Stealth Scene

Some challenges are best dealt with by engaging in stealth. Stealth is used when players want to get from point A to point B without being detected. This can allow for both pacifism or the quick assassination of single targets.

The Stealth Section

As in the Travel Scene, stealth scenes are often about getting to a destination but unlike it, stealth scenes are more concerned with getting there completely undetected. Doing so means the party wins.

Stealth scenes can be taken as a solo or as a party endeavor. No matter who is participating, there are several constants:

1. The stealth roll is made at the beginning of the scene and can be rerolled at any time, but at a risk or negative effect to the party (as like with a half-pass).
2. In order to move from one area to the next, the player must use their actions to think of a way to overcome the challenge presented.
3. NPCs roll to detect you—with varying levels of (dis)advantage depending on what they are doing.
4. Even IF an NPC detects you, those participating in a stealth scene have a collective total of 3 failsafes, which are ways a PC explains why an NPC does not detect them.

Rolling for Stealth

As stated before, a stealth roll is made at the beginning of the scene. An individual rolls and determines their variable of success; a group all rolls together (as in a set-piece Chase Scene, and determines their variable of success.

Moving to the Next Challenge

in a stealth scene, a character must go through several zones to get to where they wan to go. Each zone has a challenge within it made by the GM that the player or party or group must overcome. At the start of the stealth scene, the GM announces how many zones the players must go through to get to their destination. Many of the challenges a GM might pose involve NPCs.

GMs, feel free to use the travel grid from the Travel Scene to help demonstrate progression to your table, especially if they have to juggle multiple objectives.

NPC Detection and Party Failsafes

Any NPC in the same zone as the player, party, or group get to roll to see if they become aware of their presence. They roll a contesting roll against the party’s established stealth; if they roll the same or better variable of success, the NPCs detect them! These rolls are modified depending on what the NPC is doing or how they feel. For example, an NPC not actively looking for the party rolls at disadvantage, and an NPC doing a task or facing away rolls at double disadvantage.
If an NPC detects the players, there are several ways to escalate tension, namely “failsafes”

Failsafes

fail-safes are life-lines a player, party, or group can use to enable players to stave off detection. However, when using a fail date the player, party, or group must give a narrative description of what happens that causes the NPC to instead fail their roll. Does a large flock of birds suddenly fly off? Do the players cause a light to go out? —this is entirely up to the players, but their fail safe cannot harm the NPC unless the GM agrees to it.

Who Goes There: Running out of Failsafes

When a party runs out of fail-safes, the NPCs will begin a Travel Scene to attempt to track the party. Place the grid on the table, and the NPCs will make skill checks to correctly advance toward the party. When an NPC is within the same zone as the party, they no longer have disadvantage to roll to detect the player, party, or group unless they do something to hide and conceal themselves.

From here, the players have raised stakes to get to their objective, and the scene may change to a chase or combat or social scene should the player, party, or group be discovered

Advanced Stealth Guide

The following represent concepts and rules players can use to benefit them in a stealth scene.

Optional Rule: Pretend instead of Stealth

Sometimes, a player will want to use a disguise instead, or may want to blend in and fit the part, in this case, the player may roll both a Stealth check with the rules as specified above, and a Pretend check also with the rules for stealth as specified above.
Pretend will measure your ability to look and play the part, not just blending in. If you say something that doesn't fit the part in Roleplay or if you speak to someone of great importance within the organization--specified explicitly or implicitly by the GM, the target is allowed to make a Spine check.

Targeting an NPC while in a Stealth Scene

You can target an NPC who has not detected you to get a bonus to your damage. Attacking an NPC who is unaware of the player character gives the player doubled advantage to attack; on a successful attack, the damage is triple the base weapon rank damage if the target is unaware. If the attack requires the target to make a save, the target(s) make the saves at disadvantage. This attack, as will all attacks can be either lethal or nonlethal. On Nonlethal, the target is knocked out.

Hiding the Body

A body can be left where it is, in which case it can be discovered by other NPCs, causing them to become on edge and grouping up together at key choke points to find the intruder. To avoid this, a player can make either a force check to forcibly move the body and/or shove it into a space or an interface check check to discreetly hide the body using the environment around them.

Range of Detection and Obscurity

A Range of Detection dictates how easily a character should be able to notice their surroundings. For this reason, range of detection accounts is abstracted from a the main senses. As such, one can only roll to detect a player character so long as the NPC are in the same or adjacent zone as the player characters are.
This roll can be modified depending on how obscure the player character is. Obscurity refers to environmental or personal effects used to affect whether a player character is seen, smelled, or heard. Obscuring sight could be due to a crowd, fog, or diving underwater, and obscuring sight could be lost when a player moves; obscuring smell could be a result of rain, wearing perfume, or wearing another person's clothes; and obscuring hearing could be due to loud noises. The four types of obscurity are: No obscurity (normal Perception roll), light obscurity (disadvantaged perception roll), heavy obscurity (double disadvantaged perception roll), and complete obscurity (auto-fail perception roll).