Board Thread:Midian Ideas/@comment-24302820-20151004044419/@comment-24302820-20160411200506

This skill allows you to quickly assess the loot available, and get the best value for the ease of transport and resale (or personal use). You grab as much valuable property as you can safely carry. This is only going to be a few pounds for most people. If there's nothing small and pocketable, this skill lets you know which heavy item is the most valuable one that you can lift.

On the simplest level, looting could be a bog-standard technical skill. You roll ten or more, you get the good stuff. Move along. On a more involved level, we can put some numbers on this thing. In either case, I'd say that this skill should require appraisal, with the possibility of bartering instead.

Looting a body takes about a minute; a quick grab of obvious loot in a typical room takes about two minutes. Properly looking for the good stuff, trying to not make noise, or not flashing lights about, each doubles the time it takes. Carefully putting everything back in place (so as to delay notice that the loot is missing) or searching for hidden compartments each takes five times as long. This skill can be repeated, but in addition to the -2 repeat effort penalty, the time required doubles for each subsequent attempt.

A search with reasonable care lets you look through the obvious hidey-holes: under mattresses, in chests under clothes, behind pictures, inside vases or boxes, beneath loose floorboards, et cetera. A more thorough search takes even longer, but allows you to check for hollow table legs, false-bottom drawers, trick bookcases, and the like. Rushing the search increases the target value. Each doubling (of time you are skipping) adds +5 to the number needed for a success. Likewise, each increase of five times the search duration adds +10. The converse is also true; rolling five points over your target value lets you find one or more items in a simple hidden spot, and ten over shows you at least one well hidden goody. As with most technical skills, the base target value is ten. Exceptional burglary talent (rolling at least twenty over your target value) cuts your search time in half, for each additional ten points over. Successful use of appropriate stealthy skills can avoid increasing the corresponding target value.

Here is a grand example. Winnie is breaking and entering. When she hit's her victim's well-appointed kitchen, she loots. As the victim is still home, she needs to keep quiet, and cannot risk lighting a candle. Winnie first successfully rolls her sneaking skill, allowing her to skulk about without taking too long. Rolling her looting skill, she adds +5 for a careful search (the target is wealthy enough to have nice things, but not so rich as to have a vault or guards). She also adds +5 for not using light. Since she made her sneak check, we don't have to worry about that anymore. This is a total of +10 added to the base target value--also ten--for a total of 20 that she needs to beat on her roll. The time that this takes is two minutes, doubled for a careful search, doubled again for no light, and doubled yet again for being sneaky. The total time is about 15-20 minutes. Winnie isn't in a hurry, but doesn't want to take any chances. ...Okay, besides the usual risk from a life of crime. Winnie rolls the dice. She gets a total of 26 (17 rolled, +2 for a high Wits, skill level VII). As this is more than five points higher than her target value, not only does she notice that the really valuable knives were hidden in the bottom of the knife rack, but she also spots the small gem purse hidden beneath the oatmeal. Winnie can keep looking (taking another half hour) but she's fairly certain that she found all of the stuff worth stealing already.

Or, we could just say, "Screw it," and leave this up to Awareness, Wits, or Common Sense checks, or to GM fiat. After all, the GM must not only A) populate any given room with loot (if there is any) but also B) work out any mitigating factors such as a penalty to the skill check because the hiding spot is REALLY good) or a second skill check (which is kinda a dick move).