The problem with NPC behaviour in encounters.

[3catcircus]

Originally Posted by ChalkLine

This is so little understood. A good maxim in life is "no one ever has 100% information in anything". You get this hammered into your head when you study history and I find it applies it everything.

It also really brings scouting into its own, players should of course be encouraged to act and steal the initiative if an opportunity presents itself but I really like players who'll look at a situation and say "no, too tough". Many years ago I had players assault head on a hardened position and after the inevitable spate of woundings and two deaths I had to ask them why on earth they thought it was a good idea to attack. The general consensus was that they didn't think GMs put up challenges they couldn't beat straight on. I had to explain that beating that enemy involved not being detected and circumventing them.

This. So this. In *any* genre of RPG - whether this, D&D, Supers, Western, Spies... The only game that really teaches players discretion right out of the gate is Call of Cthulhu... Everything else, it's learnt the hard way.