A request to all EN World gamers

[Taneel BrightBlade]

So GreatWyrm what happened and please don't say you haven't been gaming a long time sense you have been gaming my whole life.

 

[Greatwyrm]

After the long discussion, they ended up killing the tyrant, his sister, AND his parents. They figured they couldn't take the chance on a later child stepping into the role of bad guy either. They also had to quickly change their plans to make the deaths look like an accident, to avoid other family members being enraged as well.

Upon returning, the characters all went to their C.O. and put in for immeditate retirement. Well, everybody except the "shoot-first" guy. He spent a long time in the hospital recovering from radiation poisoning - an unfortunate side effect of some dimension hops.

 

[Bloodsparrow]

Hmm, okay, I'm not sure if this is the sort of thing you're looking for, but I have two related stories I think you might like... Or at least find useful...

It's along the lines of Improv and "Meta-knowledge". Two things you expressed an interest in earlier in the thread.

Back when I was in collage, I was very actively involved with LARP groups. ((Just in case there's somebody who does not know... LARP stands for Live Action Role Playing. Instead of sitting around a table with up to 6 people rolling dice, you stand around with 40 or more people playing rock-paper-scissors or whatever.)

I had an uncanny knack for stealing things that weren't really there, and there were two times in particular that doing it really impacted the game. Of course, at the time, I didn't know that the things I was stealing weren't things that actually could be stolen... But apparently, that didn't stop me from taking them.

The first time it happened was at a Vampire: The Masquerade game, but I'll save that for last.

The second time was at a game put on by Enigma. (Which was, and probably still is, the Science Fiction/Fantasy/Comic Books/RPG club at UCLA. I didn't go to UCLA, but I had friends in the club at the time, so there you are.) This particular LARP was part of an ongoing series of games based mostly on the Sandman and Books of Magic graphic novels. (Among others.) I was part of the "Fairie" contingent, and a number of amusing things went on that night that I'll get into in later posts if you're interested.

To make a long story short (too late), there was a ritual that a group of people (including annother Fairie) wanted to do, and I didn't think it would be a good idea to do it. So I'm getting some punch, and I overhear people talking about the ritual in question. One of them, the other Fairie, says, "I've got the instructions right here." So I meander over to them and take a look at the paper she's holding. The instructions look very complicated, and I know that she's only just gotten them, so she probably wouldn't remember the directions if she lost the paper. These people are very excited about having these directions and they were very occupied with making their plans on gathering together the people they need to do said ritual. So occupied were they, I realized, that if I were to ask to look at the paper, then slip it into my pocket and walk away... They would have no idea where it had gone.

So that's exactly what I did.

Not long after, the Fairie girl who'd had the paper turned to me and asked, "Did I hand you a paper?" I gave her a very earnest and puzzled look as I replied, "Didn't I give it back to you?"

Did I mention I was a Drama Major?

After the game was over, and I had 'fessed up to talking the paper, I discovered that the paper itself was not actually an "in-game" item. The girl's character actually knew how to do the ritual all along, and the paper was just a way for the player to have the information without having to spend time sitting alone trying to memorize the directions.

So in effect, I had stolen the knowledge right out of her head.

It wasn't like I should have been able to take the paper because there really wasn't a paper to take (in game terms). But I did and having done so did have a bit of an impact on how things went down...

Okay, so, as I said, the first time this sort of thing happened was at a V:TM LARP, and I'll try to make a long story short.

It was at a Con at the LAX Wyndam (or however you spell that chain of hotels...). The game took place in Las Vegas, and was really more of a "World of Darkness" LARP then just V:TM, but there were more vampires then anything else in this game.

Now since this was Vegas, the Primogen (sort of a leader and representative in a council of vampire Clans in a city) of the Malkavian Clan was Elvis, more on that later...

Now some friends and I were playing characters made with the WoD: Gypsies rules, so we're basically normal humans but we've got a more then a few tricks up our sleeves. One of the things we can do is ... I don't remember the name of the ability, but we could hide in plain sight...

So we're all moving slowly around this room with the international Mind's Eye Theatre hand signal for "you don't see me" (arms crossed over the chest) and being generally more mischievous then we really should be in a ballroom full of vampires.

I notice a group of people, sitting in a circle at the back of the room, removed from everybody else. And among them I see this girl wearing a pink trucker style baseball hat with a picture of the (then) new Elvis stamp on the front.

Are you with me so far?

I had seen other people wearing the hat in the course of the game thus far, and this was the first time it had been worn by that particular person. One of the people I had seen earlier with the hat was a very tall, red headed guy. And at the time, he was doing an impression of Elvis while wearing the hat... Out of game I knew that the Elvis stamp hat was a gag Christmas gift to one of the Storytellers from his mother. With all of that in mind I should have been able to put it together, but it was the second night of the con, I was rather sleep deprived, and in a VERY silly mood...

So I went over to the far right side of the circle and stood behind the girl with the Elvis hat with my arms crossed. Everybody ignored me, because they couldn't see me, and nobody had any sort of detection abilities up...

The person who was sitting next to Elvis-Hat-Girl was speaking, so I dared not do anything. But, as luck would have it, somebody came up on the right side of the circle and interrupted with very important information. In a beautiful smooth motion of turning heads, everybody's attention was directed well away from where I was standing. So I came out of my hiding ability thingy, took the Elvis hat off the person who was wearing it, dropped it on the head of the person who had been talking (who turned out to be the Ventrue Primogen for those of you keeping score) and crossed my arms again, disappearing before anybody actually saw me.

The odd thing was, when I took the hat off of the person who had been wearing it, she immediately got this "Oh Crap!" look on her face and crossed her arms as well. (Disappearing as well.) And I thought that was kind of odd as I snuck off...

Here's the rub.

The Elvis Stamp hat... As I said before, the Primogen of the Malkavians (who, for those of you that might not know, are the "crazy" vampires) was Elvis... But there was no one Malk who was Elvis... You see, Malkavians have an ability called "Mask of 1,000 Faces", which is, essentially, an illusion that makes them look like pretty much anybody they'd like. So they would take turns being Primogen, and thus, take turns being Elvis.

Normally, the Mind's Eye Theatre hand sign is to touch your pointer finger to your chin, and that means "I don't look like who I normally look like". (Then you would normally wear like a name tag that somehow described you, or people would ask you out of character). But the Storytellers for this game wanted Elvis to be visible from afar, and so, at a pre-game meeting, they announced that if the players saw <i>anybody</i> wearing the Elvis hat, they were to consider that person, no matter who they were or if they'd seen somebody else wearing the hat earlier, to look like Elvis.

I did not know this. At the time of the meeting, the other Gypsy players and I were off getting snacks...

So first, the Primogen Council sees Elvis and the Ventrue Primogen, then they look away, then they look back, and they see Elvis and an empty chair.

I'm told that the storytellers let it stand, and it took a while to get the Elvis Illusion back to the proper person...

 

[Grodd JoJoJo]

That is hilarious.

It's also a great example of "I don't have information that my character has." Does anyone else have stories of that? How have you or your DMs dealt with those situations?

Also, in terms of player immersion (and childishness), a friend once played a game in college that got...odd. He was playing one of a pair of halfling twins, both thieves - back in 1e days. The DM decided to bring a friend into the game - someone none of the players knew. Big mistake.

The background of the character (which the other players did not know) was that he was supposed to be an assassin sent to kill one of the party members. Of course, the DM had this elaborate plot set to have the assassin become the other character's friend, and decide not to kill him - something that would never happen in real life. My friend decided to tell the DM, "We don't trust him. My brother's going to distract him, and I'll pick his pocket." After an excellent bit of acting by the other halfling, my friend succeeded in his roll, and the party found a contract for the assassin to kill the party member. Then, the party killed him - logical enough.

At this point, the player ran from the room, yelling, "It's not fair, not fair!" and started crying. At first I didn't believe the story, but a similar thing happened when I (unknowingly) played AD&D with someone years later, and a similar thing happened. In my party, however, it involved a character who had had his alignment reversed. After the player was caught cooperating with a noble who had it out for several of the party members, we took action; we feebleminded him and had him placed in an asylum.The player went berserk, leaving the table and stomping around the room. In his case, though, he calmed down and started laughing, saying that he couldn't believe he had done that.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Here's a negative example of the PC knowing something the player doesn't:

I had figured out the puzzle of a certain symbol in a campaign, and had mentioned it to the DM, who confirmed my suspicions.

Due to forces beyond our control, we were unable to game again for nearly 2 months.

When we got back together, I asked him to remind me about the symbol, since I had figured it out, but 2 months had caused me to lose the thread of the puzzle. He refused. I reminded him that this was knowledge my PC had. He refused again. Despite only a night of game time passing, he ruled my PC had forgotten that knowledge just like I had.

That campaign didn't last long after that. (Note- not because of that incident.)

He told me, however, that had I actually remembered the answer to the puzzle, I would have short-circuited the campaign by a great deal, and in such a way that a TPK could have resulted.

Similarly, another campaign in the same group was derailed when the player didn't quite get that "The Prince" was the absolute monarch in the area- something the PC would have known. When he took actions that could have been considered subversive to the Prince's regime, he was exiled. The player was shocked- he assumed that there was a higher authority to whom he could argue his case- a King, Queen, Emperor, etc.; the DM stopped running that campaign soon after.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

The Contact Issue- some ideas

DonaQuixote, the OP listed his real name as "Scott D. Carter." Perhaps there is someone/some office at your school who can recieve a "snail-mail" letter from that name without you having to post YOUR address.

Of course, that will mean someone will have to know that you are the DonaQuixote in question...

Otherwise, you could get a mailbox for 1 month at a mailbox store and post that address. When you get the relevant letter from Mr. Carter, cancel the contract.

Anything you get in the mail at that address that is NOT from the above and that you feel is inappropriate, you could refer to the Postmaster for investigation.

Mods? Any other ideas?

 

[Grodd JoJoJo]

Wow, "Mr. Carter." Only my students called me that until you did.

Actually, if anyone does want to contact me, it may be easiest just to send a message to my account here. I don't know whether that's secure or not, but I could send you one if you like.

Things are going really nicely here, and I appreciate all the information I'm getting here. Thanks, y'all. (Yes, I am a southerner.)

Hmmph. My DM would give me the information if the game time was actually short; I'd do the same for my players.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Southerner as well-hence the "Mr."

I'm really interested in this, not just as a gamer, but also as one who is in the entertainment business (lawyer/MBA), so, like I said, I'm really interested in your data and conclusions.