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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Nytmare" data-source="post: 4883598" data-attributes="member: 55178">To drift out of one realm of make-believe combat and awkwardly wander into another, I play a ton of hiding-in-the-woods paintball, and our typical "we know they're coming this way and we've got time to set up an ambush" routine is to:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Split everyone up and make them either a scout, or an ambusher, and designate a single person as a trigger</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Find a spot to spring the ambush that has the three following things:<ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">A spot to to hide for the people who are springing the ambush</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">A spot that the people GETTING ambushed are going to use to take cover from spot 1</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">A spot where the REAL ambushers are going to hide where they have free reign over the people hiding in spot 2</li> </ol></li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The scout(s) take their time and completely hide everybody else</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The scout(s) try to spot the bad guys before they get within range, without bothering to hide themselves</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The scout(s) attempt to lead the bad guys into the ambush from the best direction possible</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">At what is hopefully the best possible moment, the trigger springs the ambush, possibly bagging a bad guy or two, but primarily trying to manipulate the bad guys into position.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Once the bad guys react to the trigger's attack, hopefully by digging into the bit of cover provided for them, the rest of the ambushers open fire and murdalize them.</li> </ul>What this leads to, at least when you're dealing with a bunch of people who are, for all intents and purposes, trained for it, is an exceedingly complex game of cat and mouse and mind games.  When you're scouting and you spot someone, you've got this balancing act between keeping an eye on them, not letting them know that you've spotted them, all while trying to surreptitiously herd them into an ambush.  If you spot a scout, you're going to assume that they see you and are trying to lead you into a trap, so you're going to make them dance around hoping that they give away the location of their teammates.  If you get ambushed, do you run for cover, or do you turn your back to the guy shooting at you, and assume that the real danger is behind you? When you're setting your ambush, do you hide people in the spots that "make sense", or do you operate off the fact that you know that they know that you know what they know? How does this translate into a normal game of D&D? Probably very poorly. From the DM's side of things, the concept of a reactive ambush can be represented by luring the players into traps or within reach of lurkers. Troops that spring up a round or two after the fight starts, forcing the players to reevaluate where the front line is, or where it's safe for their controllers or strikers to hang out is always interesting. But for the players? I think that a skill challenge mirroring the pre-ambush chess match would be really interesting, but it's not something you should use more than once every couple of levels. Unfortunately the most interesting parts of the ambush are kind of wasted due to the nature of the all-seeing DM eye. You can go through the motions of having the bad guys fall prey to a brilliantly laid ambush, but it gets old fast.</blockquote>

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