Roleplay help

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Zeus1976
Mumbles Incoherently
Posts: 22

Roleplay help

Post by Zeus1976 » Sat Jan 10, 2015 1:56 pm

Hi, i am currently running a game and would like a little bit of advice on something I have planned. It is my second time running.

Scenario :
Players complete do a good deed And have been noticed by the mayor of the city, the Mayor invites them to stay at his mansion for the duration of their stay (2 week)
The mayor and his guards are been controlled by a demonic force and will try ambush the players on the 5th night.

Thing is I want the mayor to (attempt) the ambush (I say attempt as two of the pc have huge sense ambush skills, the Mayor however does not know this which is why it's been attempted)

Would you roll for the ambush at the start when they are first invited, or would you say wait until the night of the ambush?

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Groo_the_Wanderer
Mutters to Themself
Posts: 39

Re: Roleplay help

Post by Groo_the_Wanderer » Mon Jan 12, 2015 12:24 pm

Night of.

My reasoning is two fold... first if it's not immediately before it's coming then how far along do they get to roll. a day, a week, a year??

Second even though it's planned who is to say that something doesn't happen that delays it or cancels it outright, if you allow the sense ambush well before it's about to occur then there is no "unsense ambush" to tell you it's off.

Basically in my games sensing an ambush happens generally a 0-3 rounds before it happens. If it's really obvious and a really good roll then they get more time. Closer the roll and less obvious the ambush the less time. At a bare minimum making the roll grants immunity to surprise. It's also not unusual for me to grant a situational bonus to initiative on the first round equal to the skill roll - DC of check to the first round of initiative, in particular when they get less than 1 round of warning. I have even (on a good roll) forced the enemy to make a surprise check as they spring the ambush, the idea here is that if they fail it the party actually manages to spring into action just before the enemy was going to and catches them off guard.

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