Perception Checks — Advanced Old School Revival

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Rolling a Perception Check

Roll + Deft+ Perception

When you're trying to see through a deception or search for something hidden, you must declare that you're trying to look for clues, and describe what and where you're searching. This entitles you to a Perception check, which is a Deft check using the Perception skill (or any other skill that makes sense for the situation).

Detecting Stealthed Opponents

Per the rules of stealth checks, you have to meet or exceed a hidden enemy's stealth score with your roll. This may either outright reveal them, or provide clues as to their location.

Searching the Room

First of all: if you happen to search the part of the room where the secret thing is, no Perception check is required, you find the thing. But if you're not sure where exactly to search, the GM will provide clues to the hidden object's whereabouts with a successful Perception check.

If you fail, you can only try again if you declare a more specific place to search, or if another character suggests a more specific search. Typically, the GM uses a success check to determine the specificity of the clues or the information gained by the check.

The Surprise Round

If you are stealthed and you attack unsuspecting victims, you get a free round of attacks against them when you reveal yourself to attack. If you are surprised by stealthed opponents, they get a free round of attacks against you. In either case, you get advantage on the actions you take in the surprise round. The surprising party is then revealed and loses their stealthed status. Surprised victims are always entitled to take reactions when they are being acted upon.

Only if you have reason to suspect a surprise (you're standing guard, you're suspicious of hidden enemies, etc) can you make a Perception check vs. the surprising party's stealth score to retain your initiative in the surprise round.

Swift Weapons & Detection

When you attack with a Swift weapon, the first attack roll you make against an opponent entitles you to check to maintain your stealth score. Subsequent attack rolls automatically negate your stealth score.

However, the laws of the fiction still apply: enemies who get stabbed in the back will immediately be on the alert for you and can no longer be surprised, even if you attack with a Swift weapon and/or attempt to re-establish a stealth score. They may also be entitled to roll a Perception check with advantage to ascertain your location, or learn your general location by spending a turn to search for you. One way to think of the effect of using Swift weapons repeatedly against the same opponents is that each attack roll against them strengthens their awareness, and eventually the GM is entitled to outright reveal you if you abuse the mechanic in a way that violates the credulity of the fiction.

Example Perception Check

Leonora is searching a bedroom for clues about a person who has been abducted. There’s a trap door beneath the bed to discover in this room.

Leonora: I’m searching the room for anything out of the ordinary.

In this case, Leonora’s interrogation of the fiction is not enough to reveal a clue or trigger a Perception check, so the GM gives more information about what’s in the room.

GM: The old wood floors creak as you enter the room. At the center is a luxurious bed, the covers are pulled back. The cabinets are all opened and some of them have been pulled onto the floor.

Leonora: What’s in the cabinets?

GM: They’ve been stripped bare, yanked out as if in a hurry.

At this point, if Leonora continues to examine objects in the room the GM has called out—either the floorboards or the bed—it makes sense for him to give her the clue without a check: that there are grooves in the wooden floorboards, as if the bed has been moved frequently. If she doesn’t, then the GM might call for a Perception check to reveal this clue.

Leonora: (rolls a d6) Okay, that’s 4 plus my 6 Deft, and I have Perception: so 12.

GM: A clean success! You notice grooves near the legs of the bed on the left side, as if the bed’s been pushed to the side frequently. Maybe there’s something underneath it?

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