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Story Hour
Piratecat's storyhour reborn! (updated July 4, 2006)
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<blockquote data-quote="Piratecat" data-source="post: 2820068" data-attributes="member: 2"><p>So, there was a bizarre metagame amusement rocketing around the table. They knew they'd just been screwed with, but they weren't exactly sure how. Suspicious so-and-so's... y'know, I <em>could</em> have just wanted to give them a nice easy adventure success. . .</p><p></p><p>not so much.</p><p></p><p>So there was a rapid-fire array of questions about what had happened in the past day. I kept providing general responses that were way too uniform, and way too bland, to be real memories. The players were great and framed any realization that something odd through their own character's knowledge; <em>they</em> knew something was weird, but they had to figure out a way for their <em>characters</em> to figure out the same thing. </p><p></p><p>As they slowly realized that soreness and bruises were actually unhealed wounds, and yes, people were missing spells if they thought to ask, then the group of characters came to understand that someone had been messing with them. The more specific a question they could ask me based on character knowledge, the more obvious it was to them that my bland answers for what they remembered couldn't possibly be the truth. I answered all the false memory questions with the same phrasing and with the same offhand comment ("there's no reason to worry.") They started picking it up themselves as they talked about this in character, and that similarity of everyone's phrasing was also a big clue that something was weird.</p><p></p><p>The players also understood that I wouldn't just declare that this had happened unless there was a real in-game reason. I'm honored that they trust me to that degree. As the characters returned to Bearspittle, they were really vigilant for powerful mind magic. Mind flayers were <em>definitely</em> mentioned as a possibility.</p><p></p><p>Be aware that I was absolutely prepared to go on to the next adventure. If they hadn't picked it apart immediately, I would have gradually given them more hints every game session that something wasn't right. That would have made it even more fun when they finally figured it out and returned.</p><p></p><p>After the game, Sagiro pointed out to me that I could have made the "visit summary" more realistic if I had really wanted to fool them. True, but I didn't really want to fool the players! It was more fun for everyone that the players knew that something is up, but their characters didn't.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Piratecat, post: 2820068, member: 2"] So, there was a bizarre metagame amusement rocketing around the table. They knew they'd just been screwed with, but they weren't exactly sure how. Suspicious so-and-so's... y'know, I [i]could[/i] have just wanted to give them a nice easy adventure success. . . not so much. So there was a rapid-fire array of questions about what had happened in the past day. I kept providing general responses that were way too uniform, and way too bland, to be real memories. The players were great and framed any realization that something odd through their own character's knowledge; [i]they[/i] knew something was weird, but they had to figure out a way for their [i]characters[/i] to figure out the same thing. As they slowly realized that soreness and bruises were actually unhealed wounds, and yes, people were missing spells if they thought to ask, then the group of characters came to understand that someone had been messing with them. The more specific a question they could ask me based on character knowledge, the more obvious it was to them that my bland answers for what they remembered couldn't possibly be the truth. I answered all the false memory questions with the same phrasing and with the same offhand comment ("there's no reason to worry.") They started picking it up themselves as they talked about this in character, and that similarity of everyone's phrasing was also a big clue that something was weird. The players also understood that I wouldn't just declare that this had happened unless there was a real in-game reason. I'm honored that they trust me to that degree. As the characters returned to Bearspittle, they were really vigilant for powerful mind magic. Mind flayers were [i]definitely[/i] mentioned as a possibility. Be aware that I was absolutely prepared to go on to the next adventure. If they hadn't picked it apart immediately, I would have gradually given them more hints every game session that something wasn't right. That would have made it even more fun when they finally figured it out and returned. After the game, Sagiro pointed out to me that I could have made the "visit summary" more realistic if I had really wanted to fool them. True, but I didn't really want to fool the players! It was more fun for everyone that the players knew that something is up, but their characters didn't. [/QUOTE]
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Piratecat's storyhour reborn! (updated July 4, 2006)
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