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IronHawk · 02-10-2010, 02:40 PM

Hi All:

I'm new to GURPS (and new to the board) and need a little help with the rules on surprise. A few days ago, I ran a simple find & destroy mission for a small group of players; their target was a dire wolf whose stats I grabbed off Collective Restraint's website. The genre was a standard fantasy setting.

Anyway, the PCs had tracked the DW back to its den and were approaching the den when one of them failed their stealth check. Hidden inside the den, the DW hears the PCs and prepares to attack.

At this point, the party sees the entrance to the den, but doesn't know if their target is within. The DW knows that "prey" is just outside its door.

OK, here's where I ran into trouble. The DW leaps out to attack, and I figure that the party might be surprised so I called for a surprise check. From what I read on page 393, I judged this to be partial surprise, but that requires BOTH sides to roll for initiative and the loser freezes. Well, of course the wolf loses, despite him already knowing that the party is there. Now he's got to wait 1d rounds (I rolled a 4) during which time he's frozen (no, wolves don't get Combat Reflexes) and then start trying to recover from the mental stun by rolling below his IQ of 4. I could see the DW standing there for 10 or 15 seconds while the party beats the stuffing out of him.

All of this seems very "wrong" to me. Did I interpret the surprise rules correctly? If not, (and I hope not) then what did I do wrong? Thanks.

All the Best,
Scott

02-10-2010, 02:40 PM	#1
IronHawk Join Date: Jan 2010	Newbie Question on Surprise rules Hi All: I'm new to GURPS (and new to the board) and need a little help with the rules on surprise. A few days ago, I ran a simple find & destroy mission for a small group of players; their target was a dire wolf whose stats I grabbed off Collective Restraint's website. The genre was a standard fantasy setting. Anyway, the PCs had tracked the DW back to its den and were approaching the den when one of them failed their stealth check. Hidden inside the den, the DW hears the PCs and prepares to attack. At this point, the party sees the entrance to the den, but doesn't know if their target is within. The DW knows that "prey" is just outside its door. OK, here's where I ran into trouble. The DW leaps out to attack, and I figure that the party might be surprised so I called for a surprise check. From what I read on page 393, I judged this to be partial surprise, but that requires BOTH sides to roll for initiative and the loser freezes. Well, of course the wolf loses, despite him already knowing that the party is there. Now he's got to wait 1d rounds (I rolled a 4) during which time he's frozen (no, wolves don't get Combat Reflexes) and then start trying to recover from the mental stun by rolling below his IQ of 4. I could see the DW standing there for 10 or 15 seconds while the party beats the stuffing out of him. All of this seems very "wrong" to me. Did I interpret the surprise rules correctly? If not, (and I hope not) then what did I do wrong? Thanks. All the Best, Scott