Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
How does Surprise work in 5e?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Hriston" data-source="post: 6479176" data-attributes="member: 6787503"><p>Here's the thing, Cooper's Color Code is not a comprehensive scientific study of the real mental-states that people in combat actually experience. It is an ideal that is presented for training purposes, to help you get into what Cooper calls the combat mindset. In Cooper's own words it is, "a means of setting one’s mind into the proper condition when exercising lethal violence." So, under Cooper's system, a person's mental state is not dictated by the circumstances he or she finds themselves in, but is under the control of the person as far as what they think is appropriate. Cooper explains that, "some students insist upon confusing the appropriate color with the amount of danger evident in the situation. As I have long taught, you are not in any color state because of the specific amount of danger you may be in... your combat mind-set is not dictated by the amount of danger to which you are exposed at the time. Your combat mind-set is properly dictated by the state of mind you think appropriate to the situation." So you can't assume that just because someone is in a fight that they have gone to condition red, or that if someone notices a threat that they are in condition orange. They may not even know that the threat is a threat. Only the DM knows for sure whether a monster or NPC means to do a character harm. Noticing a threat is completely different from identifying a threat as such. Sure, if everyone followed Cooper's teachings they might be able to make better decisions in a combat situation. I don't know if that's ever been proven. But it's very clear that this is not the way people naturally act. If they did then Cooper wouldn't have had to invent the Color Code to teach them how to get into the Combat Mindset. As I said up-thread, it's very unlikely that D&D characters and monsters are trained in these methods, so you don't know what their mindset is given a particular set of circumstances. I would wonder if we are both reading the same article if you hadn't provided the link yourself.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Hriston, post: 6479176, member: 6787503"] Here's the thing, Cooper's Color Code is not a comprehensive scientific study of the real mental-states that people in combat actually experience. It is an ideal that is presented for training purposes, to help you get into what Cooper calls the combat mindset. In Cooper's own words it is, "a means of setting one’s mind into the proper condition when exercising lethal violence." So, under Cooper's system, a person's mental state is not dictated by the circumstances he or she finds themselves in, but is under the control of the person as far as what they think is appropriate. Cooper explains that, "some students insist upon confusing the appropriate color with the amount of danger evident in the situation. As I have long taught, you are not in any color state because of the specific amount of danger you may be in... your combat mind-set is not dictated by the amount of danger to which you are exposed at the time. Your combat mind-set is properly dictated by the state of mind you think appropriate to the situation." So you can't assume that just because someone is in a fight that they have gone to condition red, or that if someone notices a threat that they are in condition orange. They may not even know that the threat is a threat. Only the DM knows for sure whether a monster or NPC means to do a character harm. Noticing a threat is completely different from identifying a threat as such. Sure, if everyone followed Cooper's teachings they might be able to make better decisions in a combat situation. I don't know if that's ever been proven. But it's very clear that this is not the way people naturally act. If they did then Cooper wouldn't have had to invent the Color Code to teach them how to get into the Combat Mindset. As I said up-thread, it's very unlikely that D&D characters and monsters are trained in these methods, so you don't know what their mindset is given a particular set of circumstances. I would wonder if we are both reading the same article if you hadn't provided the link yourself. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
How does Surprise work in 5e?
Top