D&D 5E 'The Thing' Inspired Rime of the Frostmaiden Has Player Secrets [Updated]

Made popular in boardgames, such as Battlestar Galactica, the idea of players with secrets can increase the tension of games. Rime of the Frostmaiden introduces 'character secrets'.

“I think the most interesting part [of Rime of the Frostmaiden] is the character secrets... characters can play it one of two ways. They can keep their secret close to their chest and not reveal it to the other players, fostering and breeding paranoia, or they can reveal it anytime they want to, and then wrestle with the consequences of it. That’s left entirely up to the players.”

- WotC's Chris Perkins​

It's not clear if it's a full-fledged traitor mechanic like in some other games, or just an extension of the traits/bonds/flaws guidelines.

UPDATE -- this post (below) has some more information from EN Worlder ikj. "It's a card you can draw at character creation. If you like it you keep it. If you don't you can take another. I don't get the impression it's a 'traitor mechanic' so much as a way to add some interesting twists to character interactions and add some tie-ins with the plot."

In other news, the adventure is very inspired by John Carpenter's The Thing.

“The Thing is a story about an isolated group of people dealing with a monster in their midst, and much of the movie takes place at night. If you take that idea and apply it to a D&D campaign, there’s lot of potential there,” he said over email. “When your setting is a cold, dark, isolated place, the horror comes easily. I was struck by the fact that our previous excursions to Icewind Dale didn’t really lean in that direction, so here was a chance to show Icewind Dale in a different light.”

From Venturebeat.

 

[dave2008]

That's why the DM confiscates the cards imedietly after the players read them. It's particularly important when the actually is no "wendigo" card.

It can also be important to not confiscate them, that was my point.

 

[Retreater]

If I make a D&D game that's based on The Fast and the Furious, it's definitely not going to have cars. Airships, maybe, or fantastical monstrous mounts. Family is optional - I'm not going to force my players to make characters who are related to each other.

Family is not optional in the Fast and the Furious game. Nothing is more important than family.

 

[Gradine]

So I'm going to make a game that's drawing inspiration from The Fast and the Furious, but it's not going to have cars. Or family.

And the circle is complete.

 

[Al'Kelhar]

I am not and never have been a member of the Zhentarim faction.

See, you've just failed the first test, right there. That's a denial that's easily checked with a Zone of Truth. The right response is:

"As you would appreciated in these circumstances, I can neither confirm nor deny that I am now, or have ever been, a member of the Zhentarim Faction".

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Secrets are fine, I encourage it in my own game. PvP? Nope, not for me. It's something I ban in the session 0 discussion.

The scene where everyone is pointing their guns at everyone else doesn't really work if they know the guns won't fire.

Why do you think it's necessary to ban PvP in session zero? Do you think it's something that is likely to happen if you didn't ban it? I've never banned PvP, but I've never seen it happen either.

 

[Weiley31]

I am not and never have been a member of the Zhentarim faction.

You no good Harper!!!

 

[Xenonnonex]

The scene where everyone is pointing their guns at everyone else doesn't really work if they know the guns won't fire.

Why do you think it's necessary to ban PvP in session zero? Do you think it's something that is likely to happen if you didn't ban it? I've never banned PvP, but I've never seen it happen either.

Seems a red flag to ban it. I trust my players. We discuss tone. We discuss expectation.

 

[Imaculata]

So I'm going to make a game that's drawing inspiration from The Fast and the Furious, but it's not going to have cars. Or family.

You could do that. George Lucas got inspiration from The Hidden Fortress and Flash Gordon for Star Wars. And yet the movie features no samurai and is very different from Flash Gordon. If I draw inspiration from Dark Souls for my game, that doesn't mean my game will 'be' Dark Souls, nor that it will feature knights, or monsters, or its setting, or any of its mechanics.

There are lots of things you can do when taking inspiration from another property, but that doesn't mean you will literally copy everything over from that other property. I got the impression that they are going for the feeling of paranoia and dread, but not so much traitor mechanics (or else they would have said so), and I'm pretty sure it won't include a ufo either.

 

[Fenris-77]

See, you've just failed the first test, right there. That's a denial that's easily checked with a Zone of Truth. The right response is:

"As you would appreciated in these circumstances, I can neither confirm nor deny that I am now, or have ever been, a member of the Zhentarim Faction".

The Zhentarim are all nancy-boys and do-gooders. Bring on your zone of truth. I am more secreter than that by far. How much more secret could I be? None. None more secret.

 

[Oofta]

The scene where everyone is pointing their guns at everyone else doesn't really work if they know the guns won't fire.

Why do you think it's necessary to ban PvP in session zero? Do you think it's something that is likely to happen if you didn't ban it? I've never banned PvP, but I've never seen it happen either.

It may not be necessary but it is a preference. I've had bad experiences in the past with PvP so basically I just don't want to deal with it. I cover a fair amount of things in my session 0 document like no evil PCs, don't play a loner who goes out of their way to antagonize everyone and so on. The no PvP is just one minor bullet point.

At a certain point I would just manipulate the scenario so it never gets to the "guns pointed at each other" phase, at least unless it's clear that the PC is not who they think it is (at least to the player of the PC being attacked). Different people play for different reasons, for me some things that would work for a short term or mini campaign would not work for campaigns that I want to go on for a couple of years.