Mystery character backgrounds in a one-shot

[CarlZog]

I was catching up on episodes of Dragon's Landing from the fall, and they were discussing a cool Shadowrun campaign in which the PCs were all guinea pigs in a corporate experiment. The characters had been normal folks who were snatched and had a new set of memories as runners implanted.

The catch was that the players did not know this, and the DM was slowly revealing the true backstory through the campaign. I thought this was an awesome idea, and I'm wondering if there is a way to do a one-shot in which the players discover thet their characters are not who they thought they were at a fundamental level.

Has anybody done anything like this? How did you orchestrate the reveal? How did it all work out? Is there enough time in an typical Con game to do this well? What would you see as the biggest issues to be addressed?

Carl

 

[Piratecat]

This can work well, Carl. I remember a great Cthulhu event where the PCs were revealed to all be portions of one person's fractured, insane psyche. The trick is probably a bunch of small hints throughout the game, with a somewhat more blatant reveal at the end.

If the PCs know about their false identities and are keeping them secret, orchestrating an event where it's in their best interest to reveal the truth might be the best trick.

 

[Graybeard]

Never tried it but it sounds like it could work with the right players. I'd be willing to play in a game like that.

 

[Sitara]

This can work well, Carl. I remember a great Cthulhu event where the PCs were revealed to all be portions of one person's fractured, insane psyche. The trick is probably a bunch of small hints throughout the game, with a somewhat more blatant reveal at the end.

Isn't that the plot of that movie released a few years ago...hmm I forgot the name but all characters are part of this maniancal guys twisted psyche who are killed off by a psycologist as he attempts to....see if the guy is guilty or if one of hjis personalities is.

 

[theredrobedwizard]

Isn't that the plot of that movie released a few years ago...hmm I forgot the name but all characters are part of this maniancal guys twisted psyche who are killed off by a psycologist as he attempts to....see if the guy is guilty or if one of hjis personalities is.

Sounds like the plot to the videogame Killer7.

-TRRW

 

[Corbert]

Isn't that the plot of that movie released a few years ago...hmm I forgot the name but all characters are part of this maniancal guys twisted psyche who are killed off by a psycologist as he attempts to....see if the guy is guilty or if one of hjis personalities is.

Have you seen the movie Identity with John Cusack?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0309698/

Spoiler

The plot is very similar, a bunch of people find they all have the same birthday as they are being killed off. The scene switches occasionally to a guy in a straitjacket being interviewed by a psychiatrist. The people find they are all personalities of the guy in the straitjacket and the psychiatrist is trying to root out the one murderous personality and save the innocent personalities because the guy has been sentenced to death.