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How do you handle someone who is not surprised but is unaware of any threats?
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<blockquote data-quote="Xetheral" data-source="post: 8029435" data-attributes="member: 6802765"><p>There are a variety of ways to address this situation, and vehement disagreement over what works best.</p><p></p><p>I would recommend that you ask the player whether she prefers to go first in such circumstances, even without any knowledge of what is about to happen. If she prefers it the way it is, great! In that case you don't need to make any changes. If she is frustrated and feels that going first is wasted if she doesn't have enough information to act, then you can discuss possible changes.</p><p></p><p>Commonly suggested approaches on this and other forums include:</p><ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Narrate the ambushing actions before initiate is rolled or the ambushing actions are resolved. This approach gives everyone full information about what is going to happen, at the cost of locking the ambushers into their declared actions. If any of those actions become impossible you may end up with some causality issues (e.g. the ambusher dies before actually shooting the arrow the high-initiative character was reacting to.)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Automatically have all hidden creatures become non-hidden when initiative is rolled. This approach limits the benefit of hiding to achieving surprise in the first place, and is a nerf to stealth-based characters who have to re-hide after combat begins. (Note: I've only seen this approach advocated on GiantITP, not on Enworld.)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">When only one character <em>wants</em> to take a combat action, rule that they automatically win initiative and take the first action in the first round. Everyone else rolls initiative and acts subsequently. So in your example, whichever character is leading the ambush acts first, then the high initiative PC who got the 27 goes second and has a much better idea of what is going on. The basis for this approach is that initiative is used to resolve who goes first when the outcome is uncertain, but if only one character is trying to go first there is no uncertainty to resolve. This approach can make ambushes somewhat more deadly if the lead ambusher has a powerful alpha strike.</li> </ol><p>Personally I use option #3, but what works best will vary from table to table.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Xetheral, post: 8029435, member: 6802765"] There are a variety of ways to address this situation, and vehement disagreement over what works best. I would recommend that you ask the player whether she prefers to go first in such circumstances, even without any knowledge of what is about to happen. If she prefers it the way it is, great! In that case you don't need to make any changes. If she is frustrated and feels that going first is wasted if she doesn't have enough information to act, then you can discuss possible changes. Commonly suggested approaches on this and other forums include: [LIST=1] [*]Narrate the ambushing actions before initiate is rolled or the ambushing actions are resolved. This approach gives everyone full information about what is going to happen, at the cost of locking the ambushers into their declared actions. If any of those actions become impossible you may end up with some causality issues (e.g. the ambusher dies before actually shooting the arrow the high-initiative character was reacting to.) [*]Automatically have all hidden creatures become non-hidden when initiative is rolled. This approach limits the benefit of hiding to achieving surprise in the first place, and is a nerf to stealth-based characters who have to re-hide after combat begins. (Note: I've only seen this approach advocated on GiantITP, not on Enworld.) [*]When only one character [I]wants[/I] to take a combat action, rule that they automatically win initiative and take the first action in the first round. Everyone else rolls initiative and acts subsequently. So in your example, whichever character is leading the ambush acts first, then the high initiative PC who got the 27 goes second and has a much better idea of what is going on. The basis for this approach is that initiative is used to resolve who goes first when the outcome is uncertain, but if only one character is trying to go first there is no uncertainty to resolve. This approach can make ambushes somewhat more deadly if the lead ambusher has a powerful alpha strike. [/LIST] Personally I use option #3, but what works best will vary from table to table. [/QUOTE]
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How do you handle someone who is not surprised but is unaware of any threats?
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