Surprise!

by mshrm

I’m always screwing up the rules for surprise and initiative. Perhaps it’s time to review.

The fundamental rules for surprise and initiative fit on a page: GUPRS Basic Set: Campaigns, page 393. There are two kinds of surprise: total and partial.

Total surprise is when you’re walking along, not a care in the world, and the ninja drop out of the ceiling and attack. A character who is totally surprised at the start of combat time will freeze, meaning they are stunned for 1d seconds and then have to roll unmodified IQ every following turn to snap out of it. If a character has Combat Reflexes, they won’t freeze. Instead, they will suffer from partial surprise.

Partial surprise is when you and the ninja are stalking each other in a dark basement, and it’s a question of who gets the drop on the other. It’s when both sides are on guard, or any time someone with Combat Reflexes is surprised. B393 calls for an initiative roll. This is an oddity for GURPS, in that it’s a sort of contest using 1d with modifiers. There are modifiers for having a leader, for Combat Reflexes in the leader or the rest of the team, for having the smarter leader, and for the leaders’ Tactics skills, plus other modifiers as the GM thinks appropriate. High roll gets it, and the losing side is mentally stunned and has to roll IQ to recover, but there’s a cumulative +1 per turn, and anyone with Combat Reflexes gets a +6.

Note that this mental stun is not the same thing as freezing. Combat Reflexes gives a massive boost, but it does not mean you’ll never miss the first round of combat.

For example, let’s say Flying-Rodent-Man (a high point total vigilante with Combat Reflexes), The Bird (lower point sidekick with Combat Reflexes), and Joe Flatfoot (loyal private eye contact, low points, no Combat Reflexes) are hanging out on a street corner having a conversation, all unsuspecting, when a carload of goons drives by and starts shooting.

According to B393, “The GM is responsible for determining when the attackers have achieved surprise.” Personally, I like to roll Perception or something of that sort, to see it coming, but that’s really situation dependent. Probably why the book leaves it so open. At any rate, the GM decides this is a case of surprise.

Combat begins when the goons declare that they’re starting the drive-by. However – and here’s a thing I’ve struggled with in the past – this does not change the turn sequence! The turn sequence (see B363) is the same, regardless of surprise or who nominally started the fight. Don’t worry, as we’ll see, a slower character can still sucker-punch a fast one.

The first action goes to Flying-Rodent-Man. He rolls against his 14 IQ, +6 for Combat Reflexes, and when he doesn’t roll an 18, he recovers from being stunned. He still must Do Nothing on his first turn, but he has his full defenses. He can dodge the hail of gunfire. He might even be able to do a Sacrificial Dodge and Drop (B377) to get himself and his buddies out of the way.

That’s why his name’s on the cover of the comic book, kids.

The Bird also gets a roll on his first turn. The Bird means well, but isn’t as wise in the ways of the world as Flying-Rodent-Man. He rolls against his 9 IQ, +6 for Combat Reflexes, but rolls a 16 and fails. He takes a Do Nothing maneuver, but is still stunned, and so defends at -4. Next turn, he’ll roll at +1, so he’ll likely become un-stunned, have one more Do Nothing, and then be on the move.

Joe was not looking for this. Without Combat Reflexes, Joe suffers from total surprise and freezes for 1d turns, then has to roll against his 10 IQ to recover. The GM rolls an average “3”, so for the next 3 turns, Joe will Do Nothing and defend at -4. On the 4th turn, Joe rolls against a 10, fails, continues on. On the 5th turn, it’s still a 10, so he might fail again. It’s possible Joe might stand there, mouth agape, until the carload of goons turns the corner on two wheels with two vigilantes in hot pursuit. It’s more likely, though, that he’ll catch a bullet first.

When a one group ambushes another, if they achieve surprise, they can count on at least one turn of free attacks – which is to say, one turn where the opposition will either Do Nothing, or Do Nothing and be stunned. Combat Reflexes saves a character from multiple seconds of freezing, but does not exempt them from that first moment of inaction.

DFRPG streamlines all this, of course.

Exploits, p 26-7, lays out a nice series of rolls to decide if one side is surprised, and if so, which one. It’s optimized for dungeon delving, and it takes the place of the Basic rules’ “GM determination” and rolling initiative. It’s all Stealth and Perception, with some Tactics if setting an ambush for others to walk into. I like that it’s a Quick Contest in line with other mechanics, using 3d against a skill.

Where DFRPG simplifies things is in what happens to those who lose the Quick Contest. The losers are mentally stunned, take -4 to defenses, roll IQ with +6 from Combat Reflexes and an incremental bonus per turn… in short, partial surprise. DFRPG threw out the whole idea of “freezing” and assumes that anybody down in the dungeon is on their guard at all times.

Makes sense; in the dungeon, a treasure chest is as likely as not to be trapped and a mimic, and even if it isn’t, the floor, ceiling, walls, and the dark cloak hanging in the closet probably all want to kill you anyway. It’s only sensible to want to sleep in your armor.

How have I screwed this up in the past? Oh, many ways.

Once, long ago, I tried to start the turn sequence with the character who threw the first punch. It didn’t work out well. Noncombatants with bad tempers would get the drop on professional gunslingers.

Lately, I’ve made it too easy on our heroes when they’re ambushed, in a couple of ways. It goes like this: The bad guys jump out and attack. I declare partial surprise, start the turn sequence with Slingshot, ask if he has Combat Reflexes. He does not. I call for an IQ roll, which he makes… and then I forget that, while he is not mentally stunned, he still must Do Nothing, and I let him take his turn. Slingshot mows down ambushers. Next in the sequence is Orvynth, and… I forget all about partial surprise and carry on as if nothing happened.