An Essay on Stealth

[kodoz]

Stealth and hiding are a great set of skills. It’s one of the most useful, and when done properly, is a great tool for your roleplayed spy, assassin, or just for fun. However, when done wrong, as it is 90% of the time, it just ends up being annoying and unrealistic. Roleplaying is about realism, and when you just hit the hide button with a room full of people staring at you, you have just killed realism. This is the reason that most people despise stealthers, because they are done badly. So below are some tips and advice to help you be a better RP stealther.

There are a lot of different ways to roleplay, but some things are generally agreed upon. Things like there are no names floating over peoples head, that you can’t see through walls, and that amazingly enough, line of sight exists. Many times newcomers to the roleplaying scene forget these things. It happens. Case in point, I have a character named Zora Liliana. When I first made her, I decided to do a little experiment. To date, she has never once said her name is Zora to anyone in the roleplaying community. And yet, I constantly have roleplayers come up to her and say ‘Hello Zora, how are you’. It amazes me at the vast amount of people who still tagread to get names right. You may be thinking right now that this seems to be a bit off topic, but it’s not. I’m proving a point here that even experienced roleplayers make mistakes sometimes, and some just don’t put forth as much effort as they could. Of course, I can’t expect everyone to remember what I’ve told them her name is, but I’ve come to accept that. However, stealthers have been annoying me for years with the way they just ignore all the rules, and then get irritated when you decide to do something back.

First tip for stealthers is pretty easy. If you EVER open a door that I can see while you’re hidden, guess what, -I KNOW YOU’RE THERE-. And if I am friended, coowned, or the owner of the house you did that in, guess what, I’m going to use house detect hidden. Now, you may be wondering how you’re expected to get into a place hidden without opening the doors yourself. It’s very, very simple. You wait for someone else to open it, and you sneak in behind them. Then, the people in the building don’t immediately know you’re there, and you’re inside a place that you needed to get to. A simple solution to a simple problem.

Okay, so you got in. Now what do you do if you suddenly get revealed? If you answered ‘Hit hide immediately and act like noone saw me’, go directly to jail, do not pass go, do not collect $200. The correct answer is to invent something. Act like perhaps you just recalled in by accident, a faulty spell casting. Or perhaps you just woke up from a long hangover in the corner of the tavern your hidden in. This actually leads to another good tip, which is to always walk next to walls and other objects that you could conceivably be concealed by. That way, if you do get revealed, you can plausibly argue you were behind the dresser or something.

Alright, let’s say you got in and that you’re good to go. You’re not getting revealed, but you have a new problem. Your character has reached the point that after enough spying, is ready to make his or her move. This leads to one of my absolute pet peeves of overlooked things, and that’s making your entrance. I’m particularly lengthy with Zora’s emotes, and tend to have her enter in fanciful ways. Now, if you’re indoors, you are probably going to want to emerge from a dark corner, or perhaps from behind a piece of large furniture. If you’re near stairs, perhaps you were concealing yourself at the top of the landing listening in, or just at the bottom listening to them. Indoors, your options are often very limited, as people don’t tend to decorate in an effort to conceal spies. So one of the most important things about stealthing is making your entrance believable. I cannot count how many times I’ve had people just ‘appear’ next to me with no explanation how they hid next to me while I was sitting next to a bright torch with no objects they could hide behind nearby. Let’s say you’re outside, listening in. Here you’ve got lots of fun options. Are there trees nearby? Trees are a great way to conceal yourself, by either hiding behind them carefully or hiding in the branches if it’s not a dead tree. Snow, there’s a great concealment tool. This is a good reason to carry several different colored robes so that you can wear a proper one to hide with. Let’s say your near a building, and this is one of my favorites. Are there any scalable walls in this building, or perhaps windows you could be hiding just inside or over? If so, you can make your entrance by simply leaping off the wall and landing in a crouch, or by hopping down from the windowsill. Regardless, It’s far better than just *POOF* appearing.

Which leads to our final point for now about stealthing, or at least until I think about more. NEVER, EVER, EVER JUST HIDE WHEN PEOPLE ARE LOOKING AT YOU. This is the absolute MOST unrealistic thing you could ever do. I would rather someone just appear next to me a million times over than have one more stealther who thinks its funny to say a sentence, hide, say a sentence, hide. I can tell you after asking many people, that this is infuriating. Now, one of the ways you can deal with this is simple. Start running, and run for a corner, get out of line of sight, then hit the hide button. This is infinitely better than just vanishing in front of someone, and I highly recommend its use. Of course, if you’re a trained ninja, you have the option of smoke bombs. Smoke bombs are actually one of the only reasonable ways you could hide with people watching you, as a smoke bomb is sort of like a modern flashbang. It’s just a big diversion, to give you enough time and cover to make it to concealment. Another nice thing to do if you want to be very intensive with your roleplay is to make your exit the same way you make your entrance. Plot out ahead of time how you’re going to get away, have your smokebomb ready, and start emoting. I’ll give an example. A short time ago, I had my stealther giving people some clues about something outside a cave near a river. Now, I realized I needed a way for her to get away with all of them looking at her, but also make it realistic, so I had to think about it. What I ended up on deciding was this. I emoted *deftly pulls a white orb from her pocket, and hurls it at the ground exploding into a cloying cloud of smoke, as footsteps and then a splash is heard.* And then I used the smokebomb, so it actually sent up the smoke and hid me. That way, I explained how she got away in the short time her diversion got her, and still didn’t give them my exact location. This isn’t necessary, but it’s a nice touch for more detail.

And as a final thought, try to remember that hiding and stealth are not a magical skill. Remember, just because you CAN hide anywhere at any time almost, doesn’t mean that you SHOULD. I cannot stress this enough, as it is so often argued ‘Well, I built it up this high and you’re telling me I can’t use it?’ What I’m saying is that everyone roleplays to have a bit of realism in their virtual reality, and anything we can do to contribute to the realism is always a helpful and good idea. Now, there is a form of magical hiding; It’s called the invisibility spell. Hiding is a skill, not a spell, so you should always try to think of it like a realistic skill that you could possibly use. For gamers, an easy way to think of it would be like Solid Snake from the Metal Gear series, or Sam Fisher from the Splinter Cell series. When you are sneaking around as them, they don’t run out in the middle of an empty field in broad daylight and get away with it with people there. So just because in UO it lets you get away with it sometimes, doesn’t mean you should use it that way.

[Calli]

Very well written I must say! And I just gotta add I would not know who Solid Snake or Sam Fisher were if it wasnt for my husband playing them over and over and over again!

Calli

[Eisaac]

First and most important: VERY nicely said! I agree 100% (even if I do sin somewhat in a few aspects...)

Two (tiny!) points that one should remember:

- Even if two characters never met, you can always claim 'hey, this is Charlie/Kodoz/Famous PGoH Character, I know how he looks like, I can safely say "Hail Kodoz" ' BUT on the other hand... Don't expect Kodoz (the character!!!) to know every single character face and name! (There are probably no pictures on the "Daily Sosaria", but you can identify some of the more famous characters)

Yes, we know you know us all... I only mean RP wise, like you said.

- When hunting and stealthing: It's obvious that while hunting, RP laws are bent sometimes. Yet, when you disappear in front of people, you should consider yourself stealthed to the enemy and NOT to your friends.

Ah, almost forgot:

Kodoz, please remember that not all of us can use computer interface like you do. You really can make people think you have 4 hands, or you're just twins that fool everyone

[KhioTong]

Hehehe... what funny memories, Kodoz.