From tripwires to deadly assassins to a storage nook behind a wall painting, hidden people and objects help spice up the experience of The Broken Hourglass. Here, we briefly explain the rules for hiding as well as finding that which has been hidden.
Although individual characters have their own sight range, from a mechanics standpoint all members of the same party are considered to be sharing the same knowledge about the people and things they can see. This reasonably approximates one party member's ability to alert companions that "He's heading your way!" or "Look out! She's behind you!" When people or things are hidden, then, they are potentially hidden from every single party in the game.
Hiding Characters and Creatures
Any character or creature with at least one point in the Stealth skill may attempt to hide at any time. As far as they are aware, they are now hidden.
An opposing individual or party which encounters the hidden creature will spot it if its Perception score exceeds the Stealth score of the hider. Perception is a group skill, meaning that when party members are within a certain radius of one another, they are able to fractionally combine their abilities to have a better chance of locating a hider than they would on their own. (Group skills were discussed in a previous Rules and Mechanics installment).
Example:
Messenger is attempting to sneak past both the Guards and the Player Party. Messenger's Stealth score is 25.
The Guards have a combined Perception score of 20.
The Player Party has a combined Perception score of 30.
The Player Party will spot the Messenger, but the Guards will not.
The benefits of hiding from opponents speak for themselves:
- If you are hidden, you cannot be targeted by an attack. You might still get caught up in the effects of a spell targeting a radius of effect, however.
- Opponents with other special events which only occur when they spot you (such as alerting reinforcements) will not act.
- You may make a sneak attack against an enemy. Sneak attacks resolve faster than normal attacks and the opponent receives a massive penalty to his or her Defense Roll. Sneak attacks are not guaranteed to hit, but they are far more likely to hit and hit for significant damage than a normal attack.
When opponents are hidden from the player, they will not appear on the screen. For the sake of convenience, when the player hides one or more of his or her characters, those characters are only partially ghosted on the screen.
Someone who is hidden may decide to unhide at any time-this reveals their presence to all observers. (You cannot say "I will only reveal myself to the Reds, but not to the Blues.") Otherwise, a hider who has beaten an opponent's Perception check will become revealed under these circumstances:
- The hider makes a successful attack (one which exceeds the opposing Defense Roll)
- The hider walks up to someone and initiates conversation
- The hider participates in a conversation (by interjecting during someone else's conversation, for instance)
- The hider dies.
Note that most creatures cannot hide from a party which currently observes them. That would be called "hiding in plain sight" and is a trait only expert sneaks possess. (It is an expensive trait.) So from a combat tactics standpoint, one wishing to hide from the enemy must do so before encountering them, or duck out of sight for long enough to "blend in with the scenery" before re-entering the fray and attempting a sucker-punch.
Hiding Traps, Doors, and Containers
Inanimate objects may also be hidden from view or otherwise conceal some sort of secret. The usual categories for hidden objects are traps, doors, and containers. Although each serves a very different purpose, the mechanics for finding each one is essentially the same. The object to be hidden is assigned a Perception score, which indicates the Perception a searching party must possess in order to find the object.
If you have a sufficient Perception score, you find the hidden object-it illuminates on the screen and the character which found it alerts you to its presence. Traps can also be "found" the hard way-by walking into one unaware and suffering its attack. Some traps will automatically disarm themselves after firing once, while others can fire again and again. Either way, you only see the trap's danger zone if you beat the Perception check. Hidden doors and containers typically have no such clues. Because perception is shared across the party, once a hidden object is located once, the members of the locating party can see it again on subsequent visits.
To disarm a trap without setting it off, you must first locate the trap with a sufficient Perception score, then click on the trap to attempt to disable it. Your character's Locks and Traps skill is compared against the Locks and Traps difficulty associated with the trap. Beat the value and you disarm the trap. Fail, and perhaps nothing happens... or perhaps the trap is sprung on the would-be disabler.
Other Notes - Your party is considered to be constantly on the lookout for hidden opponents, secret doors, traps, and hidden containers. You do not have to enter a special "search mode", bump up endlessly against walls, etc. in order to locate special goodies.
- From a mechanics perspective, traps are just a special type of "areatrigger" on the floor. Areatriggers can be programmed to do more than just inflict damage on unwary passersby, and as such any areatrigger may be hidden. Usually the only areatriggers which you are "allowed" to find are traps, however.
- Generally speaking, anyone not in the player party does not search for hidden containers, doors, or traps-they only search for other hidden creatures. Searching for hidden objects is the player's privilege. Conversely, it is safe to assume that any trap you find is intended to keep you away from whatever it is guarding.
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