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<blockquote data-quote="MostlyDm" data-source="post: 6828144" data-attributes="member: 6788973">This reminds me of probably my single favorite moment of &quot;tricking&quot; PCs. There was a moment where the a player thought I had tricked him with a cheap gotcha rather than tricked his character... But it turned out a little different. The party had acquired a minor artifact that was clearly cursed and quite dangerous. They were investigating possible courses of action to destroy it. They vaguely knew there was Someone out there on the lit trail but hadn't had any real run-ins with this mysterious foe. They're in a large town on the frontier, filled with urchins and pickpockets. One character decided to wander alone with the artifact, deciding he would handle it himself. On the way, a kid knocks into him. He immediately grabs the kid, checks his pocket (sure enough, purse is missing), and demands his stuff back. The kid denies it, when a passerby intervenes and agrees that the kid did, indeed, steal the PC's purse. They make the kid cough it up, and the PC thanks the stranger. They have a warm handshake, and the NPC goes in for the classic one-armed man-hug.PC goes on his merry way. Gets to his destination, goes for the artifact, and it's nowhere to be seen. For a moment, the player is pissed. He says &quot;okay I guess I didn't explicitly say I checked to see if the artifact was there too...&quot; Thinking the kid stole both purse and item. That would have been a DM gotcha, in my book. No fun. I tell him &quot;nah, you're positive the artifact was there when the kid gave you the purse back.&quot;At which point the whole party realizes the pickpocket kid was pure misdirection, and the &quot;helpful&quot; NPC was the real thief, intending to nab the artifact all along. And I'd been sure they would catch on during the man hug. TL, DR: Tricking players is bad form. Tricking characters is great fun. I think the OP scenario has a few elements of both.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="MostlyDm, post: 6828144, member: 6788973"] This reminds me of probably my single favorite moment of "tricking" PCs. There was a moment where the a player thought I had tricked him with a cheap gotcha rather than tricked his character... But it turned out a little different. The party had acquired a minor artifact that was clearly cursed and quite dangerous. They were investigating possible courses of action to destroy it. They vaguely knew there was Someone out there on the lit trail but hadn't had any real run-ins with this mysterious foe. They're in a large town on the frontier, filled with urchins and pickpockets. One character decided to wander alone with the artifact, deciding he would handle it himself. On the way, a kid knocks into him. He immediately grabs the kid, checks his pocket (sure enough, purse is missing), and demands his stuff back. The kid denies it, when a passerby intervenes and agrees that the kid did, indeed, steal the PC's purse. They make the kid cough it up, and the PC thanks the stranger. They have a warm handshake, and the NPC goes in for the classic one-armed man-hug. PC goes on his merry way. Gets to his destination, goes for the artifact, and it's nowhere to be seen. For a moment, the player is pissed. He says "okay I guess I didn't explicitly say I checked to see if the artifact was there too..." Thinking the kid stole both purse and item. That would have been a DM gotcha, in my book. No fun. I tell him "nah, you're positive the artifact was there when the kid gave you the purse back." At which point the whole party realizes the pickpocket kid was pure misdirection, and the "helpful" NPC was the real thief, intending to nab the artifact all along. And I'd been sure they would catch on during the man hug. TL, DR: Tricking players is bad form. Tricking characters is great fun. I think the OP scenario has a few elements of both. [/QUOTE]

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