I want my roleplaying games to reward Ambush Mentality.

If you can surprise your enemy, and you can execute a trap, you should be able to achieve a quick and decisive victory.

This can be a literal ambush, where you lie in wait.

Or this can be an impromptu ambush, where you run and hide around a corner, waiting for someone to charge at you recklessly.

Or even a capabilities ambush, where you do something the other side wasn't expecting.

I'm watching Batman: The Animated Series with my daughter and in it Batman is ambushed all the time. Not because he doesn't know he's in a fight. He's in the costume, fighting crime. He knows what's going on.

Rather, it's the powers and creativity of his rogue's gallery that catch him off guard. Oh, Poison Ivy can do what now? How does Clayface's clay-shape works how? The mob has who in their pocket?

When Batman assesses his rogue's advantages and brings some countermeasures to the table, famously, he always wins.

His opponents, using their tried and true approaches, are ambushed by Batman's innovation. Batman uses this to create a decisive victory.

This is peak ambush mentality.

This is what I want in my games.

There's a pool of essays on this idea that this essay is swimming in, but aren't directly referenced. They're worth reading.

• Offering meaningful choices versus mere calculations.
• Boring Combat as the right level of detail, actually.
• The importance of avoiding Porn Logic in your designs.
• What is tactical combat anyway, ya big Jabrony.
• A book on Tactics for Jarheads.
• Rulings not rules is just the beginning, really.