Perception, Searching, Stealth and Surprise

The easiest way to handle this, and I’m surprised that I haven’t seen it done, is to unify these mechanics in your head. 

The first step is to make them actually unified. For me, I chose to say that any of these things happen on a base roll of 1-2 on d6. 

Perception is passive information-gathering. It relies on your eyes and ears and sometimes other senses. The Referee rolls this for you in the presence of stimuli. 

Searching is active information-gathering. You “do” this rather than it happening to you. 

Hiding and Sneaking are also active activities (even though hiding is usually stationary.) These are things you are doing to someone else. 

Surprise is a function of someone else’s hiding and sneaking or of happenstance. It is most similar to a Perception check. 

You see something, find something, sneak by/hide from something or surprise someone on a 1-2 on d6. With 1-point modifiers.

Here are their modifiers. 

For perception and searching: 

We start with 1-2 on 1d6. 

We modify by Wisdom, +1/-1.

Perception includes being surprised in combat. Subtract your wisdom modifier from the other man’s roll, just as if you are making a perception check. 

For searching:

We further modify by any tool you might use, such as a 10’ pole or silvered hand mirror. 

There are some modifiers to search and perception based on race. 

For hiding and sneaking: 

We start at 1-2 on 1d6. 

We modify for metal armor: -1.

There are additional racial modifiers for Hobbits. 

For sneaking: 

We further modify for Dexterity. Apply your Dexterity modifier, +1/-1.