Lousy Poker Face?

[Stumblewyk]

I am fortunate enough to have the opportunity to game with my wife. I've gotten to introduce her to RPGs, and been lucky enough to watch her interest and love for the hobby grow over the last 7 years or so.

Unfortunately for me, she's apparently taken that time to study me, and learn my habits and "tells" as GM.

She casually informed me last night that two of my more savvy players have been turning to her and asking her to pose questions to me when the party encounters what they consider "crucial" situations, i.e. any time they think they're up against a big plot moment, or any RP or combat situation where there is a definite "wrong" or "worse" option in their opinion. They then let her gauge my reaction to her questions and decide the party's course of action accordingly.

My wife and I have known each other for 14 years. Been married and co-habitating for 7+. It's safe to say if anyone knows me well enough to try and glean unintentionally revealing information from facial response or unconscious reactions, it's her. And she's perceptive - so I have no doubts in my mind that more often than not, she picks up my tells and guesses correctly.

Has anyone else encountered a situation like this before? And if so, what did you do to mask your tells and reactions? I honestly don't like that I'm inadvertently giving something away while I run my games, but I can hardly blame my players for realizing they have an asset in my wife and using it.

...I just want to neutralize that asset, or even play it against them if possible.

 

[Lwaxy]

Luckily that doesn't happen with me and family. I am a good poker face obviously. so is my husband.

What about anytime someone asks you a question where answering could reveal anything, you sport a fake, wide, evil grin. That'll be disrupting at first but might teach them to cut it out

 

[Dordledum]

Wow, talk about metagaming.

That's pretty far from actual roleplaying IMHO. They should take an in-game action which would seem best according to their characters point of view, not go on the twitches on the DMs face.

Seriously, if it happens too often I'd simply tell them.

 

[Nebten]

I played with my last 2 girlfriend. Both of them knew my body language pretty well. Woman's insight at all that. They typically keep whatever information to themselves, but seemed to make the right choice went it mattered. I never had other player gleen information from them, nor have they offered it. It was just a game within a game for us and something for us to talk about after everybody went home.

 

[Aeolius]

They then let her gauge my reaction to her questions and decide the party's course of action accordingly.

Either decide the outcome randomly, or change course midstream. When they are certain of a course of action, go with the opposite. Alternately, wear a paper bag over your head.

 

[Janx]

Wow, talk about metagaming.

That's pretty far from actual roleplaying IMHO. They should take an in-game action which would seem best according to their characters point of view, not go on the twitches on the DMs face.

Seriously, if it happens too often I'd simply tell them.

Who's to say metagaming is wrong? I think the term gets bandied about too often.

Part of the challenge of an RPG is for the player, not the PC.

In the player's toolbox is stealing the GM's lucky 20-sider, sneaking a peek at his notes to see how many HP the bad guy has left, and knowing him well enough to deduce what he'll do next.

the latter being no less valid than card-counting, despite Vegas' objections. Using your brain to your advantage is always your right.

[MENTION=53286]Lwaxy[/MENTION]'s got a good idea. The Poker pros often adopt standard behaviors and exagerations to better mask subtle tells. Now that you know it's happening, smiling evilly (because you KNOW they're trying to read you) and responding consistently will help mask a tell.

Bear in mind, tells are a different problem than predictability. It's one thing to ask you a question and know you so well that I can tell if you're lying.

It's another thing to know you so well that I know you would never think to booby trap the potions on the dead bodies we discovered. And that the princess would never betray us because you always portray women by stereotypes and the princess is the "wrong" type for that.

This latter problem means the person knows how you write game material and can predict how it will play out. This is similar to how some people can tell you how a TV show will end because they are very familiar with the tropes of the genre and they think about that kind of thing.

 

[Stumblewyk]

What about anytime someone asks you a question where answering could reveal anything, you sport a fake, wide, evil grin. That'll be disrupting at first but might teach them to cut it out

If that's what it'll take, I'm willing to give it a try. I'm not much of an over-actor...in fact my natural tendency is to underplay my reactions. Which is why the wife knows when they're getting a rise out of me - to most people it's probably imperceptible because I'm usually a pretty stoic guy in those types of situations. She's figured out what cues my little rises, I think.

Bear in mind, tells are a different problem than predictability. It's one thing to ask you a question and know you so well that I can tell if you're lying.

I'm 99% sure it's a tell and not predictability. I'm very genre-savvy and "trope-aware", and try to play against type every now and then to keep people on their toes. But as I said just above - I'm pretty sure my wife's clued in to my subtle nonverbal tip-offs, because I'm a fairly "neutrally" emotional guy - but she knows when I'm tipping my hand where other people might not pick up on it.

 

[fba827]

1) try not looking at her when you answer -- look down at your notes and shuffle papers like you are looking for answers to her questions.

2) do you normally answer these questions 'in character' or are these more out of character 'reminders' on what options are? If they are in character, -before- you even start answering, consciously give yourself the facial expression of what the responding NPC would be like (i.e. big smile, or a little pouty, etc)

3) stick a pebble in your shoe. whenever you have to answer a question, grind your foot into the pebble so that it hurts a little and your expressions are focused more on the pebble than the answers you are giving (so she'll just read 'slight pain' / 'annoyance' in any subtle hints that you are giving).

 

[wedgeski]

It's hilarious at the table when the conversation turns to a critical question or crucial bit of speculation, and *everyone*, to a man, to a woman, turns to look at me *as if they expect me to confirm or deny their theory*. I have of course perfected the poker face required for such situations.

It's not like this is some meta-gaming conspiracy, it's just the way they all are, including my own wife. We've come to have a good laugh about it over the years.

The fact is the DM is the information filter and we all give clues as to what we expect, or want, or fear the PC's will do, every time we're asked a question. You can't blame the players for it. They can't help taking advantage of these clues any more than we can help giving them.

Resistance on either side of the screen requires a herculean feat of disassociation that I can tell you for a fact would exhaust me after about five minutes.

 

[Scotley]

I think Aeolius' first bit of advice is even stronger than the paperbag. Take the time to work out the outcome either of two divergent ways. Obviously you don't want to do this all the time, but it is especially when you aren't aren't sure which way to go yourself it could work out well. After the players gauge your reaction and choose their course of action, you can flip a coin or roll dice to determine how things work out. Just doing this a couple of times and making it obvious will make them much less sure of there ability to predict you.