Olfactory Musings

[Yogah of Yag]

Considering the prior emphasis in the game on visual skills (Spot, Search), and auditory (Listen), has anyone considered developing a "Scent" skill? Considering how "tuned in" a Barbarian is to his/her environment, I'm quite surprised I have yet to see a discussion of this. Thus far, I have failed to notice such information in the Core Rules.
I have been writing up some notes on this, and initially I think it could be an extension of Appraise where a margin of error can be applied for failed checks (i.e. [2d6+3]*10, or 50%-150%), IIRC.

 

[VincentDarlage]

Well, you could just have a Scent skill which gets ranks just like Search and Listen.

Or you could just say it is part of Spot. If the barbarian spots something, maybe he smelled something on the wind, whipped around and saw it. It could just be part of the narrative instead of a mechanic.

 

[RabidAntiShemite]

In my Conan game Hide and Move Silently are replaced with the Sneak skill, while Spot and Listen are replaced by Perception. This seems to cover everything for me. It gives the characters a few extra skill points, but thats not a big deal.

 

[urdinaran]

Not a bad idea Rabid. It doesn't come up very often, but once in a while smell comes up. I also wondered why it was never included in the core d20 rules since lots of animals actually use scent to hunt their prey.

 

[Foxworthy]

well in core d20 creatures with good scent get a +4 to survival when tracking.

 

[High Lord Dee]

In my Conan game Hide and Move Silently are replaced with the Sneak skill, while Spot and Listen are replaced by Perception. This seems to cover everything for me. It gives the characters a few extra skill points, but thats not a big deal.

I encourage modifying the system to fit your campaign. But, I do like the PDF character sheets available for players. Has anyone been able to edit the PDF's with Adobe, Nitro, or any other PDF editing software to incorporate these changes?

HLD

 

[Turim]

D&D 3.5 has the Scent extraordinary ability. I remember D&D 3.0 having a variant rule that allowed races with "big noses" (gnomes and half-orcs) to take Scent as a feat. Prerequisite was Wis 11, but it was made clear that Scent was good for a feat. I'm not sure if this variant rule made it to D&D 3.5.

 

[Trodax]

In my Conan game Hide and Move Silently are replaced with the Sneak skill, while Spot and Listen are replaced by Perception.

I like this a lot. This is how they handled it in Lone Wolf, right?

But, I do like the PDF character sheets available for players. Has anyone been able to edit the PDF's with Adobe, Nitro, or any other PDF editing software to incorporate these changes?

Nope. But I did make some changes to the character sheet by the very "old-school"-method of cutting, gluing and photocopying. The end result was pretty decent, actually.

 

[taylor]

I've been told by many vietnam vets that scent plays a massive part in detection of enemy. Once you've been out bush for weeks at a time you get very used to the natural scent of yourself and your section members, and anything that smells different, especially as a result of eating different food, is quite noticeable.

 

[urdinaran]

That is very true. The guerrillas in Nicaragua (about 100 years ago), led by Sandino, were able to detect and find the american soldiers hunting them because of the smell of cigarrettes on their breath and bodies. Also, a person gives off different smells due to diet (eating red-meat vs. not, for example).

I like the suggestion of a combined "perception" skill.

 

[Bregales]

I was thinking of this when I opened this post (Vietnam & Nicaragua references to guerilla fighters), good replies. As for RabidAntiShemite's skills, that's actually similar to how the TSR Conan game from the 80s handled skills if I remember. I recall modifying their skills to allow for olfactory input.

In my game I use Spot skill for both Olfactory and Acumen perceptions; but like the idea mentioned regarding OGL for scent modifiers. I suppose if you wanted to give a nod to Borderers and Barbarians, you could give them a +2 modifier to Spot skill checks when using Scent. Or, you could make it a racial circumstance modifier, say for Cimmerians, Picts, Black Kingdoms peoples, (non-civilised folk), etc.

This is a good thread, good responses all.

 

[Walkurë]

well in core d20 creatures with good scent get a +4 to survival when tracking.

that sounds good it could also synergy with spot/search somehow could be good though it should be a class ability IMO