Listening

Careful listening allows you to detect and identify all the little sounds of daily life such as the low roar of approaching vehicles, the footfalls of someone sneaking up on you from behind, or the words of an eavesdropped conversation.

Perception Factor

Your perception ability factors into your hearing chances. Keen attentiveness allows you to hear things others miss.

Risk Of Not Hearing

Your hearing chances are opposed by the sneaking risk that reflects how quiet the noise is that you might hear. You have an opposed chance to hear a sneaking person.

      Risk	Sound						

Sneak% A sneaking person

–150%	Automatic gunfire
–100%	Gunfire
0%	People talking
25%	A person carrying a medium load walking slowly  

(1 m/second) trying not to make noise.

    50%	An average person walking at a slow pace  

(2 m/second) trying not to make any noise

    75%	A stealthy person sneaking within 4 m of the listener
125%	A cat stalking
15%	An owl gliding in for a kill
– 25%	A person walking across a noisy surface
+   1%	Per meter from the listener
+ 25%	Through a door
+ 75%	Through a stone wall
+ 50%	Over other loud conversation or background noise

In the case of people trying to be quiet, the listed risks could be replaced by Sneaking chances, in which case the listed risk would be the average result (or close to it).

Hearing While Moving

It is difficult to hear sound while you yourself are moving around making noise. You suffer a –20% penalty unless you have 30% or more sneaking skill.

Gauging Distance

Many sounds like people talking will seem closer than they really are. It takes practice to accurately judge the distance of sounds.

Sonic Damage

Extremely loud noise has a damaging effect on human hearing and health that can cause ringing in the ears and temporary or permanent hearing loss.

db(A)	Examples		Effects				

120 jet planes 100 jackhammer

 90	truck		ear damage
80	car		hardness of hearing by
70	typewriter		increased hypertension risk
60	radio/TV/music	increased cardiovascular illness
50	conversation	communication garbled
40	domestic noise	sleep disturbed
30	whispering
20	ticking of grandfather’s clock
10	russeling of leaves

You can take a hearing chance every time you have a chance to hear something in a reactive manner. As a 1 second action, you may try to hear something you failed to hear previously.

Sound

Decibels http://tomclegg.net/decibel, sound systems, 100% of sound is a bel. 10% of sound is a decibel., http://www.stadtentwicklung.berlin.de/umwelt/umweltatlas/ed702_01.htm

Smelling

Smelling allows you to notice and identify odors.

Perception Factor

A sharp nose will only get you so far. On a successful smelling chance, you can notice an unusual odor. On a chance that succeeds by 25% or more, you can identify the odor. The risk depends on the situation. Situation Example Risk Odor overpowering Urine in lavatory 0% Odor obvious Garlic in food 25% Odor subtle Herbs in tea 50% Odor minute Smell faded 75% Odor almost imperceptible 100% Sweating person 50% Per 4 meters from the odor +10% Odor downwind blowing towards you –50% Other obvious interfering odors present +25% Other overpowering odors present +50% Odor masked in water +50%

Consequences

You cannot retry after you miss a chance to notice an odor, but you can retry to identify an odor you have already smelled. If you have 20% or more Smelling skill, you get a +10% bonus on tracking chances.

Smelling skill helps you detect approaching people, sniff out hidden substances, and track by sense of smell.

You can detect people and other animals by sense of smell, generally within 10 meters. If the person is upwind, the range is 20 meters. If it is downwind, the range is 5 meters. Strong scents, such as smoke or rotting garbage, can be detected at twice the ranges noted above. Overpowering scents, such as skunk musk can be detected at three times these ranges.

The creature detects another creature’s presence but not its specific location. Noting the direction of the scent is a standard action. If it moves within 2 meters of the scent’s source, the creature can pinpoint that source.

You can follow tracks by smell, taking a smelling chance to find or follow a track. The typical risk for a fresh trail is 50%. The risk increases or decreases depending on how strong the quarry’s odor is, the number of creatures, and the age of the trail. For each hour that the trail is cold, the risk increases by 10%. The ability otherwise works like tracking. Tracking by scent alone ignores the effects of surface conditions and poor visibility.

Creatures with the scent ability can identify familiar odors just as humans do familiar sights. Water, particularly running water, ruins a smell trail for air-breathing creatures. False, powerful odors can easily mask other scents. The presence of such an odor completely spoils the ability to properly detect or identify creatures, and the base Wilderness Lore DC to track becomes 20 rather than 10.

Masking Your Odor

Suppose you’re a journalist in a third-world dictatorship being chased by soldiers with dogs. You want to not only avoid being seen but also smelled by the dogs. There are a number of ways to attempt to mask your scent.