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Ok so i have played Rifts for a while now and a question that always comes up and always gets a different answer is after ransacking a room or roughing up somebody and searching the room/body what skill do they roll? Lately we have been using perception.

Skill use for unknown skills - what do you do in the instances where somebody wants to use a skill that they dont have such as pilot, research, cooking, prowl, etc.

Next question why does IQ give bonuses to physical skills and not P.P? Pick Pockets should get a bonus from a high PP not IQ.

Skills that can be used to help find stuff 'in a room' and 'on a person': Find contraband, Concealment, Detect Concealment.
A perception roll is not outside these situations.

Research: only cuts the time it takes in half. This is in the skill text.
Cooking: as a GM I give them a 35% chance of not burning the food.
Prowl: I would give the char their IQ bonus combined with the char's PP bonus as a %. (Conversion rate of 1 to 5 to make a d20 bonus into a d100 bonus. i.o.w., PP bonus x5.)

I give the IQ bonus to ALL d100 based skills, so GMs don't 'go ape $$$$' if I give the PP bonus as a % bonus to physical/dexterity skills instead of the IQ bonus.

lostsoul336 wrote:Skill use for unknown skills - what do you do in the instances where somebody wants to use a skill that they dont have such as pilot, research, cooking, prowl, etc.

They fail.

Glistam wrote:

lostsoul336 wrote:Skill use for unknown skills - what do you do in the instances where somebody wants to use a skill that they dont have such as pilot, research, cooking, prowl, etc.

They fail.

I mostly agree.

There are certain simpler skills that can be done by anyone. In those situation, I would give the player IQ% chance of success.

Example: A Vagabond with an IQ of 14 hears a creature roar in the woods. He doesn't know what it is, but his Wilderness Scout colleague, who wasn't with him at the time, might be able figure out what creature/monster made the noise if he were to hear it again. The Vagabond doesn't have the "Imitate Sounds & Voices" skill, so the GM allows him to TRY to recreate the roar he heard by rolling percentile under his IQ. Trying to roll below 14%, the Vagabond rolls a 38%; the Scout laughs in his face at his feeble attempt.

lostsoul336 wrote:Basic gameplay questions

NOW you're opening up a can of worms.

Ok so i have played Rifts for a while now and a question that always comes up and always gets a different answer is after ransacking a room or roughing up somebody and searching the room/body what skill do they roll? Lately we have been using perception.

It's up to the GM and the situation.
For searching bodies, you could use Pick Pocket. For searching a room, you could use Detect Concealment. For searching a lot of places, you could use Streetwise.
It's all up to the GM.

Skill use for unknown skills - what do you do in the instances where somebody wants to use a skill that they dont have such as pilot, research, cooking, prowl, etc.

You roll percentile dice against the appropriate attribute.
So if you're trying to pick a pocket, and you don't have the skill, then you try to roll under your Physical Prowess using percentile dice.

Next question why does IQ give bonuses to physical skills and not P.P? Pick Pockets should get a bonus from a high PP not IQ.

Sometimes, knowing how and when to do something is more important than your physical skill at doing it.
With picking pockets, being aware of the other person's body and mind, being aware and knowledgeable about their clothing, and many other factors all come into play. You might have the most dextrous fingers in the world, but if you spend 5 minutes trying to find out which pocket their wallet is in, then it's not going to do you any good.