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Aren't we supposed to follow stealth rules (and most other rules) as written in organized play? I constantly see it being forgotten that you move at half speed unless you have feats or abilities, items, ext that change this. It is also forgotten that you must have cover or some such to hide. You can't just say "I hide" and roll and hide without cover. Then while moving if you break cover you're very likely to be seen and have to roll stealth again like every 5 feet moved or somesuch? If you also break cover and you're not flanking, going before them in initiative (for rogues) isn't only ONE of your attacks going to count as off guard? This needs to be enforced, otherwise feats, abilities, spells and items that change this are useless if the rules are being forgotten or even ignored entirely.
I do find the stealth rules honestly complex, but in Society Play its supposed to be run as written unless society has put out rules that it's different?
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This sounds like a localized problem. I've never encountered that sort of disregard for the stealth rules at a Convention, Online, or in person. The reduction in speed while using exploration activities is often handwaved, but I think that's as much writers trying not to punish dwarves slow characters so time pressure isn't used except in the rare hex crawl.
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Politely talk to the GM about it after the game, or, if it's common at your lodge, talk to the VO so they can change the culture.
Keep in mind many players and GMs are constantly learning; if the GM is trying their best to run a balanced game then it's alright if something is less than perfect.
There are many resources and cheat sheets out there about how to run stealth correctly.
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Keep in mind many players and GMs are constantly learning; if the GM is trying their best to run a balanced game then it's alright if something is less than perfect.
There are many resources and cheat sheets out there about how to run stealth correctly.
^^ This describes me pretty well.
Not necessarily just stealth, but rules in general. As a newer GM, if something is in the scenario, I'm well prepared for it. If it comes up player side from a class I haven't played, I sometimes get caught off guard. Luckily, locally most of the players also GM, so someone usually knows.
Any time something like that comes up, it goes into my cheat sheet or handout collection.
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Aren't we supposed to follow stealth rules (and most other rules) as written in organized play? I constantly see it being forgotten that you move at half speed unless you have feats or abilities, items, ext that change this. It is also forgotten that you must have cover or some such to hide. You can't just say "I hide" and roll and hide without cover. Then while moving if you break cover you're very likely to be seen and have to roll stealth again like every 5 feet moved or somesuch? If you also break cover and you're not flanking, going before them in initiative (for rogues) isn't only ONE of your attacks going to count as off guard? This needs to be enforced, otherwise feats, abilities, spells and items that change this are useless if the rules are being forgotten or even ignored entirely.
Stealth rules are complex and while I don't see them blatantly disregarded I do sometimes see the nitty gritty of them handwaved for the sake of a better experience for the table which GMs are in their right to do if they do not believe it will have a meaningful impact on the gameplay experience. If it is affecting your experience you should bring it up with your GM!
To answer a few of your questions though. Yes you have to move at half speed while while avoiding notice but you also move at half speed while searching so most partys default to half speed during exploration (though if this is sneaking in-combat then of course they should ensure they are moving at half.).
You don't need to roll stealth every 5ft of movement while sneaking. If you start and end your movement in cover or concealment then you roll once for the whole thing. Additionally you can add the bonus you receive from cover to your roll if you have cover for the entirety of your movement. Also if you fail a stealth check to sneak after hiding you are still hidden as long as you- once again are behind cover or concealed.
The rogue in-question does get all enemies they move before in initiative off-guard to them for all of their attacks due to their Surprise Attack class feature. Another important fact of note is you do not necessarily need cover or concealment to Avoid Notice (which allows you to typically roll stealth for initiative) to effectively try and be sneaky and it is rolled as an open roll rather then all the other stealth rolls which are rolled blind.
Add this on top of all the other things a GM needs to keep track of and I can see why sometimes aspects of the above get forgotten. I don't think any of it is done out of a malicious desire to cheat the system or break the "run as written" rule but rather just happenstance of a very complex system only being brought up ocassionally at tables.
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I do find the stealth rules honestly complex, but in Society Play its supposed to be run as written unless society has put out rules that it's different?
Run as written has been replaced with Run Prudently, but that has more to do with GMs having more flexibility running scenarios than interpreting rules; there is some room for that too.
For anyone looking to go beyond Run as Written, reading all of Alex Speidel's comments helps get into the mindset of what can be done. My favorite quote from that thread is
The first draft of this post started with the title "Run as Written is Fake and Made Up." Tragically, the section of the Guide is actually called "Run as Written," so that didn't work.
Note the Run as Written section of the guide has been changed to Run Prudently
Revising "Run as Written thread".
I've done a lot with Run Prudently using the permitted table adjustments and modding scenarios to make short scenarios run longer, but hadn't considered how that works on individual rules. Looking at the Lore Soire, it looks like the following rules apply. (Posting this to make sure I have a clear understanding of the rules; if I get anything wrong, or forget something, please point it out.)
Permitted Table Adjustments:
GM Adventure Adjustments:
GMs must:
Maintain the presence and functioning of skill checks, subsystems, and similar challenges, while allowing for creative player solutions.
GMs must not:
Change player-facing armor, feats, items, skills, spells, statistics, traits, weapons, or any other mechanics of player character options.
GM Discretion:
Table Rulings:
Interpret situations or player actions not covered by the rules.
Interpret unclear rules.
So for stealth, the rules should be used as written except?
1: For creative player solutions, or player actions not covered by the rules, with GM Discretion on how it will work and if it's plausible enough to attempt or do.
2: In-game situations covered by the rules. Similar to the above but not necessarily initiated by a player.
3: Interpret unclear rules, especially when stopping the game to look up rules will slow down the game, especially if the session has a time limit. GM makes a call and then looks up the rules after the game so everyone knows for next time.
4: Out-of-game situations, like running out of time ot finish the scenario. Such as handwaving the reduction in speed in exploration to speed up the game, as Squark mentioned in their comment. If that's something the writers have written into the adventure, and it makes sense in the context of the adventure, could it be treated as a more specific rule overriding a general rule?