual-aural stealth.
Hiding: Skill at hiding both in shadowy spaces and well-lit spaces. Most commonly used when it's not safe or available to hide/skulk in the shadows, and a person needs to quickly find a space to hide in from potential adversaries. The skill reflects one's knack for finding an improvised hiding place even under extreme pressure and unfavourable odds. Even something as simple as temporarily hiding in a shipping crate (and hoping no one sees you) counts as an utilisation of hiding from plain sight.
Leaning: Skill at leaning carefully around the corner, in order to get a sneak peek of what might be going on beyond it. Emphasis on carefully. Leaning is a skill that appears easy, but it is actually rather hard to master. It's also a risk course of action, even for the best-trained of thieves, as there's always a potential margin of error involved in virtually any lean from behind a corner. Even the most careful ones. As great a skill as leaning is for stealthily observing one's nearest surroundings obscured by obstacles, far too many rookie thieves tend to underestimate its effectiveness and value. Don't be one of them…
Sneaking balance: More often that not, the art of sneaking around requires at least a degree of crouching. This is rather necessary in order to minimise one's height-related conspicuousness and the loudness and speed of one's leg movements. Unfortunately, the need for crouched or very slow walking is not exactly a natural style of gait for any humanoid, and can pose some problems. One of the most immediate is one's balance while walking, even on a perfectly safe, secure and wide enough surface. Especially after some long, tiresome or difficult bit of sneaking, there is always the off-chance of stumbling or otherwise erring when you'd least want to. Practing your balance and learning when to not push it too far during sneaking can prove very helpful.
Crouched walking: The stealthy movement skill for situations where lowering your physical height for better concealment in shadows is crucial, and walking speed doesn't need to be fast. Walking upright while sneaking around, even in poorly lit locations, can still give away a thief's presence very easily if he/she is not careful. Crouched walking is a simple tactic offering a reasonable compromise between swiftness of walking movement and the probability of being seen more easily by potential adversaries.
Creeping: The stealthy movement skill for situations where you can afford to walk upright or just slightly hunched down, but still need to walk slowly and carefully to avoid making much noise. Creeping's main advantage is in greater ease of moving fluidly from slower to faster walking speed or even to running, something that's not available for the crouched walking method. Creeping has its uses, but is generally used more sparringly than crouched walking.
Crawling: The stealthy movement skill for situations where you're forced to use the local environment to greatly lower your risk of being seen by adversaries (e.g. crawling in tall grass in a relatively well-lit area, with few shadows to hide in), or for overcoming obstacles where walking upright isn't a possible solution (e.g. crawling threw a tight space with a very low ceiling, etc.).
Apparel disguise: In a pinch, a skill useful to just about all thieves, but it is particularly useful for larcenous individuals specialising in spying and intelligence gathering. As the name implies, this skill focuses on how well one has (or can) disguise himself by wearing clothing that helps him blend in with other people, avoiding or lessening suspicion. Effective use of clothing as a disguise is dependent on good knowledge of the local social context, on a carefully thought out approach (pre-planned being the safest) and even a little bit of luck and intuition (once a thief is in the lion's den, with the disguise maybe his only shoddy protection from capture or other reprisals).
Facial disguise: In a pinch, a skill useful to just about all thieves, but it is particularly useful for larcenous individuals specialising in spying and intelligence gathering. As the name implies, this skill focuses on how well one has (or can) disguise his face in order to blend in with a crowd when it's occassionally really needed. Beware though. Unlike with other forms of disguises, this one can be something of a double-edged sword. Disguising your face too much or too conspicuously (e.g. wearing a scarf below the eyes in broad daylight) is bound to actually draw attention to you, including that of law enforcement units. Sometimes, a suitably subtle way of hiding one's facial features can be preferable.
Concealing items: In a pinch, a skill useful to just about all thieves, but it is particularly useful for larcenous individuals specialising in spying and intelligence gathering. For professional thieves, space for carrying useful gear is always limited. The gear usually has to be worn on the outside, commonly on the person's belt, or more rarely on the back or over the shoulder. A useful way to get around that is training to conceal small objects in one's clothing (e.g. tiny loot in small amounts, smaller and stealthier tools or weapons). All without making it apparent to any bystanders - admittedly, the hardest part of such an endeavour…
Aural stealth
Aural
self-awareness: The skill at keeping aware about the sounds
made by one's own body movements while sneaking or hiding. Even in
environments well suited to easy and effortless sneaking, there is no
guarantee that the thief (or thieves) in question can't make the
occassional mistake. Willingly or inadvertently… Before one can
truly ponder skillfully skulking past areas with loud surfaces,
tricky patrols and hard to ascertain safety measures, he/she needs to
know his/her own physical limitations and capabilities. This includes
learning about one's own recurring mistakes and oversights while
sneaking, such as overly heavy footsteps, overly fast walking or
creeping speed, ignoring subtle differences between surface types,
ignoring the sound impact of the amount and nature of gear and loot
you're carrying, etc.
Sound propagation awareness:
An important and helpful skill for sound-based stealth. One's
awareness of how sound spreads in a particular, specific environment,
based on the shape of its spaces, and on the current outside or
interior conditions affecting the environment.
Sound direction awareness: An important and helpful skill for sound-based stealth. It's simply one's awareness of the direction from which a particular sound is emanating from, or which direction it's approaching you from. Easier said than done, though… Often, you have to wait a short while until you can truly make out the exact direction of the sound, and the some sound is coming from. How sound spreads is not based only on the shape of the surrounding environment, but also on the distance of the sound's point of origin from you, and even on something as uncontrollable as weather conditions. Oh yes, under certain atmospheric conditions, your hunch about the direction a sound is coming from can get outright muddled or misinterpreted until you properly figure it out.
Knowledge
of surfaces: A crucial skill for successful use of
sound-based stealth. The world isn't a place that accomodates thieves
easily. True, some urban or natural landscapes can be surprisingly
helpful playgrounds when one wants to travel or sneak around in
unpredictable ways, but beyond that, it's not exactly rosy. One of
the biggest omnipresent annoyances to a sneaky professional thief are
the different volume levels and sound qualities of different types of
surfaces. Mention marble-tiled floors, iron grating or gravel
surfaces to a thief, and he/she will near-memetically frown with
annoyance. But mention soft low-growing grass or a dry dirt floor,
and he/she might raise his/her eyebrows and nod in appreciation. Know
your surface, for every surface is different from the other, and
there's a multitude of even basic surface types. It might decide
about your sneaking more than you think, more than anything else. You
can stand around in bright light if no one's around to see you, but
start making an inadvertent ruckus and people will hear you even if
they don't exactly see you.
Soft-foot: The
skill at timing one's gait and putting down one's sole onto a surface
in as silent and careful a manner as possible. It's generally best
used in conjunction with the “Aural self-awareness” and
“Knowledge of surfaces” skills. The latter two help guide the
player into knowing the current state of his personal limits when it
comes to moving around silently. In turn, the “Soft-foot” skill
takes care of carrying out the input from those two skills into
careful, sound-conscious walking actions.
Silent five-fingers: Similar to the Soft-foot skill in its focus on the amount of sound the player creates with his limbs. In this case, the skill focuses on how carefully the player's character can pick up, move, put back down, and otherwise manipulate various items or small bits of furniture. This also counts for loot the items one is stealing, of course. Avoiding the loud chinking of coins, the creaking of chests or the slamming of a jewellery box's lid can sometimes make quite a difference (especially in interiors where one can't shut a door and isolate a particular room from the rest of the building at least for a short while).
Eavesdropping: A less important skill, but invaluable for gathering precious and helpful intel. The skill focuses on quietly and carefully eavesdropping behind closed doors (with an ear to the door), under opened or ajar windows, or even just listening to a conversation from behind the corner. Eavesdropping can be tricky, as it can take even a skilled thief out of his usual comfort zone or preferred secure hiding place. On one hand, you want to overhear conversations or recordings, but on the other hand, you don't want to accidentally reveal your position and get caught.
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See also (related topics)
- Gameplay: Movement skills
- Gameplay: Exploration, investigation and burglary skills
- Gameplay: Sneaking professions
- Gameplay: Lockpicking
- Tools of the trade: Lockpicking tools and equipment
- Tools of the trade: Trick arrows and other projectiles
- Tools of the trade: Trick bombs and trick mines
- Tools of the trade: Exploration, travel and work tools and equipment
- Tools of the trade: Clothing and footwear
- Tools of the trade: Melee weapons
- Tools of the trade: Ranged weapons
- Tools of the trade: Armour and protective clothing
See also (other skills)
- Gameplay: Dialogue, diplomatic and social skills
- Gameplay: Combat skills and self-defence
- Gameplay: Managerial skills
- Gameplay: Artisan skills
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(C) 2017 - 2024 P. Molnár
(C) 2017 - 2024 Knight-Errant Studios
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