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Message: <blockquote data-quote="IceBear" data-source="post: 122965" data-attributes="member: 1118">Ah, we'll hopefully I won't be one of those metagaming GMs that you hate Petrosian. When I have the party doing long distance travelling I will often tell them that they enter a clearing or some such event.  I will then ask them to move through it on the map.  I do this to keep them on their toes <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />  IF, there is a monster lying in wait in the area I do note where it is first.  If it is a monster hiding behind some bushes or what have you, then opposed Spots and Listens are rolled.  If it's a monster underground like an ankheg or an ice worm, then a Wilderness Lore is made to detect signs that they might be in the area.If the PCs move through the area without coming into ideal ambush range I will then decide whether or not the monsters actually attack.  Again, I try to decide on the personality and mindset of the creature.  A creature that likes to ambush probably wouldn't charge up to the party and attack.  If it is very hungry though, it might forego caution and attack.  If it does, now Spot and Listen checks come into play.  So, no, not all encounters with such creatures will happen with the monster springing up and attacking with surprise (though from the players point of view many of them are because they actually had encounters with others that they didn't know about because it decided not to attack).As for reading more into monsters than the skills listed, blame that on my desire to try to relate monsters to a real-life creature and on trying to make some sort of balance with how it exists in it's environment.  I was just mainly concerned at trying to show that it's success at ambushing could be better than it's Hide skill would lead you to believe because it shouldn't be an opposed Hide vs Spot check to detect the trap but a different mechanic.  I never meant to say it wouldn't leave ANY sign, just that it wouldn't be leaving signs that were at -7 on a d20 roll to spot (average Hide check of 3.5).  Even a yak with no spot skill would just see that too often for an ice worm to make a living eating them <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />  That's what I've been trying to say for the past three pages <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />IceBear</blockquote>

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