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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hriston" data-source="post: 6677442" data-attributes="member: 6787503">... by which I mean when do you begin a combat encounter?I've noticed a variety of approaches to this question that end up having some significant effects on how things like Surprise and Stealth play out in the combat. The convention seems to be to only begin combat when PCs or monsters (or both) are clearly about to engage in hostilities, but extremes may be found that advocate rolling initiative either before or after this point in time. One extreme seems to favor an opening attack that occurs outside of initiative order, followed by a general initiative roll for subsequent attacks.Then there is my favored method which relies on an idea of encounter distance, the limit beyond which parties must necessarily be unaware of each other. This can be the limit of hearing or sight, and can change depending on environmental conditions, whether interior or exterior.It goes like this: when the PCs and the party they are about to have an encounter with are close enough that they could conceivably become aware of each other, that's when I begin the encounter. There is a frozen moment in time, the beginning of the encounter, in which surprise is determined and initiative is rolled. I also, if it hasn't already been done, like to determine the starting attitude of the monsters toward the PCs at this time. Then round one begins.The result of this approach is that the parties may be too far away from each other to engage right away, reducing the impact of surprise, but they also might have stumbled upon each other in very close quarters. One or even both sides might be surprised, and anyone who is unsurprised can decide to spend the first round attacking, closing to combat, sneaking away to avoid combat, or even opening a parley. Whoever has the first turn can use it to shape the encounter that follows. If the encounter turns into a social interaction, for example, we can drop out of initiative.That's the way I do it, and I'd be interested to hear anyone's opinions on that sort of method, since I feel that I'm in the minority in doing it this way. I'd also like to hear about how you start an encounter and why you feel that it's the best way for you and your group.Cheers!</blockquote>

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