D&D 5E (2014) How would you make this cool effect? Should I bother?

[Not a Hobbit]

I've done something like this, in the past. What I did was to just deal with each player, as they came in. So, just describe the room (box text). When the first person comes into the room, tell them that an old lady comes out from behind a bookshelf and greets them (or whatever). As long as they're the only one who engages, let it go. As soon as another player interacts with the scene, in some way (say, picks up a book), narrate the entity's reaction with a brief description ("The scholarly young man turns his attention from Bob to you and says, 'Please be careful, those are old and fragile.'"). You can do the same sort of thing, even if only one PC is interacting with it, too.

The first time or two, the players will probably assume they missed the description of someone else being in the room, or you made a mistake. Maybe one of them will even say, "I ask the little girl XXX," and you can say, "There's no little girl, just a talking cat." It'll be a bit confusing, which is the point, but they'll eventually either catch on or ask direct questions of you (as GM), at which point you can be explicit about what each of them sees.

Thanks everybody for some great suggestions. I think this is the way I would love for it to happen, but I'm afraid I'll confuse myself even more than my players My players are rather a passive group, so it could be that I just end up telling them what I said in the opening post (and some suggested I do that), they will smile and say "cool" and we'll continue on, which is fine in the long run, I guess.

When the movie comes out, though, this scene is gonna be frickin' awesome!

Thanks again. I've got a couple of weeks to figure out what to do. I'll let you all know (if anyone cares).

--Scott

 

[Brandegoris]

Dear ENworlders:

My players are about to stumble into a library, where they will be greeted not by books, but by Knowledge itself. A humanoid person will appear and talk to them, so they can ask questions and receive vague answers in reply.

My concept is that each of the characters sees the humanoid in a different way, and that way changes constantly. One will see an old woman, who speaks very slowly and deliberately. Another will see a child, who speaks really fast and says "your know, like" a lot. And then a few seconds later the first person will see something totally different, like a condescending middle aged dragonborn or something.

So my question is, What can I do to accomplish this in game? Of course, I can tell the players "Now you see an old woman, but you see a little child. And now what you thought was an old woman is now a haughty dragonborn." But this seems like it would take a lot of time, be very confusing for the players, and frankly become boring and frustrating for both them and me.

I could also just tell them "The humanoid changes form and speech pattern constantly." But if it's that simple, should I even bother? I mean, it's a nice touch, but it doesn't really have a cool factor. It's possible that this is something that can only work in a movie, and not so well in a Tabletop game.

Any advice is appreciated. Thanks for reading. You guys are a great help.

--Scott

One that "Speaks" with music , yet the players can magically understand what is said?

Also One that talks but no actual sound comes out, Just actual written words in the players own language that float in the air?

 

[Not a Hobbit]

Dear ENworlders:

So here's what ended up happening:

-When Knowledge first appeared, I told the first character "You see before you a ... " and then proceeded to describe the physical traits of that character. So to the halfling cleric I said "You see before you a male halfling, about 3' tall, with brown curly hair and wearing robes". Then I turned to the other player and told him the same thing, only describing his character (thankfully we split the party, so there were only the two characters present)

-After a few minutes of questions, I told the cleric "What you once thought was a mirror of yourself, now you think is really the figure of your old teacher, Dr. Tallowfoot. The one you really liked. But then it seems that maybe it's not Dr. Tallowfoot, but Nobbin, your classmate whom you used to go out partying with." And again with the other character, describing a person/people who were a good memory for them.

-A few more minutes, and I told the cleric "The figure now looks like Ogden, the classmate you turned in for cheating on his exams. The voice you hear is the same as when he was furiously vowing to get even with you. But it may be your cousin, Bella, who always thought you were the favorite. You can hear her sob in everything Knowledge tells you" Again, same thing to the other character.

-After a few more minutes, I had them both roll Wisdom saves. The cleric failed and I rolled on the short-term madness table, because of the painful images which Knowledge was dredging up. I told the cleric he was paranoid (which the player played REALLY well). He left the Library in a huff, which prompted the other character to follow, thus ending the encounter.

I did this last part because I really did not want this to be an endless encounter, where the players could just ask questions ad infinitum. Once I had the idea for the bad memories, the madness seemed like the logical solution.

Overall the scene took about 20 minutes. The players seemed to enjoy the encounter, and they both went along with the way it played out. I was ultimately happy with it.

TL;DR - Turned out okay.

Thanks again for all the help and ideas. I'm sure I'll be back again.

--Scott