Metagame Collusion

[Thasmodious]

So last night, doing some prep, I had an idea and fired off an email to one of my players. He plays the new (joined last session) ship's mechanic on the Hasselhoff (yes, that's what they named their ship) in my savaged Firefly game. He's described his character as a born tinkerer, tearing things apart and rebuilding them since he could crawl.

The idea was that I would occasionally have a very minor obstacle turn up in someone's way on the ship- tripping over some junk left in a hallway, an access panel not work, a toilet jam, a seeming random shock or spray of fluid, parts missing from a kitchen appliance, just any time I could think of something, throw it in. These would be because of the mechanic's constant tinkering. Just something to add some flavor to the day to day. The player liked it and it's a go.

My question is how many of you metagame-ly (that a word?) collude with one or more players to set things up in-game as if they were fluid or natural, to heighten the immersion or roleplay opportunities for the other players? As a player, would you enjoy this kind of thing or would it be intrusive and too metagame?

I use the ship's Captain like this all the time, giving him information between sessions so he can present it to the crew with that air of Captainly (there I go again) authority.

 

[aurance]

I would love this as a player. I'm not sure I'd call this "meta-gamey" as much as "cooperative set building."

 

[Mark CMG]

I had a player follow a Fasutian path toward lichdom, most of which needed to be handled behind the scenes (when the PC was away from the group). The PC was a scholar who became fascinated with undead and potential lichdom, and he was a cleric by class. He kept his studies secret from the group but as they got to higher levels he became distant from them, at times going a bit Leroy Jenkins (though he wasn't the only one in the group with that penchant).

At one point the group fled from a particularly brutal fight but a dwarf fighter in the group had been cut off and the group figured he was a goner. He survived, crawled off but fell into a pit (they were in an abandoned dwarven stronghold) where he found the skeleton of a dwarf still laden with equipment. He noticed the helmet of the dead dwarf was pretty nice, so he snagged it and put it on. It was a gender changing helmet. When the group regathered, the cleric removed the curse but kept the helmet.

Later, when the cleric was left for dead after yet another fight and flight scenario, the cleric used the helmet to pose as his own sister, come back to follow in the footsteps of the cleric (some of the group shrugged it off as a way to introduce a new character that could easily fill the void left by the loss of a high level cleric). In the meantime, he also finished the work on his phylactery and finished his ritual/change right after a particularly big battle won by the group against a major cult of were-creatures and a dragon.

The group was 18th level but fairly vulnerable and two of the four were destroyed (beyond dead) in short order. The dwarf fighter was banished to the negative material plane with no way back. The wizard was disintegrated, IIRC. The rogue and the ranger(?) slipped away while the cleric/lich was taking care of the other two (and/or by grabbing a cloak of etherealness from the dragon hoard, a completely randomly rolled treasure item). The group had a discussion about what each of the survivors would likely do and we all had planned for the finale to be with the dragon, anyway, so we talked out the rest. Essentially, it was determined that the cleric/lich would not rest until he had hunted down the other two survivors and they had little chance of remaining hidden from him for long.

Anyway, a great deal of this was either metagamed after the campaign's actual end or on the side during the year long camapign by the one player and myself. Certainly, I made some checks to see if anyone in the group might catch on from time to time but the cleric's player had some good fortune and an ability to smooth over any odd occurences in-game. It was one of my favorite campaigns.

 

[Thunderfoot]

Had a player in my Star Wars campaign a few years back who was an Imperial spy and a "Rebel" communications officer. Yeah, the Empire was always showing up at just the wrong time. The trick is getting a player who thinks its cool enough to do and doesn't mind screwing with his fellow players without actually harming them (my case was special as he WAS actually out to harm them.)

I would advise the player to be very excited about the results of the failure for a while before eventually apologizing for its failure, not quite an absent-minded professor thing but a empirical data collection effort overridden (eventually) by a sense of remorse over his/her shipmate's discomfort.

 

[Gilladian]

I once based a whole campaign off a player's secret identity. She was the daughter of a noble, as far as everyone knew. But she was actually his foster daughter, and the heir to the throne of a neighboring kingdom that had been usurped in the previous generation.

Much of the PCs adventuring was actually information gathering and "border testing" of the other nation on her part, as she and her "father" built a spy network and began plotting to restore her to the throne.

Unfortunately, the campaign ended before we got that far, but it was fun while it lasted. The other PCs knew she was "doing something" but never knew what.

 

[Alaxk Knight of Galt]

We had a Star Wars game were the GM and a Player did this. The Player's Antaria Ranger character died, so he introduced a new character just before a major battle. This new character (we'll call him Voga, because that was his name) was secretly working with the villainous group known as Spectre, an early but entirely group trying to overthrow the Empire but totally evil. He was hired by Spectre to capture the party so we could be brought back into the fold (the party broke away from Spectre early in the game when we realized what they were).

Long story short, the deception lasted about an hour before my character stumbled upon Voga's secret. Spectre had showed up to help fight the Empire at the upcoming battle. Trying to figure out what Spectre's plans were, my character pretended to be Voga in a binary message sent to the Spectre battle cruiser. I asked if they had any work they wanted done in the area. The response, "Voga, you have enough work to do in capturing the party." Whoops. We fled Voga and the battle immediately.

Good Times

 

[IronWolf]

These types of things are great! As a GM I wish I was better at or at the very least more consistent with it.

Our normal GM is excellent at having side things going on with a character that impacts the party as a whole. One of the most infamous was in a Star Wars game where we were to capture someone - the catch? My character had been contacted to make sure the person we were just supposed to capture alive didn't come back alive. That caused some great drama amongst the characters!

 

[Thunderfoot]

Does anyone notice that Star Wars seems to be the system of choice for player/DM collusion?

 

[nedjer]

Forget all that Twittery Facebooky nonsense, this, in-game, is what tablets and tablety phones are made for.

 

[Mark CMG]

Forget all that Twittery Facebooky nonsense, this, in-game, is what tablets and tablety phones are made for.

Or . . .



Forget about boxed text, the day I get a phone text during a game from a rogue player about pickpocketing another party member . . .