The tactical considerations arising from AD&D concepts such as movement, encounter distance, surprise and initiative, when enriched with the advantages accorded to the Ranger, Thief and Assassin and my own stealth and special forces classes, have always closely engaged my players over the years. Since we all come form a Science or Maths background nothing in gaming is considered complicated.
I have been thinking about how a Thief might appraise the risk involved in climbing and think it is reasonable he might categorise an entire climb for himself as say Comfortable, Cautious or Reckless with probabilities of success of say, 95%, 85% and 50%. The exact numbers are irrelevant; it is the approach that is important. Then according to both his level and the conditions of the surface there is a distance he could cover at that level of risk following the descriptions in the PHB and the DMG. I have simply transferred a per round risk to a distance covered at a risk, for example in the table the risk for all kinds of conditions and experience is cautious 85%. I also have tables for 50% and 95%.
This, at least to me, is a more natural and realistic way for climbers to get to grips with hazard. The distances and probabilities are all by the book.
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