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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Noctem" data-source="post: 6776406" data-attributes="member: 6801315">At my table I begin the encounter after whatever provoked an encounter to begin is resolved.  IE:The thug in the marketplace stalked his target undetected (stealth vs passive perception) by the noble until the moment when the thug stabs the noble in the back.  I would narrate that the crowd around the noble is drowning any ambient noise and that the trinket he is looking at appears to be overpriced until suddenly he feels a blade between his ribs.  I would resolve damage for that attack, determine who is surprised (in this case everyone who didn't notice the thug as a threat until he stabbed the noble) and then have everyone roll initiative and go from there.To take an example from the PHB, the party is walking down a hallway and suddenly one of their members is engulfed into a gelatinous cube no one had noticed as a threat until it had already swallowed one of their own.  The attack the cube made is resolved and once that happens, I determine who is surprised (anyone who didn't notice the cube until it engulfed a party member), then roll initiative and go from there.The warband about to ambush the caravan might give itself away by sounding a horn to launch the attack, anyone who wasn't aware of the warband as a threat before the horn was blown is surprised.  Roll initiative.The archer secretly posted above the throne room fires his arrow into the kings skull before anyone realizes what just happened.  Everyone who wasn't aware that the archer was a threat is surprised, roll initiative and go from there.And so on.  I've gotten lots of knee jerk reactions from this way of starting encounters from people online who really just aren't interested in a discussion so I'm curious to see if anyone will be in this thread.</blockquote>

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