Good stealth system

[clash]

Can anyone recommend a good tabletop system either homebrew or existing for playing more of a stealth, infiltration and silent takedown type of game? I am thinking something like the batman or thief video games as a team rpg. Most of the systems I have played have stealth and light and darkness half baked and tacked on as an after thought.

Failing that any thoughts on what would be needed to make one?

[Dienekes]

If you're looking for a fun kinda loose stealth-ish game. I may say give Blades in the Dark a look. But it is more for getting the feel of a whacky heist movie. It essentially works backwards, the players start their stealth section and then when they come up with issues they can explain how they have the answer to it through flashback. It's really fun, but if you're trying to make the stealth something that the players need to actually plan and work through it may not be for you.

I would suggest, if you're trying to make a more gritty plan-it-out kind of stealth game that you follow these sort of rules.

It is ok if the rules of stealth and whatnot are not too terribly in depth. Even the D&D pretty basic stealth mechanics can make for fun stealth segments if you do things right.

Things like Low-Light/Darkness and Cover providing your character the means to stealth through a location is all you really need at the basic level.

But to make the stealth actually feel interesting comes down way more to how the DM runs it.

If someone fails a single Stealth check, are they immediately discovered and the mission failed/combat starts? If the answer to that is yes. Then your system is either going to be unfun OR will be seen as just a precursor to the combat section of the game. I would generally suggest not doing this. Instead a failed check should result in a Change. You failed the check now one of the Guards says. "Hey did you hear that?" and starts moving toward the group. What do you do? Then have the system allow for the players to think on their feet for how they can get out of this situation without being seen. Release a cat to scamper past and remove suspicion. Or fall back to the section that is utmost dark where you can get another chance for the stealth check. Maybe they have to take this guard out in one big hit before he stumbles on the character who failed the check. Or whatever.

Now, this does not mean catastrophic failure does not occur, but it shouldn't be the result of one failed check. I generally like to do 2 if they're right in a row or 3-4 spread out over the stealth mission as a good benchmark for how many failures can happen before catastrophe that requires fighting your way out/abandoning the mission.

Combat should be incredibly difficult if they go in guns blazing, but perhaps not impossible when things go completely pear shaped. But if you do get the situation right it should be relatively easy to take a guard out. Just throwing numbers around. If your normal attack does 2 damage, but an attack from stealth deals 5. Attacks from stealth when the enemy is distracted because your ally did something deal 10. Attacks from stealth when the enemy is distracted and you are adjacent to them deal 15.

Essentially the combat -as much as it is- should be designed so that the goal is to stay in stealth (the stealth boost), work as a team (the distracted boost), with a bit of a benefit for making the risky play (the adjacent boost).

Focus on that sort of thing above all else.

After that, the last big thing is to make the actual stealth mission a puzzle for the players to figure out. It can't just be "roll stealth and walk up." This is all DM reliant though. But there has to be setting, and goals, and reasons for the characters to make multiple steps to get past the important stealth sections for it to be fun. For example, one of my games involved the players having to knock over a large cauldron of witch brew that would turn anyone who touched it into rabbits.

The cauldron was held up at three points. The guards were stationed around the room and marching in pre-determined patterns they players could observe. The players had to figure out a way to reach each of those three points and get them all to break at the same moment so the brew spills out over the guards without them touching it.

The players then had to move about unseen setting up how they would reach each of the three points (which worked because there were 3 players so each had a task to accomplish) and then each of them had to figure out an escape route to reach when the brew fell to get to safety and not touch it.

All it really took was a few stealth checks, some athletics checks for when they needed to rush, one sleight of hand check to make a noise to create a distraction so another player could try to reroll a failed stealth check. And some planning where to go. And the players had a lot of fun.