Sneak and small SIZ

[PhilHibbs]

It's a shame that the negative stat modifiers of Avalon Hill RuneQuest are gone, as it was nice for small characters to get a bonus to Stealth. Anyone thought of a decent house rule for this? I have a SIZ 4 Keet that thinks he should be harder to spot than the average Dark Troll.

 

[Cassius]

id just go for GM modifiers.

If they are trying to sneak up on someone with no chance of being seen visually so its hearing based there is no modifier

If they are trying to hide behind cover that is not huge the troll gets a -10% penalty

 

[Deleriad]

Yup, just use situational modifiers. After all a SIZ 4 duck on the open plain is not particularly harder to see than a SIZ 25 troll. However SIZ 4 ducks can hide in bushes and behind smaller rocks than trolls.

 

[PhilHibbs]

If they are trying to sneak up on someone with no chance of being seen visually so its hearing based there is no modifier

Ah yes, the Jurassic Park School of Stealth (in the final scene, the tyrannosaur sneaks up without anyone noticing, having been previously heralded by earth-shaking thuds throughout the movie).

But I accept the general principle of using sit-mods.

 

[Mongoose Pete]

Cassius and Deleriad have summed it up comprehensively. The size/mass of a creature has no effect on its ability to be stealthy. It is the environment they try to be stealthy within, which modifies things.

Up here where I live, elk are literally forest ghosts, only seen once they leave the cover of the forest. The bears are experienced ambushers too, perfectly capable of stalking elk or reindeer, leaping out from cover to make kills. Both are big animals, yet are very difficult to spot when in their native environment.