How do you surprise your players?

[Bawylie]

Surprises work best (IMO) when the players see them coming. I know that’s counterintuitive, but they feel better in play when they’re foreshadowed.

Whenever I want to use a surprise, I think of Jaws. The theme song starts deeply humming, the fin crests out of the water, there’s a brief glimpse of the exact position of the people and the shark, and then WHAM shark attack.

That early setup signals “some sh*t is going down now!” And that’s the anticipatory emotional terror that sells the surprise. The surprise itself isn’t quite as important as the buildup.

So ultimately, it doesn’t matter who goes first, who can’t be surprised, or anything else. They’ll feel that tension the moment you say, “the sound of a twig snapping breaks the silence somewhere to your left. It’s dead quiet otherwise, you can’t even hear the normal sounds of nature.” (Pause for a very quick reaction from players). “Wham! A black feathered arrow smacks straight into the side of your cart. It’s an ambush! What do you do?”

That kind of narrative keeps paying off for me. Small hint, big hint, shark attack, what do you do?

 

[Jonathon Robinson]

In general, I don't set out to surprise the players. Sometimes it will happen because of this occurrence or that, but I find that wanting a particular outcome too much can result in treading upon the players' choices. So the best I can do is set up situations that are interesting and challenging and if the players find themselves surprised by those events, then great! Otherwise, no big deal.

With ambushes, the first thing I will do is some level of telegraphing. The PCs might hear about banditry in the forest or monsters known to stalk the shadows of the forsaken ruins or whatever. While that may seem strange when preparing to present an ambush, it is a form of foreshadowing which creates the context necessary for the players to make decisions to change their fate. Without it, an ambush simply becomes a "gotcha," not unlike the odd trap that the PCs had no chance to avoid except perhaps for a die roll or two instead of solid decision-making. And in any case, players may not do anything in particular to prepare themselves for these eventualities, but if they run afoul of those bandits or stalking monsters and take a beating, they can at least look back and know that they were warned and that their decisions had a hand in the outcome, good or bad.

As far as presenting the actual scene, it can vary based on the NPCs or monsters doing the ambushing. But ultimately it just follows the standard Combat Step by Step rules: The DM determines surprise with the monsters' Dexterity (Stealth) checks against the PCs' passive Perception checks (those who are Keeping Watch, that is) to determine surprise. Any PC who is not Keeping Watch because they've turned their attention to some other task is automatically surprised. The DM then establishes positions, describes the environment, and everyone rolls initiative.

PCs who aren't surprised and also beat the monsters in initiative are aware of where the monsters are, even if they can't see them. The players describe what they want to do and the DM narrates the results of the adventurers' actions. The PCs who are surprised don't get to act in the first round, except perhaps for reactions after their turn has passed.

That's about it. There's really nothing special to it in my view.

It is interesting that you call out "those who are Keeping Watch, that is." I have always assumed that the characters are keeping watch at all times. How would you run a relaxing night in the tavern suddenly ruined by a doppelganger? Would the player who said "I open the treasure chest" have his character be automatically surprised when he finds out it is a mimic? When do you roll for initiative in these scenarios? After the mimic has attacked his character or before? What if this character had the alert feat and rolled a higher initiative than the mimic? Does he still get stuck due to the adhesive trait or does his alertness kick in and "alert" him?

 

[77IM]

1. I always allow some sort of check to determine surprise. Usually a Wisdom (Perception) check to notice an ambush, but I also call for a surprising (heh) amount of Wisdom (Insight) checks to notice that a friendly-seeming NPC is about to trigger combat somehow.

I'll give advantage/disadvantage as circumstances warrant, but simply declaring characters surprised by DM fiat seems kinda unfair to me. However, even I will declare characters surprised without a check if they're asleep or something.

2. If a character is surprised but wins initiative, great! They take no action because they're surprised, but they can now take reactions for the rest of the round.

3. I will give advantage on initiative to a character who initiates combat -- BUT they are committed to their action. E.g. if you decide to end the conversation and attack, but you still manage to bomb out your initiative, then everybody knows you're attacking and on your turn you have to attack.

 

[iserith]

It is interesting that you call out "those who are Keeping Watch, that is." I have always assumed that the characters are keeping watch at all times.

It's a safe assumption, usually. However, if they're doing something at least as distracting as navigating, foraging, tracking, or drawing a map, then they aren't turning their attention toward keeping watch for danger and thus they have no chance of noticing lurking monsters. Therefore, they are automatically surprised. The key thing here is making those tasks and other such distracting tasks as valuable as having a chance to avoid surprise. After all, not every monster the PCs run across will try to be acting stealthily. So it's sometimes worth the risk to do other tasks if there's a good payoff for doing so.

How would you run a relaxing night in the tavern suddenly ruined by a doppelganger?

It depends. Surprise is resolved the same way as usual. In a social interaction challenge that turns into a combat challenge, as soon as the doppelganger reveals its duplicity, who is surprised might be resolved by its Charisma (Deception) check against the PCs' passive Insight scores. That's not strictly speaking how the rules call for such a resolution, but it seems reasonable to me given the situation.

Would the player who said "I open the treasure chest" have his character be automatically surprised when he finds out it is a mimic?

It's likely the character is now stuck to the mimic if he or she touched it. Then the DM can resolve who is surprised via the normal means.

When do you roll for initiative in these scenarios? After the mimic has attacked his character or before? What if this character had the alert feat and rolled a higher initiative than the mimic? Does he still get stuck due to the adhesive trait or does his alertness kick in and "alert" him?

Initiative happens before the participants take their turns. The Adhesive trait of a mimic does not require combat for it to work.

 

[cmad1977]

I like to climb out from under their beds and go blaaaarrgh!!!

 

[SkidAce]

This is the sort of thing I was thinking of. How would you run "floor collapses"? Do you announce "you hear a rumbling sound" and have the players roll for initiative? What about the harmless NPC vendor that suddenly tries to suck their blood? "The NPC turns towards you with a gleam in his eye: roll for initiative" or is it more of a "The NPC bites your neck" sort of thing? This is where I get stuck and the narrative is lost for me. Players that roll high initiative are stuck wondering what the gleam in his eye means and effectively lose their turn. Or they simply attack because they know initiative means combat...

If you rule that they are surprised by the attack/action of the npc/monster, either via perception versus stealth or otherwise, ALL THEY GET IS A REACTION. If that changes the narrative, then thats okay in my opinion.

If you have a pc that cant be surprised, you can still have the bad guy go first and "fire the arrow", the alert pc gets his full action as a reward for the feat.

But even an alert pc may get shot by a perfect ambush, since the shot is what starts things. Just dont over use ruling the npc winds init. That would be for rare hard to set up perfect ambushes.

 

[Ath'kethin]

Typically, what surprises my players most is when I show up prepared for the session.

 

[jgsugden]

I just look at the mechanics and tell the story.

Example: Goblins sneak up on the camping PCs. Their stealth beats the passive perception of the party and the active perception of the PCs on watch. One of the PCs on watch has alertness. "The quiet of the wilderness is almost thick tonight. The droning of the insects that made sleep last night difficullt was annoying, but the silence of everything outside the crackle of the fire and Foo's snoring is in some ineffable way worse.

Suddenly, Gregor catches sight of something in the shadows. He can't see what it is, and as soon as he sees it he loses track of it, but he feels it is a threat."

'I call a warning and ready my bow...'

"As you start to call a warning the arrows fly from the darkness, all 7 of which are aimed at the two of you on watch. Gregor, roll initiative. Everyone else is surprised. We'll see if your arrow gets off before theirs reach you..."

 

[guachi]

If you wish for the initiation of combat to be a surprise to the players you can always have them roll initiative several times at the start of the session. This way, if the players are surprised in combat you can have the opposing creature act while the players are unaware.

 

[TwoSix]

Geeze. You're far more committed than I am. I just randomly shout out "Boo!" at some point point during the game session.

I've spent five to ten years perfecting my DM skills, minus a little for good behavior.