Enemy Surprise Attacks a Character

When play testing I encountered a situation where the character heard a rustling sound from a dark corner in the room. The character readied their weapon and slowly approached, hoping to get a view of whatever made the sound.

Because this is a risky situation, I decided a Mind roll vs. a difficulty was in order. Here's what I decided would happen based on the Mind roll:

• Full Success: The character sees the creature in the corner and will not be surprised if it attacks
• Partial Success: The character knows there's something in the corner, but he can't make out the details. If the creature attacks, he'll still be surprised (jump scare anyone?)

The player rolled and got a Partial Success (muah ha ha!)

Of course, that means the creature attacks! It springs from the shadows and surprises the character. Because he's surprised, I bumped the difficulty die up 1 level and called for a Body roll for the attack. Here's what I decided would happen based on the Body roll:

• Full Success: The character was quick enough to evade the attack, but the enemy doesn't take damage.
• Partial Success: The character takes Strain equal to the difficulty cost, but the enemy doesn't take damage.

The player rolled and got a Partial Success, so they marked Strain equal to the difficulty cost.

Now we're onto normal combat rolls and normal difficulties for the enemy.

Character Surprise Attacks An Enemy

When thinking through the opposite, I decided it was pretty close to what is described above.

Because it is a risky situation, a Body (or Mind based on the situation) is required vs. an easier difficulty (enemy doesn't know they are there) to see if the character maintains their stealth in order to get a surprise attack in. Here's how I'd rule based on the roll:

• Full Success: The character maintains their stealth, so the enemy will be surprised when they attack. For the attack roll consider the situation and, increase the characters attribute die, drop the enemies difficulty die, or both. To make it SUPER simple, you could declare the characters attack is an auto hit and the enemies hit count is decreased by 1.
• Partial Success: The character did something so the enemy is suspicious, so the enemy will not be surprised when they attack. The attack will be a normal attack, but the partial success means the enemy was suspicious but not prepared so decrease the difficulty die.

Summary

Hopefully this gives some insight into how to run the game in different situations. It really boils down to adjusting the attribute and difficulty die based on the situation. Sometimes a test is needed to see how much the die should be adjusted.

When in doubt, just adjust one or both die and call for a roll. It'll be epic!