When The PCs Don't Realize They're The Villains...

[MortalPlague]

I'm about to run a two session game as a break from our usual game, and I had a neat idea; what if the PCs have split personalities? By day they are heroes, while by night, they are villains. And neither half knows about the other one.

My plan is to start the game with them kicking down the door and finding the royal princess, tied up, with a bag over her head. What they don't know is that they're the ones who kidnapped her in the first place (though she doesn't know it either). So they rescue and return the princess, and are awarded a Barony for their efforts.

The bulk of the adventure will focus on them taking over their Barony; the castle cellar is haunted, the peasants won't work until the ogre problem is taken care of, etc. But all through it, I plan to drop little hints to their double life. Finally, at the conclusion to the second session, I want to have a dragon show up and demand to know why they didn't hold up their end of the bargain! What bargain? To bring him the princess, of course!

Has anyone got some tips for running a game like this? I'd like to keep the players in the dark as to the nature of their own villainy, but I'd like to drop subtle hints every now and then. Some ideas I've had:

• The PC wakes up with more or less money than they went to bed with
• A villager tells one PC they saw another PC go into the woods at night
• A PC goes to bed with someone, and when they wake up, the other person has been killed
• Various villains recognize the PCs, and are confused when they attack

Any thoughts?

 

[Xphile]

Personally I like it. Then again, I love Jekyll and Hyde type situations in media.

As for how well this goes with your players... it all depends on your players. Some players don't mind people "messing with their characters", and others believe it is a sin to "force" their character into a certain action. I know some people that if I tried it with would first thing say "well my character would never do that!".

 

[MortalPlague]

As for how well this goes with your players... it all depends on your players. Some players don't mind people "messing with their characters", and others believe it is a sin to "force" their character into a certain action. I know some people that if I tried it with would first thing say "well my character would never do that!".

That's very true. I'm pretty confident that this group won't mind the intrusion... they're fairly light on the role playing side of things. Besides, the game only lasts for two sessions; I'd like to make it a memorable two sessions. If this were a full campaign, I wouldn't even consider this sort of thing.

 

[SiderisAnon]

Mud on the boots.
Blood or rips on clothes in the closet.
Nicks on weapons. (Or it's freshly oiled.)
Missing spells from memory.
Consumed potions, scrolls, or various reagents.

When tracking the bad guy, realize that you must have screwed up because those are Bob's boots.



Do the bad guys know about their good guy halves? How are they actively hiding their nighttime activities? Because otherwise the laundry staff is doing double duty and certainly the night guards on the castle will notice the PCs coming and going.

 

[S'mon]

Ah, right... I thought this referred to the PCs who go around wreaking havoc, yet still think they're the heroes!

 

[Dandu]

We call it Eragon syndrome.

 

[haakon1]

Ah, right... I thought this referred to the PCs who go around wreaking havoc, yet still think they're the heroes!

Me too.

Or that it was like the Star Wars campaign we did, where we were storm troopers who were convinced that for the good of the galaxy (and especially to prevent those darn Calamari from telling everyone what to do), the rebel scum all needed to die! Fun premise!

 

[jmucchiello]

How are you going to handle the reveal? So the players find out they are the bad guys they seek. Now what? It is probably very easy for the party to go in several unexpected directions from here.

 

[fba827]

How are you going to handle the reveal? So the players find out they are the bad guys they seek. Now what? It is probably very easy for the party to go in several unexpected directions from here.

I like the idea, but also wonder about this -- how will you handle the climatic resolution? They find out it is alter-egos of themselves.. okay, how to stop themselves? It could have a great build up.. but then peter out if there isn't a good climax.

There are ways around it, some might be a stretch though. Perhaps they learn of a way to pull their alter egos out of themselves, thus, having a fight with themselves? (yes, see, that could come off as lame depending on how it's done). Perhaps they learn it was a devil/entity that sparked this alter ago to awaken within them at night, thus it could result in a fight with this entity (OR the entity provides them each a bargain -- give in to the alter ego and gain some really super awesome reward; or turn it down - but this would result in a pc vs pc fight and you'll need some npcs to fill out the ranks of whichever is the 'smaller' side).... or other such things...

but, anyway, as said, i like the idea. just be sure to come up with a satisfying climax for it or else all the build up will be lost.

 

[Cyronax]

I remember back in 3.0, I had a polymorphed ogre mage infiltrate the party (7th level human rogue, dwarf druid, elf diviner, NPC azer (i.e. fire dwarf) fighter) as a damsel in distress who stayed with them for a session or two. They had no clue, but eventually heard rumors about an ogre mage and they got worried, because they (the players) were very afraid of ogre magi and were questionin me as the DM about its TPK-potential. Yes metagaming.

Anyway, they became pretty parinoid, but they were in the middle of a big dungeon complex with the damsel and wanted protection. SO ... the druid started using various stone-shape type spells to seal them in rooms while they rested. The druid also made the point of saying that he wanted to seal even tiny fissures in the dungeon walls and stuff like that because they wanted to avoid an ogre magi attacking them in an enclosed area (gaseous form through a crack in the wall).

Anyway .... one night the diviner says he wants to take a long shot and scry on the ogre magi (whom he's never met or even knows the villain's name). Anyway .... after I quickly switch to some ominous background music and do a long narrative about the diviner's astral vision scanning the horizons and dungeons of the world for the ogre magi, the diviner's conscious/sensor keeps returning to a positon just over the party -- all of whom (including the damsel) are looking intently into the roiling mists of the diviner's mirror.

Poor party. Damsel's a dude. They trapped themselves in with the polymorphing monster. Ogre magi unleashes cone of cold, kills azer (fire dwarf). The three PCs somehow eke out a victory, but they became even more parionoid after that.

My Point: use divination as the final revelation. Make it have the same impact as the end of The Sixth Sense, if you can. The subtle clues already suggested by the others are great as a way to get the party to consider really powerful divination magic.