Encounters: Predators stalk the PCs

[Kunimatyu]

In a lot of modules, Living Greyhawk and others, predators often just charge and attack the PCs, a behavior that isn't actually very common in real-world animals. Yesterday, I ran a session where two juvenile tyrannosaurs got wind of the party and stalked them for several hours before the PCs' killing of some smaller animals prompted the rexes to attack. It was a really fun encounter, because it was more of a puzzle than a combat -- the PCs had to figure out how to distract the stalking predators instead of just rolling initiative and charging in.

Do you ever run encounters like this, where the PCs notice the predator stalking them before it's actually a combat situation?

 

[Woas]

A wonderful idea that I've tried many times. I wonder, how do you keep the element of surprise around the stalking creature(s)?

From my experience, it is a sort of all or nothing situation. If a try to allude to the party the fact that perhaps they are being watched/followed, then they stop, send out scouts, make some spot and listen checks and generally slow things down until the target is found and defeated. Or whatever it was is not found and forgotten and things just continue on their merry way.
On the other hand, I can just not tell the party that they are being watched, and the predators end up just ambushing anyway... which boils down to rolling for initiative.

Please tell us more on your techniques.

 

[Kunimatyu]

A wonderful idea that I've tried many times. I wonder, how do you keep the element of surprise around the stalking creature(s)?

From my experience, it is a sort of all or nothing situation. If a try to allude to the party the fact that perhaps they are being watched/followed, then they stop, send out scouts, make some spot and listen checks and generally slow things down until the target is found and defeated. Or whatever it was is not found and forgotten and things just continue on their merry way.
On the other hand, I can just not tell the party that they are being watched, and the predators end up just ambushing anyway... which boils down to rolling for initiative.

Please tell us more on your techniques.

In yesterday's encounter, the entire party knew the two T-rexes were there from the get-go. No mystery about it. They also knew that the two of them were very likely to be a significantly challenging fight, and the gnome in particular -really- didn't want to take the risk of getting swallowed. Had the encounter looked easier, they probably would just have charged and fought; instead, they tried to figure out some way to keep the predators off of them.(and I was prepared to let them off the hook if they distracted them somehow, like killing a deer and leaving it for them)

In my case, I think the key was: make sure the PCs know the predators are there, and make them realize it'll be a very tough fight if they engage.