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Message: <blockquote data-quote="billd91" data-source="post: 8000422" data-attributes="member: 3400">Honestly, I think you're fretting the initiative roll too much. Yes, there are all sorts of ways rolls can complicate things. But just because the roll indicates the secretary may go before the hero, that doesn't mean the hero's plan is squashed. After all, the whole point of swinging down from the balcony is intended to be a surprise, right? So that secretary is going to assume the hero will come down the normal way. He may spend his action, assuming he even sees the hero (which we'll assume he does otherwise we'd just be giving the hero the drop on him because of the surprise since the secretary is trying to look unrushed and nonchalant - all the better to poison a bunch of unsuspecting party-goers), catching the eye of any guards on the party level to send them up to stop the hero from using the stairs.If you turn to initiative to help time out the adjudication of actions, you don't have to play it like everyone gets everything they want accomplished on their turns, particularly when the players are angling to do something surprising like swinging on a chandelier.And that's one reason I think you don't want such tactics to be too common, even in a swashbuckling game. If the PCs are doing it all the time, it's no longer a surprise. And when it's no longer a surprise, why aren't people expecting it and countering it? By all means, if a PC is fishing around  for something in desperation like "Oh, my god! The secretary is coming into the ballroom with the poison. I gotta get down their fast!" let them know "Well, there's a chandelier hanging about midway between you and him..." But if the PC is known as a chandelier swinger, time to shake him out of his comfort zone and do something more creative.</blockquote>

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