WFRP 3e makes the classic mistake of many RPGs in its skill system... it addresses in good detail how players use their characters' skills actively when it is their turn to act, but it doesn't offer much at all about passive skill use. But, the two adventures I have seen-- A Day Late and An Eye for an Eye in the Tome of Adventure --both rely on passive checks.

Anytime I pick up a new RPG, I do a really good job of reading it with a newbie's perspective. Through that lens, the only way the book says I can use a skill is by performing the Use a Skill manoeuvre when I am the active player . But, being the seasoned RPG gamer and developer that I am, I infer that the GM can call for a character to make a passive check anytime. During story mode, this is no big deal. But what about during Encounter mode?

Using an example from A Day Late , let's say a character engages a beastmen engaged with the coach on his turn. The scenario states that the character can attempt a Hard Observation Check to hear the person inside. Obviously, the player will have no idea to do this check unless the GM tells him to. But is the intent for GM to force the character to use a manoeuvre to do the Observation check? I hope not, and I don't think so. I think it's a free passive skill check.

Basically, I think any scenario input that calls for a skill check that the characters don't really realize they are doing is a passive skill check that is done 'for free.' But it would be nice to have it written somewhere how WFRP expects GMs to handle passive skill check situations.

Thanks!

Steve

In days of old, I would roll once for the entire party, and every PC whose perception skill indicated a success would hear the noise.

In this case... not sure how I would handle: maybe as GM roll a pool based on the best, most capable PC for that test.

How does v3 handle these broader GM tests that should likely be hidden such as all the PCs walking into a room an need to roll to notice something amiss? If you ask each player to roll, they know something is up... so some GMs compensate by having them roll bogus rolls regularly. With v3 there isn't an easy way to hide the results - the players will know the difficulty they're against and whether they were successful or not.

I fall into the category of making characters roll bogus skill checks. And I imagine I would do the same.

I don't do this a lot. Usually I just make all characters make the same skill check, even if they would have no effect. And I never specifically tell them why.

I've never really bothered with secret rolls. I just pick one character that seems a likely candidate, and tell him to make an observation check. If they fail, I move on to another valid character.

The big drawback is that I have one player that just can't stand to be left out of an observation check, even if it already succeeded. Or if I didn't ask him to roll. Or if his character isn't even there.

Fortunately, WFRP3 has convenient mechanisms for breaking him of the habit of grabbing the dice and grinding the game to a halt while makes unrequested skill checks. If the steadily ratcheting tension doesn't stop him, then the realization that rolling banes are costing him stress without any chance for a benefit will do it.

This is a very good question and I would be interested to hear from some of the GMs that ran the demo event. I had the exact same thought when I as reading through "A Day Late...." I guess I would just ask the most capable PC like Chipacabra said, as I don't like making secret rolls or having the players take bogus rolls, but it would be great to hear what actually works well.