Recon Stunts (Action)
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| Heroic Action Role-Play |
- Main article: Action
Recon stunts cover basic hide-and-seek abilities.
Alertness
Trigger Action (Defense)
You get a +3 bonus to your Recon when it is used as the difficulty of an action. This includes both staying alert and keeping your head down. Outside of action scenes you cannot initiate actions or stunts of your own while staying alert.
Make Camp
Limit Break
You can find a safe hiding place and rest spot. A camp can be a campsite, cave, hidden cove, safehouse, untraceable flophouse, abandoned attic, sheltered mausoleum... Whatever suits the story. You must be out of direct harms way and a reasonable distance away from the base of your enemies. Make a Recon check against the median Recon among the opposition; on a success your camp is hidden well enough not to be found except with extensive searching (which allows the opposition a Recon check against your Recon skill.
Scan
Basic Action
You look around, trying to spot hidden enemies and dangers. Make an opposed Recon check against an enemy trying to Shadow or Sneak. Scan cannot find someone using Surveillance unless you are actively out scouting for them. If there is a large area where enemies could potentially be hidden, you have to select an area with a diameter in meters equal to your Recon to scan with a single action.
Shadow
Basic Action
A variant of Sneak, shadowing involves covertly following another creature as they move. Shadowing assumes the mark cannot readily recognize pursuers. If the setting lacks crowds or plentiful concealment, shadowing has to be done at greater range, which is generally harder. A check is needed to start shadowing and at obstacles, such as narrow passages, open areas without cover, or when changing mode of transport. Shadowing focuses more on hiding more than on sneaking, you get a -3 penalty (instead of the usual Sneak bonus) on skill checks against your quarry as you are focusing on staying out of sight and not on getting into a good position. You can shift from shadowing to Sneaking at any time, but must then act immediately or your quarry will simply move away. Shadowing is best done by a team. If, instead of a single shadower trying to continue to past an obstacle, another team member is present and can take over, the Recon check to shadow is Routine.
Sneak
Basic Action
Make a Recon roll and compare it against the highest Recon rating among the opposition. If you fail and it is important to know who spotted you, observers can make opposed Recon rolls to see who noticed you first, but generally this is a moot point as long as the enemy is able to communicate. You must be in some plausible place of concealment to sneak, but the GM is encouraged to be lenient on this. Basically you need to give a suitably cinematic description of your stunt.
Who counts as "opposition" here depends on circumstances. Any creature that has you within it's Mind meters count, as do creatures whose last action was against you or someone in your vicinity. If no-one qualifies as an observer by these criteria, the difficulty is the highest Mind of those present. If no-one is present success is automatic. Many such situations are better covered by Surveillance than Sneak.
If successful you are under cover and hiding, effectively invisible. You cannot be selected as the target of an attack and gain a +3 bonus to Dodge against area attacks. Any attacks you make in the shot where you exploit your sneaking gets a +3 attack bonus and your attacks do not allow Trigger Actions.
You need not make additional Recon rolls to stay hidden and can perform other actions as long as you remain still and under cover, but opponents can actively use Scan or use schticks to find you. You become visible if you call attention to yourself, move, or take an action that directly affects someone other than yourself. If you start hidden, move (thus revealing yourself), and then successfully sneak again, enemies have only a vague idea you are in the area. You can do perception checks, such as Scan, without revealing your location.
As an option, you can focus on hiding more than on sneaking. In this case, Recon checks to sneak are Routine, but you get a -3 penalty (instead of the usual bonus) on skill checks as you are focusing on staying out of sight and not on getting into a good position. You cannot do this when a hostile creature has you within it's Mind meters. If you have a wide, solid obstacle between you and any observers, the Recon check to sneak is Routine or even automatic at the GM's discretion.
Stay Low
Trigger Action (Defense)
When you are hidden and an opponent tries to Scan and find you, you can stay low and gain a +3 bonus of your Recon for defense.
Surveillance
Hours
You stay hidden at a distance (from 10 meters to several kilometers away, depending on terrain), trying to keep a place or person under surveillance while remaining safely hidden. You are far away and under cover, enough that foes will only find you if you fumble or if they start an active search in your area, but you have a limited perception of what goes on. If your opponent's security measures are strong, you have to focus more on hiding and will notice less. Range as such is not a factor, but tighter security keeps you at a distance while also making the task harder. Surveillance of a person is harder than of a place. Depending on what surveillance methods you use, it might be pretty easy for the enemy to prevent or disrupt your surveillance, such as by unpredictably changing modes of transportation or using a secret passage. Paranoid enemies might use such methods even if they don't know they are under surveillance.
To gain information this way you make an opposed check against the targets' Recon. You gain valuable information based on the outcome of this roll; if the outcome matches the target's Mind you gain clear and important insights into the target's activities. On a failed roll, you learn obvious details and trivia; if the negative Outcome matches your Mind you learn misleading information or the target notices your spying. If organized security exists, use the Recon value of the chief of security. Depending on the security present your opponent might use other skills to defend, such as Create for an electronic counter-surveillance system.
Track
Basic Action
You can retrace the path of other creatures. If those creatures were aware they might be tracked and are trying to avoid it, this is a roll against their Recon or Ride, otherwise the difficulty is their Reflexes. The roll is heavily modified depending on the situation.
| Condition | Tracking Modifier |
| Each creature being tracked | +1 |
| Each hour since the tracks were made | -1 |
| Hard ground | -5 |
| Traffic or interfering tracks | -5 |
| Heavy Traffic | -10 to impossible |
Tracking requires constant Basic Actions to stay on the trail, making tracking rather arduous and impossible to do when moving quickly. An actual roll is only needed every hour and at each obstacle, such as a stream, branch in the road, or other problem.