Questions Concerning Total/Partial Surprise

[Doktor Teufel]

There is only one page's worth of information in the Basic Set (page B393) covering Surprise Attacks, and I've read through that page many times at this point. There are still a few details that perplex me.

First of all, Total Surprise is very difficult to achieve. To catch adventurers and adventurer-type NPCs completely by surprise, you either have to do something completely zany, unexpected and off-the-wall (werewolves bursting into the public library), or get them when they're sleeping or otherwise incredibly vulnerable. And even then, characters with Combat Reflexes (that's most hero-type characters) are never really caught completely off guard. If the attackers do manage to achieve Total Surprise, then there's no need to roll initiative; the attackers get one or more rounds free to do as they wish.

Partial Surprise is odd. If the PCs (or adventurer-grade NPCs) are wary and alert, there is simply no way to catch them totally by surprise. So let's say a bunch of enemy NPCs have set up an ambush for the PCs. The PCs don't notice them at all, but because they're wary, when the NPCs pop out of their hiding places to start shooting, both sides roll initiative.

That means that if attackers have an ambush set up and a wary group walks into the trap, the attackers could somehow lose initiative and the ones the ambushers intended to attack would end up getting one or more free turns instead!

That makes no sense to me. I can deal with the defenders getting to act normally, but getting to act BEFORE the ambushers? Wow.

Is there something I'm missing?