Player vs. Character Dilemma.

[Cyri'kazzen the Drow]

Last night in our Ravenloft campaign we had a "guest" player show up that we haven't seen in awhile. He used to be a regular, but real life conflicts took over and he had to quit the game about a year and a half previous. Naturally we were happy to have him aboard for the session.

Currently we are going through the "Grand Conjunction" series and are on a ship travelling to an island. No sooner than our session started, the DM tells us that there is a humanoid-type creature floating in the water on a piece of driftwood. From a meta-game standpoint we are clued into the fact that we have found our "guest" player's character. We meet up with this human male who tells us the story of being attacked by pirates and having his ship sunk. After facing and defeating these pirates several days previous the story checks out. Also my character had Detect Magic going and the DM told me there were no magical auras on the human and his equipment including a staff.

Now we have had a Hag Druid attempting to murder us for a number of days and naturally our characters suspect anyone new, but because the NPC we just met is the character of our guest, we just assume he is alright after he explains his story. So as a player I am thinking let's have the guest player have as much fun as possible since he is only here for one session. So each of us let our guard down completely with the new character and even help him by letting him use magic items that we possess. Let me reiterate the fact that had this been a standard NPC, we would never have trusted him so easy but because he is the guest player's character we just felt inclined to help him have fun and that meant him using things of ours.

As it turns out the guest's character is a doppleganger sent to find something on our person. After he uses our magic items, he discretely dispenses them overboard without our knowledge. He steals a gem on the paladin's person while the knight is unconscious and fakes it as if he is healing him despite the fact that my character was nearby and watching. I received no Spot check. Then during the battle royale he attacks and injures us greatly before making off with the gem by teleporting out with this "magical" staff.

So now the questions. Is there anything wrong with this scenario? Poor judgement on the player's part? Is it masterful of the DM or potential railroading by him to purposely allow the doppleganger to shock us? In other words not giving our characters much of a chance to figure out the ruse via Sense Motive or Spot checks or even Intelligence checks for our characters to remember to ask for the magic the guest player borrowed from us? Or even indicating to my character the fact that he had a magical staff after I had cast Detect Magic. I mean after all as players we just wanted the guy to have fun, but our characters would naturally be just as cautious between this NPC and others since we are the paranoid sort.

Don't get me wrong, it was a fun session but something is not sitting right. Is it my pride after being bested or is it that I feel a bit manipulated?

Thanks much.

 

[S'mon]

I think given that you knew it was a one-off PC you were maybe a bit foolish to metagame like this, assuming the PC must be 'ok' to give stuff to. OTOH you did apparently achieve your goal of helping the player to have loads of fun!

 

[tonym]

Well, you said it was a fun session, so that's good.

Yeh, it seems pretty clear the DM had decided you were going to lose that gem, no matter what. His motive for that bit of heavy-handedness, however, seems to have been friendly enough; he wanted his guest-Player to have extra-good fun.

If I was you, I'd feel lucky the doppleganger didn't murder the Paladin and not give the semi-unfairness of the situation another thought.



My 2cp.

Tony M

 

[Cyri'kazzen the Drow]

Well we did have a good bit of fun with it. I think part of the reason we didn't suspect anything was the fact that we didn't want to stop the flow of the game by becoming adversarial and giving him the third degree like we usually do with NPCs since Detect Evil and other forms of Divination don't work in Ravenloft.

Also he stole the gem early in the session and we were all standing around so he would have had a hard time besting us all at once. Of course he could have teleported away right then. Instead he waited until we were pre-occupied with the hag and her underwater minions before attacking us and then teleporting away. Nonetheless it was quite devious. Needless to say, I pity the next "guest" player that joins our game for a session.

 

[Turanil]

Well, this was inevitable. At least none of your PCs is dead. If it had been the case, I would say it is indeed unfair. However, for loss of magical items, it simply means that the DM will be able to award more in subsequent adventures without turning the game into a monty-haul.

Anyway, I have seen worse. In fact I did worse as a player and DM:

-- Player: during a long campaign I became bored with my halfling PC. I told it the DM who proposed me to play a doppelganger in the guise of my character, instead. This doppelganger was an asassin who had to murder the PCs. I tried to role-play this however, in having inconsistent, wrong, or weird behaviors for my new character (I mean: wrong as related to the halfling PC I was masquerading). Then, a player who played a suspicious mage always did cast detection and divination spells on other PCs, but never on me, although I was sitting just right to him, my sheet in plain view! He just considered that a halfling bard can only be innocuous... Until I killed one PC, wounded two others (and the mage teleported - with the player laughing maniacally for half an hour...)

-- DM: there was a NPC innocuous goblin that accompanied the party for several adventures then left. Then, this goblin suddenly reappeared much later, in a critical situation, seemingly popping out of nowhere. The PCs didn't thought about it twice. However it was a doppelganger in disguise with mission to steal them something (which he did...).

 

[Turanil]

Guest players: one guest player once in a while is okay. However, in the last campaign I did run, there were guest players almost once every three sessions. One mistake I won't do anymore. Now I will have a NPC accompanying the party all the campaign (or most of it), and he will be played by whomever could be a guest player at one time or another. That way, I don't have to search for stupid ideas anytime someone comes to play only once...

 

[BlackMoria]

The DM was too heavy handed in not allowing you any chance to detect the doppelganger.

Your group was a little too trusting, as you found to your deteriment.

My experience is that one shot cameo appearances by visiting players usually means a act of treachery, usually setup by the DM (of course, it could be just our DM's style). The reason is quite simple. The player is there and then gone, so there is little risk of lingering hard feelings for a artful, figurative "stab in the back". It is a idea time for a DM to do the 'Viper in the crib' plot that is quite a bit harder to do with regular players. There is nothing wrong with introducing this sort of story arc, but the regular characters must have an opportunity to detect the viper in their midst. And if it happens too often....

The problem is, it needs to be only done once to a party to 'poison the well' against trusting other cameo appearances of other players. Once it happens once or twice, this is usually what happens....

Visting player "Greetings, My name is ...."

Betrayed once to often player "Names are for tombstones!. .... Do I have surprise or do we roll for initiative?"

I haven't gotten that bad as yet....but I have had this sort of thing pulled on me enough that I instantly suspect any "appearing for one night only" characters and take steps to safeguard against any treachery.

 

[Joël of the FoS]

Devious player manipulation: not sure it is all honest for a DM to do that, but since it was fun, must have been OK.

Joël

 

[azmodean]

I think overall this kind of thing is fine as long as everyone has fun with it, but it does sound from your story that the DM may have been railroading a bit much. Concerning the staff though, it could have just had a nondetection effect on it.

 

[berdoingg]

You probably should have got a spot roll, or at least your DM should have rolled one secretly for you. Other than that it sounds like you were caught meta-napping. Live, learn, move on. Sounds to me like your DM fashioned a perfect little Ravenloft encounter. Gullible innocents trust their valuables to the harmless seeming stranger who dumps them in the sea then goes kill crazy. This could be the precis of the plot for several Raveloft adventures I've run.