Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Zuggster 04-15-08, 02:53 AM	Hello, I am running a game, where a bunch of dwarves (the PCs) are doing quests for a Keep of Humans. One of the Dwarves is especially Xenophobic, and wants to do some spying while on down time in the Keep (while others are crafting or doing other things). Back at the keep, he is going to basically become nocturnal. He will sleep during the day, and then slip out of the inn at night to hide in nooks and crannies of the keep. His goal is to overhear idle conversations of guards, late night workers or less than sober residents. He hopes to be able to piece together from the various snippets some more information. For example.... what are our employers up to? What do they know that the dwarves don't? Why are they being so generous with the dwarves? Do they have an ulterior motive? If he gets bored with listening to the idle chatter of peons, he will get more daring about trying to listen in where officers or leaders might be talking. Normally this would be a Gather Information check, but that invloves talking to people and getting specific info from them, where this would be out and out spying on people hoping that they say something he's hoping to hear. I'm wondering how anyone would approach this, as I feel some sort of a roll is needed as to what kind of info he hears, and its usefullness, but I am unsure exactly how to procede. Thanks for your opinions in advance
Raggers 04-15-08, 04:53 AM	A Move Silently and a Listen check?
razilen 04-15-08, 07:20 AM	i can help with this!! make a d10 charts the first chart says what topic it is eg: 1-2: talk about home family personal stuff with no real interest[chart2] 3: not talk at all there is a officer near by! 4-5: make racisit/ bad comments -[chart 3] 6-7: lack of care[chart4] 8: idel chit chat about stores and prices and goverment 9: you should think of something, 10: re roll? chart 2: 1: low pay, to much work 2: moved in with girl friend 3: family members sick 4-5: jealously talk about someone 6: talk about there home 8-9: talk about kids 10:talk about Woot Woo Chart 3 1: bad elf impersionation 2: bad dwarf impersionation 3: [to make dwarf paranoid] laughs about dwarfs being watched 4: says the drunk night guards at Jerry ls bar is better then dwarfs on watch 5: bad mouths certain officers [maybe where they are?] 6: calls dwarfs paranoid 7: teases certain guards/ people 8: -whatever 9:-whatever you get the idea for this Chart 4 this chart is about not noticing what there saying like that the chief of design gets drunk every Friday at the orange bat , our one i thought of was that the council dosnt trust new dwarfs so they have a guard watching them 24-7, or where certain people can be found, just throwing this stuff in midsentence also with a bad listen roll instead of hearing : too bad if we catch anyone .....guest or no guest, out side we have to remember this tie em down for the night then hand em in to the right offerities. to stop trespasses we should be attack em them on sight" they hear "as you aproche the barrels you can start to hear a conversation but you cant make it out perfectly you can tell there tired and waiting for something, you hear "if we catch [mumble mumble]... guest or no guest out side we have to remeber thistie em down for the night [mumble mumble] the right offeritys. [mumble mumble] attack em on sight. but if there isnt anything special going on and hes just being paranoid to be paranoid well make him here absolutely nathing of interest and to stop him from doing it again make the guards turn around facing to where he is hiding on the right angle to stop him from leaving without being seen, so he has to listen to a boring man talk about borring experiences on a boring job : ) that worked for me
Zuggster 04-15-08, 08:47 AM	i can help with this!! make a d10 charts Thanks, thats just the sort of something I was looking for. I didn't want to just "heres some vital info" and that chart looks like he'll have to get lucky (after move silently and hide checks) to find out anything useful, which is how I wanted to handle it.
iserith 04-15-08, 09:48 AM	Thanks, thats just the sort of something I was looking for. I didn't want to just "heres some vital info" and that chart looks like he'll have to get lucky (after move silently and hide checks) to find out anything useful, which is how I wanted to handle it. I'd skip the foreplay and let him have whatever information I need to expedite the plot. It's a clever idea by the character and much more interesting that "I go to some taverns and Gather Information. I spend 1d4 gold. What do I find?" Reward the player's ingenuity by giving him the information he seeks. He's also sticking to his character concept, though it sounds like he has social anxiety disorder, not xenophobia.