In a pen and paper rpg,  there are many components that seem present in many of the mainstream games, and certainly exist in most full stop. You have conflict resolution, you have social encounters and, somewhere along the line, you have subterfuge and stealth.

I’ve Gm’d quite a few games over the years. Paranoia, In Nomine and most recently DnD Fourth edition. As we all know, 4e is serious business and as such stealth can have a dramatic and meaningful impact on the general flavour and often success of a game. Many games have some kind of stealth skill or power. These allow players to actively engage in dubious behaviors hopefully without getting caught red handed with the hand in the vorpal magic cookie jar. These attributes often provide depth and flavour to a character and enable a party to achieve many goals through means other than direct involvement. Similarly it enables GM’s to be much more creative with how the party experience the world giving another set of variables to play with, on top of straight up sword to shield sexiness.

In the campaign I am running at the moment, the party were entrusted with a secret mission. They must infiltrate a group of farmers being shipped out to the feywild to help them get past the guards around the portals, then move on covertly to ambush a very important convoy. What I noticed in this process is that the party’s level of success ultimately derived from their inaction. Over the night situated in a crowded warehouse full of other workers, when stuffed in the cargo hold of a zeppelin and shipped over, had they done much in the way of cause a ruckus, the game would be up and they’d have to find other ways to secure access to the feywild.  There, certainly, isn’t necessarily any problem with that. Had the party wanted to commit mutiny on the airship, kill or capture the crew and take it over, becoming skyfaring pirates I would have been happy to oblige and it certainly would have been an entertaining adventure or two. It would not, however of been the adventure planned nor would the quality of such an encounter be to the same degree as the planned exploits I have for them. Even from the most accommodating and quick thinking GM, players departing the path of stealth are actively penalised and sometimes this is appropriate. When the players choose to do something silly or stupid it is somewhat reasonable their path be less than smooth, player actions in rpgs should have consequences for their characters, otherwise there is no sense of immersion or impact.

Yet, how does one construct an adventure around a stealth mission, where in fact the process of inaction yields the best results? At all stages of the infiltration, the party had to remain in character pretending to be simple peasant farmers, not reveal they were in fact, the Architects of Loss, a brave group of fearsome warriors(apparently) and in this process a part of the rpg experience is lost. It becomes a process of meta game over character principles where the players choose to remain silent where perhaps their characters might not, all to hold to the mission rather than play the game itself. In light of these experiences it does seem to me that there are a few things about stealth missions that should be actively considered when plotting out one.

Firstly, that a stealth mission should not require inaction to succeed, rather it should require action. Instead of casting scenarios in which the players actions will reveal them, pose scenarios in which the players inaction will reveal them. Where my players were stuffed in the cargo hold along with the other farmers, acting anything other than scared, powerless farmers would have gotten them into quite a world of trouble. Getting players to infiltrate somewhere via the powerless will strip the power from the players, thus providing a vehicle of stealth that retains some authority and strength will enable the players to maintain motion and momentum, provide them with the tools to make choices, some of which might unmask them, others may strengthen the facade.

Secondly, it is important not to necessarily punish the players for acting as their characters would, despite the imperative towards stealth. The Lawful Good Dragonborn Fighter is not going to be able to step aside when you’re ordered to butcher the surrendered citizens of Unlucky Town number Seven. Placing the party in a situation where they must choose between their characters morality, ethics and religious beliefs and their stealth can be an incredibly useful tool, but not one that should be used incidentally or without an endgame in mind. Taking these things into account can help prevent that dilemma between the meta game and the reality of their characters.

Thirdly, stealth is not for everyone. Whilst it is a useful tool there are some players that just aren’t interested, or very good at it. Whilst I personally feel this principle should come under the same general principle that bad Rpers shouldn’t be punished, good ones should be rewarded it is all too easy to punish the group because one player isn’t very good at phrasing things the right way. Paranoia as a game is a particularly good example of how using the wrong words can get a person killed. However, even in that game its important to distinguish between what a player says because they’re not very good at getting into the role or understanding the setting and what a player says because they’re role playing a character not very good at stealth.

Ultimately stealth is a fantastic tool for the GM and the party. It lets them see sights they wouldn’t ordinarily see, influence events in worlds supposedly beyond their power but it is a tricky tool to use, one I am still getting used to and many of the mistakes I relate above are ones I’ve committed myself at one time or another.  Certainly there are many other ways of making stealth an effective interesting and dynamic part of game play and I’m interested in any other ways Gm’s and players might use stealth in active enjoyable ways for everyone.

Here’s a short list of how to dps a dungeon, any dungeon(hell or raid) in WoW.

Don’t stand in fire.

Don’t pull aggro.

Don’t be a bloody moron.

Don’t be a dick.

Don’t stand in front of mobs if you’re melee

Don’t attack something the tank hasn’t attacked.

Don’t stand in fire.

Interupt shit, yo.

Don’t burst aoe on the pull.

Use omen.

You can’t do dps if you’re dead.

Following this short and simple guide will allow you to achieve all your goals.