Character secrets

[Hammerhead]

My rogue/cleric of the Silver Flame in Victim's current Eberron game carries around secrets, specifically a centuries old curse inflicted by a demon lord. The other players are full of other suspicions about my character as well, given his interest in diabloism, the sword he hides, and his atypical attitude compared to the majority of the Silver Flame.

Another character in the group is a tiefling, and hides her heritage through a hooded cloak that conceals her horns.

 

[painandgreed]

I had one character that was a paladin but had a split personality as an evil theif. It never really came into play though and I dumped the character.

In the same game, I had an character that basically sold out to the other side. The BBEG showed up and made me an offer and I took it, one of the '12 swords of power' and the head of his wizard servant that had killed our paladin (and left me in charge of the party). In return, I would surrender to him when the time came as I was currently acting as commander in cheif of the allied armies fighting his own. We would coreograph our battles where I did really well till one startleing defeat that turned the tide of the war. Even then, I managed to save the army from total destruction to a mere rout. Eventually, it was revealed that the 'good king' was actually a legendary lich in disguise (Lothrim from Harn) and we teamed up to put him down only to be beat ragged and have to 'surrender' after the fight. Even then I had an amulet that protected my thoughts and used to dress in a completly different outfit (helmeted and never revealed my face) and gear using a mirror of mental prowness to play out the role of an adventurer in the BBEG's army also. Although I had sold out I still worried the BBEG as he couldn't read my thoughts or detect what I was up to and I had kept the skull of the lich. The rest of the party never found out that their party leader was working with who they thought was the main bad guy for most of the campaign. I kept them safe and rich by exploring dungeons that had no political value.

 

[Queen_Dopplepopolis]

In our last game, it was impossible to have secrets b/c one of the players demanded that everyone be up-front about everything. Essentially, there were *no* secrets.

So - though my Paladin's father was an evil NPC - she had to confess it to everyone under the sun to keep the other player happy.

Currently, I have a PC with a secret or two... but I can't share them b/c my fellow players read the boards. Shhhh....

 

[billd91]

In an Al-Qadim game I played in, I was a very pious beggar named Jamila. At least, that's what everyone thought I was for the entire campaign until the very last session (several months and 13 levels later).
In truth, I was playing a holy slayer. I was responsible for the party losing an important book that was desired by my organization and the death of one PC (who had crossed said organization). Nobody but the DM was any wiser. Being subtle and fanatic enough to actually stab yourself a few times to make it look good makes for very convincing lies.
Holy slayers could be notoriously difficult to ferret out in that campaign. It's important, however, that any PC with a major secret and hidden agenda not be set up in too frequent opposition to the party they are adventuring with. That leads to pretty short campaigns.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

In our last game, it was impossible to have secrets b/c one of the players demanded that everyone be up-front about everything. Essentially, there were *no* secrets.

So - though my Paladin's father was an evil NPC - she had to confess it to everyone under the sun to keep the other player happy.

??? He could demand all he wants, I would not tell him. I would even build some secrets into the character just out of spite.

 

[Gunton The Terrible]

In our last game, it was impossible to have secrets b/c one of the players demanded that everyone be up-front about everything. Essentially, there were *no* secrets...

I hate when players do that. It really is fun to have a PC secret, even if it is minor. A good DM loves a detailed background full of intresting events and secrets.

Afterall, do you really know every thing about your friends?

I am currently playing a Fighter/Transmuter/Eldritch Knight who was evil before his adventuring career. When the campagin started he had already died once and had been resurected. He was in Hell paying for his sins when a powerful Wizard/Sorcerer/Demi-god(?) rescued him and restored his life. He veiws it as a chance at redemption. He was instructed to help the cleric and paladin of our group with their quest.

Later on the group discovered the truth about my background and also discovered my benefactor is evil. Even my PC was unaware about that last nugget. The cleric and paladin arn't sure how much they can trust my PC. They have seen him defend the others in the group with his life, but they know he is being manipulated by his benafactor. Fun times!

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Afterall, do you really know every thing about your friends?

Of course, I have the secret service keep close tabs on them.

Uh. I mean. 'course not.

 

[The_Gneech]

??? He could demand all he wants, I would not tell him. I would even build some secrets into the character just out of spite.

"Oh, yeah, you know EVERYTHING, all right. I'd never keep any secrets from you!

...Trust me."

-The Gneech

 

[The_Universe]

??? He could demand all he wants, I would not tell him. I would even build some secrets into the character just out of spite.

It was a great secret (and I wish she could have kept it longer) but everyone makes compromises to make a good game. Fortunately, I think the game that she's currently playing in has a larger *expectation* of secrets, so hopefully this kind of demand will fall by the wayside.

In one of the games I DMed a long time ago (when I was in high school), we had a game based entirely on the idea that someone "in the group" was a traitor to the cause, and was feeding the enemy information. At the time, it was my practice to play a character of my own while DMing, so (naturally) the suspicion of the group fell on my character. The easiest character for the enemy to corrupt is the one the GM controls, after all.

But, my character was innocent! I had arranged with another one of the players to "be the traitor," and he kept me updated as to what and how he was feeding to the enemy. They found out after more than a month, and they were *furious.* Fortunately, they were able to confine their anger to the character, rather than the player. Good times!

 

[ARandomGod]

My current character is a female fighter named Cairi.

To the rest of the players in my group, she is a young boy named Thomas. She fled home to avoid an arranged marriage, and has been posing as a young boy named Thomas, whom they hired as a mercenary recently, and know very little about. (hopefully none of them read these forums, I don't think they do). It'll be neat to see how long I can keep up the charade.


Tell me about an interesting secret you've given to one of your players.

I once turned a PC wizard into a Lich. Well, he had to 'be willing', meaning he would have autosucceded his will save to avoid the Lichification and just die instead, but due to circumstances... Ahem. I digresss. He was a Lich. Noone else in the party knew. (He had a couple of custom spells, one to keep his body from rotting, and one to disquise it's undead nature, had to be cast every day pretty much).

It was fun. I enjoyed dropping little hints, the other players wondering how, exactly, did the mage survive THAT? Etcetera. He managed to keep his secret in spite of more and more obvious clues the other players really should have noticed... right up until the party fell into an ambush, and the wisard was the target of a Flame Strike. Hitting him down to "near death" (at that time we didn't give HP totals, just approximate health).

The party was screwed. And they knew it. However there was some hope. If they could just keep the mage alive his spells might turn the battle (Fresh mage, no spells expended), the cleric runs to the mage and hits him with her highest level CURE spell.

....

The mage tried to use speech as a free action to stop it...

After the cleric rolled the dice (the cleric assumed a touch), I reminded the mage that he 'could', if he so chose, try to avoid the touch. He chose, the cleric made a touch attack roll... (the die roll didn't matter, the mage was dead on minimum 'damage' healed)

The character going down as a direct result of a well rolled (That was a bonus, the cleric rolled really, really well!) high level cure spell was a clue so large that noone could avoid noticing that something was unusual there.

Of course, the PC came back d10 days later. Heheh. Still. It was priceless.