Awareness

Sometimes one knows that a fight is able to happen without really knowing why. Other times, some get caught flat-footed. Other times, the fight is looming but there are events leading up to it before the actual first swing. All of these things are managed by the game concept called Awareness.

Determining whether something is noticed or not is the effectively just a mechanism of Perception. Yes, the sub-attribute, and the short story is Awareness is little more than a Perception check. However, it is used for non-obvious circumstances. If a boulder is in the road, no one has to make a Perception check to know it is there. However, if a stealthy follower is trailing the group, then it would be needed.

Also, many Awareness checks will be performed in secret by the GM when it becomes pertinent. However, a player might ask to actively scan the area for anything unusual. The roll again should be made in secret by the GM, but a +4 bonus would be used on the roll. Also, keep in mind, there are skills which train up a character’s Awareness ability.

For things that do not generate their own TM from skills or magic, there is a default baseline of TM:14 that is used. Conditions only apply if they are relevant. For example, mist would not be a factor for the friends cantrip.

To simplify things as much as possible, the modifiers are intended to increase or decrease the TM so that the roll can just be adjusted by the character’s Perception and not worry about all the other factors. Of course, there are times that individuals may need specific modifiers that don't apply to the rest of the party.

Putting all this in context of pre-battle, there will be times where an encounter is noticed long before there is a chance to start a battle. However, there will be scenarios where a street corner is turned to view a small group of thugs mugging victims. This is where a Awareness check would be needed. The thugs might not notice your party closing in. The bookworm of your party might have missed the rest of the group turned down the alley.

One additional note about how Awareness works: most skills and attribute checks do not use the raw die values; however, Awareness does. Therefore, for an Awareness check, “natural 20” and “natural 1” represent dumb luck beyond the math.

Surprise

Not every encounter gives an equal opportunity to respond. This would be in cases of sleeping persons, being caught in an ambush or someone breaks parlay to attack. When the GM determines that surprise is involved, then there is an opportunity of a “surprise” round; however, how this works is not purely one side against the other but rather all individuals on the battlefield. Just to clarify, the following few paragraphs are about a surprise scenario, not every combat.

When an event or an entity’s action creates an unexpected combat, that episode typically occurs prior to any other actions. This could be an act of emotion that no one expects or it could be a planned part of an ambush; however, that cast axiom or shot fired will usually be resolved and calculated separately before the “official start” of the battle. However, that is a GM decision; for instance, if that axiom had five or six second casting time versus one second. Obviously, the one who took the action is automatically aware. All others must make an Awareness check to roll the standard d12 for one’s first action. Depending on one’s state and restrictions will impact the difficulty, which is by default TM:14.

Those who had foreknowledge that the trigger would happen are allowed to roll the Awareness at advantage with the base being only TM:10. Foreknowledge would something like allies of someone signaling for the ambush to begin. While unlikely, those prepared can still be caught off guard or distracted at the wrong moment, but with the lower TM and advantage, it should be rare. All others who have no restrictions use the TM:14 default, with of course only one d20. All other special circumstances will be managed by the GM. These are usually detailed by the restriction type. For example, for someone who is asleep, the Awareness would be 3 points more difficult (TM:17) on the check and would only be allowed a die roll if the event had noise, heat, smell or something reasonable to wake the person.

Those who are aware, can act normally, rolling the standard d12 for initiative and can use all the available movement opportunities. Those who failed on Awareness are considered to be surprised. This restriction does not mean the combatant at disadvantage if attacked. However, it does mean that combatant is not prepared in that moment. This could be one knows something is happening but cannot spot the threat to make an effective action. It could mean one’s sword is unexpectedly stuck in its scabbard. Perhaps the combatant runs to do something, then gets distracted, changes his mind, goes to do a different action and becomes ineffective for the first few moments of combat. In game terms, surprised beings do not take an action and cannot use movement opportunities while under the restriction. Further, the GM will rule on whether certain reactions are permitted or not. Finally, those whose Awareness roll with all adjustments is a score of 5 or lower are in “panicked surprise,” which increases their vulnerability.

The surprise restriction remains in place for 2d6 seconds of the combat, and there is no attribute modifiers for this the alter the duration. Those in “panicked surprise,” will be under the restriction for the first 2d6+6 seconds.

While surprised targets are not at advantage to be attacked per se, they do become potential targets for a sneak attack. To be clear, the failed Awareness for surprise does not act as the first check of the sneak attack. The surprise merely means creature can be targeted, not that the unprepared being is oblivious. Read more about this in the Sneak Attack subsection. However, those “panicked” by surprise will be at disadvantage on that first Awareness check of a sneak attack.

Let’s pause a moment. The rules for surprise are rather crunchy. This is to allow an edge to characters who plan and use strategy. But this should not be a frequent happening. Further, if these rules are “too crunchy” for the players at the table, simplifying them to a static duration of 8 seconds is reasonable. A group might choose to ignore the panicked guide rule as well.

Thus, when someone wishes to look for a potential victim for a sneak attack, those unprepared in surprise are noticeable. Also, the Roll20 map will show this by displaying the marker on the tokens. This will make them easy targets; however, the door swings both ways when the PCs are caught in surprise. That said, those surprised combatants may become aware unexpectedly, suddenly removing their potential victim status without the attacker having additional special skills. Further, one should recall that the approach of a sneak attack is made by moving as if the distance is rough/difficult terrain, effectively halving ones movement rate. Of course, sneak attacks can be made with range weapons as well.

Lastly, if there were sleeping persons during these early moments who were not wakened by Awareness, they would still be asleep but allowed another Awareness check to wake every 10 seconds. Of course, wakened does not mean alert and mindful of the scenario; thus the freshly awakened person must make a second check to determine the state of surprise moving forward.