Hello everyone and welcome to our very first developer journal ever, for anything really. Before we set up the website and our social media, we had already completed 99% of the work on The Runed Age, and the Sigil System was a quick transcriptional job.
But here we are going to work with you through the steps of creating the very first Mod for the Sigil System. The Sigil System is made to be modded and we would love for you to come up with your own mods for it, but first here is our very first official mod for the Sigil System:
The Stealth Mod is exactly what it says on the box: a mod for the Sigil System that enhances and extends the mechanics for more stealth-based gameplay. While there is the Stealth Skill in the Sigil System, it is just one of 20 skills (barring the potential 100 specialisations) and so it doesn’t quite stand out from the crowd. That is what we aim to change.
Of course, as with any mod for any sort of game, these rules will be entirely optional, so don’t feel constrained by them, rather add them to your games if and when you want that extra stealthy flavour.
Compound vs Individual Stealth
So let’s get started with it! The Stealth Mod is meant more as a narrative and Skill challenge than a simply Skill Check. Much like the Social Combat rules already Present in the Sigil System, the Stealth Mod rules are meant for lengthy scenes where being stealthy is paramount throughout it. It is more than a simple Check as narrative actions itself will affect the grander situation.
To give an example: to simple sneak past a couple of sentries into a secured building requires only a Stealth Skill Check and falls under the Individual Stealth heading, because once that specific Skill Check is over (success or failure) that “Stealth Scene” is over and done with. Compound Stealth is once you have gotten into that secured building and you have to be continuously stealthy throughout your time there in everything you do or you will either set off the alarm, alert the patrolling guards, get caught on surveillance or all three. Almost all your actions inside that secured building (whether they come with a Stealth Skill Check, other type of Skill Check, or no Check at all) will have an effect on how well you are hidden and you (if at all) you are perceived by your antagonists.
That is Compound Stealth and that is what the Stealth Mod is all about.
Stealth Actions
Mentioned in the Sigil System is the use of Skill Check results as positive or negative modifiers for further Skill Checks. In this mod we will emphasise all the modifiers that you can wring out of your Stealth Skill and its specialisations and vice versa.
In any stealth based game, outright combat is always considered as a last resort as the noise of a simple fight could wake a neighbourhood and then there goes your plans. Instead, silently taking down opponents with the element of surprise is what you want, and this is where the Skill Check As Modifier comes in handy. As you approach you opponent unseen, you would roll a Stealth Skill Check to determine whether or not he perceives your approach. The success or failure of this Skill Check would then be applied as a modifier to your next Fight Skill Check to take that opponent down. Let’s say you rolled 20 points below your Skill Level for the Stealth Skill Check, this would mean you gain a Modifier of +20 to your Fight Skill Check (on top of all other Modifiers your GM would put on that Skill Check). This means that the better your Stealth Skill Check, the more confident you can be your other actions.
The reverse can also be down. Let’s say you are a nimble chap in good health but you’ve never really been all that good at sneaking around; climbing walls though, that you can do with ease. So when you roll your Athletics Skill Check to climb the wall of the secured building, the result of that Skill Check would then applied as a modifier to your Stealth Skill Check to see if anyone saw or heard your climb. The better you are at climbing, the less effort and noise it will take to climb a wall and thus the more stealthy it would be.
In the Stealth Mod, all (or close to all as makes no difference) the actions you will take will have an effect on yourself, your surroundings and/or your opponents that in turn will effect how stealthy you are.