Skills for perception?

Depends on the type of perception needed.

As a rule of a thumb, just use your Intelligence DM without any skill.

However, perceiving sneaking characters would probably work with the Stealth skill, perceiving lies in a conversation would probably use the Deception or Diplomacy skills, and perception in military matters (i.e. reconnaissance) would use the Recon skill. In most cases the relevant characteristic would be Intelligence.
 
I agree with TrippyHippy. Near as I can tell, you use Recon + Intelligence for perception-based tasks. I got the idea from the task descriptions in the core rulebook.

With Regards,
Flynn
 
Flynn said:
I agree with TrippyHippy. Near as I can tell, you use Recon + Intelligence for perception-based tasks. I got the idea from the task descriptions in the core rulebook.

With Regards,
Flynn

Investigate works, too. I'd use recon for active outdoor spotting , and I've used survival for tracking and/or environmantal type things.

And, yes there is the old - "roll 2d6 - add your int modifier. Tell me what you get. Seven. Okay, all is well..... " :twisted:
 
It really depends on the situation. If there was a post it note with a password stuck under a desk in an office the PCs were searching, I'd use Investigate + Int test to find it.

I only use Recon when it's a combat related perception test, such as noticing an ambush. For more mundane tests that anyone without any special training should be able to notice, such as noticing that someone is visibly nervous, I use straight Int.
 
Perception skills are going to be very situational.

Recon is a good "general awareness and paranoia" case, but I'd ask for a roll on Engineering if the thing I was checking for was related to engine room conditions (like imparting to the group's engineer that there are way too many red-lined indicators on that powerplant), or a Carousing, Recruiting, or related roll to determine that a person I was speaking to was nervous about something. Investigation is the "Search a room" special case, while Medical might be the skill to check for detecting an alien in disguise (per "The Trouble with Tribbles").
 
Thanks for the replies guys. All your comments make a lot of sense.

The actual circumstance I was trying to cover by my querie was general observation in the street/corner of the eye stuff.

I was guessing that recon+int would cover it and comments above confirm my gut feeling. It was just that the skill descriptions in the core rulebook weren't very specific about a fundemental skill use that I think is very important.
 
There's an interesting note in the equipment section under the holographic projector thingie. For the middle tech level one that isn't so bad everybody automatically notices its a hologram and isn't so good that it automatically passes, the equipment write-up advises a Recon or Investigate (whichever is better) throw to distinguish the reality of the hologram.

I kind of take it to mean those are the two primary skills for generally spotting that something in a situation isn't right.
 
Yeah. Unless you can convince you GM of the validity of another skill, or that the observation required would not need training.
 
Paladin said:
And if you don't have either skill you get a -3 for being unskilled in the powers of observation?

Hey, if it's not something that folks could logically fail to spot, you shouldn't be rolling in the first place. In this case, a standard difficulty means it's something that anyone not skilled in situational awareness is likely to miss.
 
Paladin said:
And if you don't have either skill you get a -3 for being unskilled in the powers of observation?

Hoo yeah. Do you go out among the sheeple at all? They have the situational awareness of rocks.
 
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