Re: mechanics of surprise

Mary K. Kuhner wrote:

> How do you deal with situations like the following?

     I'll answer from a strict DnD perspective.

> (1)  My forces set up just outside the cavemouth.  As soon as the foe
> steps out of the cave, we fire arrows at him.  We don't intend to move
> at all as we have good cover where we are.

     Your cover gives you a Hide check, if it beats his Spot he's
surprised.
     Anyone who's unskilled at hiding should stay down behind total 
cover (missing the surprise round) to prevent themselves spoiling the 
ambush (those behind total cover also can't be seen).

> (2)  My group and the enemy group are standing face to face, talking.
> Negotiations break down; the leader of my group gives a secret
> signal, not detected by the enemy, which means "Attack immediately."

     Everyone is aware, roll initiative.

> In #1 I would feel quite perturbed if the unaware foe got to shoot
> one of us before we got to shoot him.

     There's LOS, so he's only unaware if you were able to hide (having 
cover, concealment, or a hide in plain sight ability) and he missed his 
spot check. DnD assumes everyone sees everything not explicitly hidden 
by skill or spell (to a limit by environment).

     Your foe would need to see the ambush and win init to get first 
shot off, and would probably be better to do a runner if the chance
arises.

> I'm not as sure about #2, but how about this:
> 
> (3)  Half of the PCs have been replaced by dopplegangers.  The 
> dopplegangers have agreed among themselves in advance that if the
> PCs try to open the door to their secret hideout, they'll have
> to attack immediately.  The PCs have failed to notice
> the dopples and have no idea anything is wrong, and they haven't
> yet been able to open the locked door so they are not expecting
> attack from that direction.

     The PCs are aware of those making the attack, so no surprise round. 
It's not all that unusual in DnD for your buddies to be turned against 
you one way or another, so I'd expect to see some subdual attacks from 
the PCs.


     I add a house rule allowing the 'combat bluff' mechanic outside of 
combat to earn a surprise round against those who're aware of you. It 
represents "I'm totally not stabbing you with this sword", and 
Doppelgangers have +14 there when reading minds.

     I also run the old 3.0 option where the first round is /always/ 
partial actions only, you just can't act in it if surprised.

-- 
     tussock

Aspie at work, sorry in advance.