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Hi folks, I've been thinking of tweaking the Find The Path skill for stalkers.

As the skill check stands at the present, a single success alerts the group to any threat in a zone - that's pretty powerful, and I'm thinking that it takes some of the threat out of sector exploration in the zone. The rules suggest hitting the group with a second threat after encountering the first one that they've discovered, but I was thinking of going a bit further.

This is the most involved change I've been thinking about - it can be easily simplified but I think this gives enough level of uncertainty to really make the PCs sweat.

The stalker makes his Find the Path roll, a single success means that he hasn't got everyone completely lost.
The stalker can assign and additional successes to identify threats in the sector (along with all the other options such as speeding things up, finding bullets etc) - he's working against an unknown total so it's up to him how cautious he wants to be.
Once the stalker has assigned however many successes he wants to identifying enemies, the GM makes a roll for the Threat in the sector (if any) by using a number of dice equal to the threat level of the sector.
If the Stalker allocated more successes than the GM made on his roll, the party identify the threat in advance (or they can react before an environmental hazard hits them).
If the GM scored more success than the Stalker, the threat identifies the party as they approach (or an environmental hazard hits them before they can react).
On a draw, the threat and the party see each other simultaneously (or for an environmental threat, the party sees it in the nick of time but have to make a harder roll to avoid it).

What do you think guys ?

I like this!

The system generally does not use opposed rolls, but they do occur in some places (such as defense in close combat) and in this case I do think it could come in handy. I like the fact that the Stalker would not know how many successes he needs to allocate to spot the threat in time.

If you try it out, please do report on how it worked out.

In our group I (GM) have always ruled that 'Find the Path' only allows you to be aware of the most imminent threat in the sector and that is nothing to prevent me from introduce more threats. I usually let each ☣ equal one threat, so if I roll two ☣ then there is two threats in the sector (or sometimes I only use one threat, but a stronger one). The players have to use 'Scout' to detect any other threats than the most imminent one.

I usually prepare a handful of sectors before the game so I don't have to roll those dice during the session (unless the players decides to go somewhere where I haven't foreseen). So this way there can be sectors with multiple threats, and since threats do not always mean combat and enemies, it can be more interesting.

Your way is interesting and, with some tweaks, can works with my tweaks. A Stalker can choose to be more cautious in a sector (i.e. use more ☢ to detect more threats, instead of have to rely on 'Scout' and also instead of finding grub and water).

A success for us means you are aware of the most immediate threat of the area. You can spot the signs of the threat before encountering it. This can be straight up hearing the herd of weird critters moo, or something subtle like the strong smell of the acid grass or finding excrement from a drop-bear. And all it does is giving the players an opportunity to anticipate and plan ahead. In no way does it grant them a bonus to actually sneaking around, fighting or luring the threat or grabbing the artefacts they have discovered.