Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)
I had a thought about a game I might like to run, with a bit of a twist on
the "dopplegangers replace party members" type of thing, and wanted to
bounce it around a bit. Constructive comments are appreciated.
On the outside, it would appear to be nothing more than a standard
adventure, with "some standard plot", "baddies to eliminate", "princesses to
save", "dragons to kill", "treasure to loot", you know, the standard stuff,
whatever adventure happens to be running. The only thing about the plot of
the "adventure" is that it would have to be something they could tear
themselves away from if something happened, so ideally it would be something
voluntary or something where time isn't a factor.
The twist is that just prior to the adventure, a character is replaced by a
monster that has doppleganger like ability to assume the form of characters,
and to mimic personality, and to use standard attack modes of that
character(special abilities excluded, of course, so no spells or turning or
stuff like that). The monster would be tough enough to individually present
a challenge to all remaining characters, but not a deadly challenge(a single
"by the book" doppleganger would not present a challenge to the characters
at this point, so it's either got to be a beefed up doppleganger or my own
special monster).
Over the course of the adventure, this monster would start out as acting
precisely as the character it is replacing, but over time, would progress to
more and more "outside of character" things, trying to convince the party to
do things that it otherwise wouldn't do. It would start small, like telling
other characters to lie when they normally wouldn't, then moving on to
having them steal things, vandalizing, arson, torture, and so on.
Presumably at SOME point, hopefully before the good characters, at the
urging of the imposter, actually kill someone they know they shouldn't, the
characters would look at each other and collectively say "Who the hell IS
this guy??", would somehow discover that the character isn't who they think
he is, subdue it to find out what they've done with the real character, and
go to save him, after which they could finish up the original adventure. So
it's an adventure inside an adventure. There are currently several
problems.
First, what's the adventure to run that would allow for all sorts of morally
ambiguous things to take place? I was thinking something associated with a
recently retired ex-PC now NPC who is running a newly built casino for one
of the local thieves guild. That would allow for more leeway than normal,
and would allow for a certain level of "normal" moral grey area to exist.
Second, there's the problem of meta-game knowledge, which is where the
complicity of one player comes in. I would approach one player ONLY, the
one who's play style is most likely to pass unnoticed for the longest period
of time, the one who is a strong enough role player to convincingly pull
this off, and the player has to be playing a non-spell casting/fantastic
ability character(fighter, thief, or monk, in our case)(unless I want to
make this "creature" able to duplicate spell effects as well, but I'm not
sure about that, but if I *DO* allow that, then there's a cleric and wizard
to consider as well). The player has to be willing to progressively
"evilify" his play style, but it has to be subtle enough that it will go
unnoticed for a period of time. The reason for this is simple, the other
players cannot know what's going on, and if all of a sudden *I* am playing a
character, it's going to be obvious as hell.
Third, what's the mechanism for discovering the fake? At some point, the
character would do something so utterly out of character that the other
characters would be forced to take action. If they attack the creature, it
responds with force as appropriate by the character in question, and when
they subdue it, it returns to normal non-doppled form(whatever that is), at
which point the characters are free to ask it questions and find out where
the real character is.
Fourth, what's the motivation of the monster? Why is it doing this? Dunno.
Honestly, I haven't got a good idea for that. I was thinking of doing
something where it's just some otherplanar creature trying to study human
behavior(ala that one ST:TNG episode where the one creature tries to make
Picard fall in love with it). But that's pretty cheesy. This is the
biggest stumbling block as far as I am concerned.
Fifth, do you think this would be fun for the players involved? Would
players appreciate being misled in this manner, for the sake of an
"adventure"? What would you, as a player in this situation, find annoying
about it, what would you find enjoyable, what would be ideal to emphasize,
what would be ideal to put in the background? Would you, as a player, feel
betrayed, or would you feel invigorated by a storyline like this?
Long post, I know, sorry bout that! Constructive comments are welcomed.
--
Jeff Goslin - MCSD - www.goslin.info
It's not a god complex when you're always right
I had a thought about a game I might like to run, with a bit of a twist on
the "dopplegangers replace party members" type of thing, and wanted to
bounce it around a bit. Constructive comments are appreciated.
On the outside, it would appear to be nothing more than a standard
adventure, with "some standard plot", "baddies to eliminate", "princesses to
save", "dragons to kill", "treasure to loot", you know, the standard stuff,
whatever adventure happens to be running. The only thing about the plot of
the "adventure" is that it would have to be something they could tear
themselves away from if something happened, so ideally it would be something
voluntary or something where time isn't a factor.
The twist is that just prior to the adventure, a character is replaced by a
monster that has doppleganger like ability to assume the form of characters,
and to mimic personality, and to use standard attack modes of that
character(special abilities excluded, of course, so no spells or turning or
stuff like that). The monster would be tough enough to individually present
a challenge to all remaining characters, but not a deadly challenge(a single
"by the book" doppleganger would not present a challenge to the characters
at this point, so it's either got to be a beefed up doppleganger or my own
special monster).
Over the course of the adventure, this monster would start out as acting
precisely as the character it is replacing, but over time, would progress to
more and more "outside of character" things, trying to convince the party to
do things that it otherwise wouldn't do. It would start small, like telling
other characters to lie when they normally wouldn't, then moving on to
having them steal things, vandalizing, arson, torture, and so on.
Presumably at SOME point, hopefully before the good characters, at the
urging of the imposter, actually kill someone they know they shouldn't, the
characters would look at each other and collectively say "Who the hell IS
this guy??", would somehow discover that the character isn't who they think
he is, subdue it to find out what they've done with the real character, and
go to save him, after which they could finish up the original adventure. So
it's an adventure inside an adventure. There are currently several
problems.
First, what's the adventure to run that would allow for all sorts of morally
ambiguous things to take place? I was thinking something associated with a
recently retired ex-PC now NPC who is running a newly built casino for one
of the local thieves guild. That would allow for more leeway than normal,
and would allow for a certain level of "normal" moral grey area to exist.
Second, there's the problem of meta-game knowledge, which is where the
complicity of one player comes in. I would approach one player ONLY, the
one who's play style is most likely to pass unnoticed for the longest period
of time, the one who is a strong enough role player to convincingly pull
this off, and the player has to be playing a non-spell casting/fantastic
ability character(fighter, thief, or monk, in our case)(unless I want to
make this "creature" able to duplicate spell effects as well, but I'm not
sure about that, but if I *DO* allow that, then there's a cleric and wizard
to consider as well). The player has to be willing to progressively
"evilify" his play style, but it has to be subtle enough that it will go
unnoticed for a period of time. The reason for this is simple, the other
players cannot know what's going on, and if all of a sudden *I* am playing a
character, it's going to be obvious as hell.
Third, what's the mechanism for discovering the fake? At some point, the
character would do something so utterly out of character that the other
characters would be forced to take action. If they attack the creature, it
responds with force as appropriate by the character in question, and when
they subdue it, it returns to normal non-doppled form(whatever that is), at
which point the characters are free to ask it questions and find out where
the real character is.
Fourth, what's the motivation of the monster? Why is it doing this? Dunno.
Honestly, I haven't got a good idea for that. I was thinking of doing
something where it's just some otherplanar creature trying to study human
behavior(ala that one ST:TNG episode where the one creature tries to make
Picard fall in love with it). But that's pretty cheesy. This is the
biggest stumbling block as far as I am concerned.
Fifth, do you think this would be fun for the players involved? Would
players appreciate being misled in this manner, for the sake of an
"adventure"? What would you, as a player in this situation, find annoying
about it, what would you find enjoyable, what would be ideal to emphasize,
what would be ideal to put in the background? Would you, as a player, feel
betrayed, or would you feel invigorated by a storyline like this?
Long post, I know, sorry bout that! Constructive comments are welcomed.
--
Jeff Goslin - MCSD - www.goslin.info
It's not a god complex when you're always right
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram