Partial Surprise

This may occur when the defend-
ers were expecting trouble . . . or when
each party surprised the other! The
GM should require each side to roll for
initiative.
To determine who gets the initia-
tive, the leader of each side rolls 1d. A
leader with Combat Reflexes gets +2,
or +1 if he doesn’t have Combat
Reflexes but someone else on his side
does (this bonus is not cumulative for
more than one character). The leader
with the higher IQ gets +1. Having
even one point in Tactics skill gives +1
on initiative rolls; Tactics at level 20+
gives +2. The GM can apply other
modifiers as he sees fit; e.g., if he
thinks one side was more alert than
the other.
If one side is totally leaderless, the
GM rolls for them. They get an auto-
matic -2 to initiative. (This does not
apply to animals or any other group
with IQ 5 or less.)
The side that gets the highest roll
gets the initiative, and can move and
act normally. Everyone on the other
side is mentally stunned, and must
make IQ rolls on their turns, as
described for total surprise, to snap
out of it. However, with partial sur-
prise, there is a +1 bonus to IQ on the
second turn, +2 on the third turn, and
so on . . . even low IQ characters catch
on after a few seconds. Note that ani-
mals often have Combat Reflexes,
which counteracts their low IQ.
If the initiative roll is a tie, nobody
was taken by surprise.
A combat situation where some
fighters can’t see their foes affects
attacks and defenses.
Attacker cannot see anything. If the
attacker is blind or in total darkness,
he can make a Hearing-2 roll – or use
some other method – to discover his
foe’s location. If he fails his Hearing
roll, he may attack in a randomly cho-
sen direction (on a map, he must spec-
ify the hex). He attacks at -10 (-6 if he
is accustomed to being blind). Roll hit
location randomly.
Attacker cannot see his foe, but can
see his other surroundings. If only the
attacker’s foe is invisible, use the rules
above, but the attack penalty is only
-6.
Attacker cannot see his foe, but
knows his location for sure. If the foe is
in a single smoke-filled hex or the like,
use the rules above, but no Hearing
roll is required and the attack penalty
is only -4.
Defender cannot see his attacker. If
the attacker (including his weapon) is