About the title: It's the shortest, simplest way I could describe my topic.
A few times now, my adventurers have been ambushed in the wilderness. The first time, I thought maybe it was another human civ ambushing me as soon as I left the other civ's safe hamlet. The second time, I thought it might be the reverse, except that their leader was an overlord. The third time, I was an outsider and faced kobolds. Erm, right. (By the way, did you know a large dagger can cut a kobold in half?)
Back on topic, it seems that the various gangs are a bit too...enthusiastic about killing adventurers. I wasn't even near any towns that would support them, nor had I ever been! The only adventurer who did something interesting was the one who thought that maybe, the richly-garbed-and-covered-in-crafts-of-body-parts was, y'know, a vampire. Another issue for another topic.
Back on topic AGAIN, I think that criminal gangs should only ambush you if you either A. have lots of wealth and are known to have such wealth, or B. have killed a lot of the gang. If the former, and maybe the latter, you need to be relatively near the gang's hometown for it to ambush you.
Oh, and BTW: When I was typing this, I was switching between DF and internet. I got ambushed by goblins just outside of a fortress. The leader shot me, which hurt enough that I fell unconscious and was swiftly killed by a helpful Mr. Axegoblin. Crossbow power aside, these ambushes can be game-killing.