Perception Skills

Perception is the character's ability to notice things about his surroundings and other characters. Those with a highPerception are quick to spot concealed objects or people hiding behind a corner. They're also good at convincing other people to do favors for them, tricking or conning others, and bargaining to get a good price for goods or services. Characters with a low Perception get lost a lot.

Gamemasters often ask players to make search or Perception rolls to see how much their characters notice about their surroundings. The higher the roll, the more the character notices.

Here are some sample difficulties for search or Perception rolls:

Very Easy: Noticing something very obvious. A character is walking down a crowded starport avenue.

Easy: Making an obvious finding. The starport street crowd consists of spacers and aliens (a few Rodians, Duros and Sullustans).

Moderate: Finding something interesting. One of the aliens is a Wookiee, and one Sullustan is carrying an oversized duffel.

Difficult: Spotting something very specific. The Wookiee seems to be walking along with another spacer. The duffel bears SoroSuub markings.

Very Difficult: Observing something requiring more than just casual glance. The spacer and the Wookiee are arguing about starship repairs. Somebody's tailing you.

Heroic: You really have to look to notice this. The Wookiee has blue eyes, and his spacer friend's trousers have a Corellian Bloodstripe running down the side. The guy following you is trying to conceal an Imperial Security Bureau badge under his vest.

Several Perception skills are interaction skills — they are used to influence other people the characters meet.

Using these interactive skills often pits the character's skill against the other person's skill to resist it (often Perception or willpower).

Interaction skills between player and gamemaster characters shouldn't be solely determined by the die roll. If a character is conning a customs agent, and the player rolls a high con score, he obviously succeeds — but
how does his character do it? What does he say to influence the customs agent? This is up to the player. The better the player acts the role of his character, the greater his chance of success should be.

Interactive skill rolls shouldn't be used by players to influence other players' characters — instead, they should resolve the situation by roleplaying and coming to some kind of mutual agreement. By reducing player interaction to a series of skill rolls, the game turns from a fun exercise in social interaction to a die rolling contest, which isn't nearly as enjoyable.

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