Playing a traitor?

[Thebalor]

Hi, I was wondering if anyone here has advice/thoughts to share on the possibility of playing a traitor character that only you and the DM know about. We're currently playing through the eberron Shadows of the Last War campaign, and my previous character (fighter) died just as we finished the first book. After I finished making my new character (a rogue) me and the DM began to go over items, background, etc. when I jokingly mentioned that I should spend most of my beginning gold on an amulet of undetectable alignment and be a double agent. His eyes lit up, though, and he said he'd give it to me for free if I would actually do that. We discussed it a bit more, fleshing out the details.

Here is what the situation would be: The party right now consists of two Asimaar paladin brothers, a bard, and a wizard. I would be working for Kade, a changeling assassin crime boss from a previous campaign. His motive for sending me in is a bit nebulous right now, but since Kade is a terrible enemy of the order the paladins belong to, they are probably part of it. The amulet wouldn't give off any magical aura, but I'd have to hold onto it for dear life because the guys who play the paladins LOVE detect evil. The infiltration would probably be long term, at least till 10th level, hopefully longer. The character in question is this:

Naya
NE 4th female human rogue
STR: 14 DEX: 18 CON: 14 INT: 18 WIS: 14 CHA: 18 (I got really lucky rolls)
All quintessential rogue skills (hide, disable device, etc.) are maxed out, as well as bluff and diplomacy.

My main concern is that I might piss the other players off, because they wouldn't even know about it out of game.

 

[Patman21967]

Why would you want to even do this? I personally don't like the idea..and I don't know how old you and your fellow gamers are...and the reason I ask is this....If I spent my time creating a character...playing about 20? sessions...fleshing this character out....only to have another player selfishly ruin it...I would be pissed....I'd rather spend that time with family/friends/girlfriend/drinking buddies....etc

BTW this happened to us once....We had played RuneQuest2 for about 5 years...finally undertook and completed the Lightbringers quest.. Our GM went to visit some friends who used to game with us, but since moved away, and basically they undid everything important that we accomplished....that's where the game ended.

I'd carefully consider it, because when your spare time is involved, hard feelings can run deep...Gaming should be fun for all your buddies...this sounds like at the end, only you and your GM would get a laugh out of it...

Just my opinion

 

[Dagger75]

Yeah I agree, I would be pretty pissed to play a character then have 1 player ruin all the hard work and nights playing. Seems selfish, all this work so 1 person can feel a sense of accomplishement.

It just seems different when a DM controlled NPC turns on you.

 

[Thebalor]

I can understand your feelings, though this almost certainly would not end with the deaths of their characters. We're all friends at high school in this group, and so the DM is not malicious towards us in any way. He's actually a bit too nice at some points

They would have chances to figure out what is going on, and what'll probably happen is that I'll run off with some kind of crucial item and they have to hunt me down, though she'll be an NPC at that point. I'll have to discuss it with him, but if it came down to a combat I certainly wouldn't be trying my damndest to kill them and end the campaign.

At this point, nothing is final. We came up with the idea on thursday and we're playing tomorrow, so I'll tell him whether or not I want to actually do it. I just wanted to get some advice from more experienced gamers before I commit to anything.

Not sure what the situation with your DM was, though. He had other people play your characters?

 

[Eremite]

Echoing the previous poster, I have to ask, "Are you prepared to wreck real-life friendships to do this?"

 

[Patman21967]

No, those guys had existing characters in the campaign...being on the younger side...it would take alot of explaining...I'll sum up....In RQ2 you can go to another plane, the hero plane, and by exerting you will...each character has will points which you lose permanently...you can do spectacular things...Well...they just went behind us and undid alot of what we did..just because they weren't there when it was done...They were bitter they didn't have the impact because we continued the campaign without them...let it be said...they moved to Australia...so....Our GM is sorry he let them do it, and sorry he applied it to us...but everything was done in character, and had reasons behind them...

If you didn't try your hardest to kill or betray them, then why play it...Being in character, and using motivations that your character acquires in game lends the most fun to it..in my experiences...If you go for it...take it to the conclusion...being in High School...you guys have more time than us old fogeys...I remember one time we got snowed in and I think we gamed for something like 40 out of 48 hours.... now we meet 1 time a week from 6-10:30...half of which is probably spent drinking beer, eating pizza, talking about women and football....same group of people except 1 for 20 years....Good luck in whatever you decide bro....

 

[Doug McCrae]

Sounds cool. I can tell from your posts that you can handle what might otherwise be a problematic situation.

 

[painandgreed]

Cool. I do not share everybody elses aversion to such things and it sounds like it could result in a very interesting game later on. Of course, the people I play with enjoy such intrigue.

However, I'll add that it should be handled carefully. So many D&D players are so used to simply walking into an inn, picking out the new guy and going "You look like a fine young man. How would you like to join our party in our secret mission against the dark spy lord?" that they're easy prey for PC betrayal. Unless your group is used to non-metagamed character backgrounds, I imagine that if you left standing orders to kill everybody else and take their stuff the first time you found yourself on watch alone, they'd last about three days game time. I've seen just letting a person other than the DM play the monsters against the PCs turn the adventure from a cake walk into a TPK. Letting one of the PCs be essentially a monster that the other PCs have deemed as friendly out of character, is just too easy.

The best thing to do would be work it into the metaplot so it unfolds like a story. You'd do a little spying and misdirection leading them away from Kade and towards a mutual enemy. So Kade is feeding you information about his enemies which you could feed to the paladins. Kade's happy and the paladins are happy. Your behavior and actions might give them a chance to clue if they're really on the ball. After all, your actions might not match your detected alignment. Eventually things are going to come to a head (othewise, what would be the point?). Trying to kill them right off the bat wouldn't be good, but perhaps stealing that evil artifact they taken from the other evil bad guy and running away with it to Kade. You've got two choices the way I see it. You refuse to betray the paladins and although all is revealed, you are redeemed and you're all back in this together again. Or, it all ends up with a final battle of paladins verus you and Kade, which, ya, the paladins will probalby be pissed if they lose. All in all, even if your characters designs are different than the paladins, you should do ok so long as you don't come into direct opposition.

 

[Creamsteak]

I'd recommend that you turn double agent on the people that you work for at the last reasonable minute. That has cinematic and heroic qualities. Keep it secret from the DM. Then you REALLY would be playing both sides.

Your an agent. -> Well, no problems there.
Your an double agent. -> Major problems there.
Your a double double agent. -> Temporary problems, that turn into benefits for the good guys.

 

[Thebalor]

I'll probably go with the double double agent option, since I really like this character so far and I think it would be a shame to lose her (I.E, I'm tired of my characers dying violently ), and because I'm wary of annoying anyone too much. Thanks for the advice.