Perception Type Checks

crossmlk

Mongoose
I've got a rules question for your guys. How are you handling perception type checks. You know they're walking down a street do they see the guy lurking in the alley type stuff. I know I probably was looking right at it, but I can't seem to find it in the rules. Thanks.
 
Have the guy lurking do a stealth check?

How often should the characters do a perception check? Once every minute, once every 10 meters? Did they even state that they were trying to perceive anything? Do you only have them do a check when there is something worth noticing? Doesn't that give away that there is something they should be noticing? Do you check each and every person they see on the street to perceive if there is something odd?
Did all the PC's indicate what direction they were looking?
If the characters even see the guy, do they think anything is out of the ordinary?

Seriously now, check out the following threads
http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=40325&highlight=perception+recon
http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=37139&highlight=perception+recon

The key, IMO, is if it's part of a plot, it shouldn't be left up to skills and die rolls. That said, IMO, certain things should be left to the characters abilities to notice something, and not the players.

hmmm, I'm not making any sense. Nothing new there.
 
I would handle this as two separate tasks, opposed: The guy lurking in the alley has the task "to avoid notice"; the guy walking along the street has the task "to notice something unusual".

If Mr. Alley succeeds at his task with other than a critical success, Mr. Street has an additional DM increasing the difficulty of his task.

On a critical success for Mr. Alley, Mr. Street WILL NOT detect Mr. Alley unless (a) he KNOWS that Mr. Alley is attempting to spy on him, AND (b) he succeeds at a task to SPECIFICALLY look in the alley.

On a success less than critical for Mr. Street, he will see something, but not necessarily be able to identify it, and might well brush it off as unimportant.

On a critical success for Mr. Street, he sees Mr. Alley and knows that Mr. Alley is watching him for some reason.

Tweak as desired...
 
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