D&D 5E What can my character lie about?

[Olaf the Stout]

My 5E character has the flaw that he will lie about things, even when he doesn't need to. I have some ideas for things that I will lie about (including a few things that I plan to tell a different lie about every time I talk about them a la the Joker in the Dark Knight and how he got his scars), but I'd love to have some more.

So tell me what I should lie about.

 

[BoldItalic]

You could take inspiration from the Baron Munchausen story. Exaggerated tales about all your previous adventures. After the first few combats, you can start talking about those and exaggerating your part in them outrageously.

Think about if you want to lie to the other PCs or just to NPCs. If the PCs know that you are lying to them, the other players might not find it so funny after a while.

 

[transtemporal]

If he's a compulsive liar, it's not so much a question of what he lies about, since he lies about everything.. Basically whenever someone asks him a question, he makes something up.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

You could take inspiration from the Baron Munchausen story. Exaggerated tales about all your previous adventures. After the first few combats, you can start talking about those and exaggerating your part in them outrageously.

Think about if you want to lie to the other PCs or just to NPCs. If the PCs know that you are lying to them, the other players might not find it so funny after a while.

My group has been playing together in its current configuration for about 5 years (some players longer than that). We're pretty good at keeping player knowledge and character knowledge separate and not letting thing in-game impact out-of-game relationships.

So I think lying to other PCs would be fine. Last campaign (3.5E game) the Rogue PC in the group ran off with about 60k worth of party loot. In-game a few PCs were pissed. Out-of-game no one batted an eyelid.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

If he's a compulsive liar, it's not so much a question of what he lies about, since he lies about everything.. Basically whenever someone asks him a question, he makes something up.

I don't know if I'd want to go to that extreme. Besides, it's harder to separate truth from fiction when your lies contain elements of truth in them.

 

[PnPgamer]

I don't know if I'd want to go to that extreme. Besides, it's harder to separate truth from fiction when your lies contain elements of truth in them.

especially when the whole game is already fiction...

 

[BoldItalic]

Assuming you spend part of the first game session narrating backstories for your new characters, you could start by privately telling each of the other PCs a different and wildly improbable backstory. No-one knows what your real backstory is, least of all you.

For example, you tell the paladin a sob story about growing up in an orphanage where you were beaten once an hour and fed on rat stew, but you only got that once a week; you tell the party wizard that you were a mighty sorcerer until a demon from the abyss robbed you of your powers; you tell the party rogue that your brother-in-law owns a diamond mine but it's been taken over by kobolds and that's why your family is poor; you tell the fighter that you are a colonel in the army, working undercover for the king; and so on. The PCs will soon compare notes and realize that you are not who you say you are, but start to wonder who are you.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

especially when the whole game is already fiction...

You know what I mean.

 

[PnPgamer]

You know what I mean.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Assuming you spend part of the first game session narrating backstories for your new characters, you could start by privately telling each of the other PCs a different and wildly improbable backstory. No-one knows what your real backstory is, least of all you.

For example, you tell the paladin a sob story about growing up in an orphanage where you were beaten once an hour and fed on rat stew, but you only got that once a week; you tell the party wizard that you were a mighty sorcerer until a demon from the abyss robbed you of your powers; you tell the party rogue that your brother-in-law owns a diamond mine but it's been taken over by kobolds and that's why your family is poor; you tell the fighter that you are a colonel in the army, working undercover for the king; and so on. The PCs will soon compare notes and realize that you are not who you say you are, but start to wonder who are you.

Yeah, we're 2 sessions in, but my backstory is one area where I plan to tell different tales to different PCs. Even better is that I'll tell different tales to NPCs when PCs aren't with me, so the players will hear the lie, but can't actually say anything to my character about it (as I said, our group is pretty good at keeping that stuff separate).