HyveMynd
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Post by HyveMynd on Jan 5, 2012 19:44:20 GMT -8
Greetings good Happy Jackizens!
I'll be running a one-shot Eclipse Phase game for three of my players this Sunday, and my goal is to really play up the "conspiracy horror" and paranoia aspects of the setting. That's what attracted me to the game in the first place, as I really love throwing my players curveballs, messing with their (character's) heads, and to always have them wondering what's really going on behind the scenes. So, I'd like to pick the forum's brain about ways I can create a sense of distrust and paranoia in my players.
I realize that I won't be able to do something masterfully Machiavellian as I only have a single game session of about 4 to 5 hours to work with, but I have two ideas so far. I'm going to try and use the metagame in my favor.
Normally when the GM hands a note to a player, all the other players know that something is up, even though they'll attempt to have their characters act like there isn't (well, if they're good, they will). I'm going to use that in my favor and make note passing dead obvious. Hopefully this will get all the players wondering what information they have that the others don't and what information the others are possibly withholding from them, leading to distrust and paranoia. I don't know if I'm going to go so far as to pass "fake" notes that have nothing on them, but I might.
Hmmm… maybe I'll try to encourage the players to have their characters act suspiciously by offering small mechanical benefits as a reward. For example, a note could say something like "Get a +5 bonus on your next roll if you intentionally lie to another character." I might make up a whole stack of these cards before the game and hand them out to the players at the start of the session. They'd then hand the note back to me when they followed the instructions on it, so that I'd know to give them the bonus. The other players would see this, and know that something was going on, but not know exactly what. To really mix things up, I could even include some non-suspicious instructions (such as telling the truth, sharing information, and helping other characters) in the stack of notes so that no one was sure of who was doing what and to what ends.
I don't own the Paranoia RPG nor have I ever played a game of it, but from the synopsis I read on Wikipedia there are some really good ideas in that game about how to generate distrust. My other idea borrows from what I read about it. I plan to give each player a secret identity (and possibly even a secret mission as well) that relates tho the story, with some positive and negative role-playing and mechanical effects. Such as making one character a wanted criminal who has managed to assume another identity. Or a spy currently undercover. Or a psychotic psychic. Whatever the secret, it'd be in the player and character's best intreats that it remain a secret from the other players and characters. Hopefully this will result in guarded responses to the other player's questions. I'll hans this information out at the table just as the session starts so that everyone sees everyone else get some sort of secret information.
Giving a mechanical benefit to the secret will hopefully create a difficult choice for the player. Using the benefit their secret provides will make certain tasks easier but potentially blow their cover. Again, I'm going to try to use the metagame in my favor. If a character does something that isn't detailed on their character sheet, or performs better than their character sheet indicates, people will get suspicious. Which is exactly what I want to happen.
So, those are my ideas. I'd be grateful if other people gave me some feedback on them, offered suggestions, or related experiences of their own paranoid games. Thanks.
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Post by Stu Venable on Jan 5, 2012 21:57:01 GMT -8
Can you tell each of the players privately that their character's knows that one of the party members is a spy or mole, but they don't know which one?
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HyveMynd
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Post by HyveMynd on Jan 5, 2012 23:55:13 GMT -8
That is something I will definitely consider doing, Stu. Thanks. I need a hook to bring all the PCs together at the start of the story anyway, since none of them will know each other, and what better way to do that (and create some paranoia at the same time) than by having each of the characters tasked with tracking down a spy. This could be for different reasons for each individual PC, but the common thread would be that the list of suspects for each player has been narrowed down to the other two PCs.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 6, 2012 5:09:01 GMT -8
Yeah, in my experience, having PCs *keep* secrets is the best way to get them suspicious of the *other* PCs. It sounds like you're on the right track. Especially if they are very dangerous secrets.
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Nolinquisitor
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Post by Nolinquisitor on Jan 6, 2012 5:11:45 GMT -8
Having run both Paranoia XP and GURPS Illuminati campaigns, here's some more tips:
- Make them all member of secret organizations. In Paranoia, nothing is more feared that discovering that you are working with a communist mutant! (lol) - Give each one a mission according to their organizations. It must be done in secret without the other knowing about it. For example, it could to plant an object on another PC before passing through customs, or install a bomb on their own ship, or upload a computer virus somewhere, or gain a private information through all means, etc. - Give them each one a useful but totally illegal item or powers. The kind of thing that if the other PC's catch them with... they'll ask questions. - In the end, you could make them debrief in a room with a supreme authority (giving them the chance to backstab each other for immunity). - Use phrases like "it could be a sabotage" or "[PC x] look odd for some reason". Especially when someone fail a roll... make the other thinks they are victims of a saboteur or that the mistake was maybe intentional.
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julien
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Post by julien on Jan 6, 2012 5:24:08 GMT -8
There are many tools in eclipse phase you could use in game like that. What if one of your player thinks another has a fork of himself running on some computer and uses it against the original persona ? (forks are duplicates of a character's mind, usually made with the consent of the original, but not always). What if one of the characters is a copy gone renegade and on the run ? Memories can be edited too... Basilisk Hacks can target you through your optic nerve ... Hand a note to the player telleing him he just passed out for a few seconds and now is feeling different, but don't tell him how Don't get them only to mistrust each others, but themselves...
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azuretalon
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Post by azuretalon on Jan 6, 2012 5:27:54 GMT -8
Can you tell each of the players privately that their character's knows that one of the party members is a spy or mole, but they don't know which one? I did something similar in an Exalted Dragon Blooded game, I told each player that I wanted a mole in the party and it was between that player and one other and because I knew "they could handle it." OF course there was no mole but everyone was looking out for one. I also made sure each character had some secret that they knew they or someone they loved could be killed for, if it wasn't obvious in the past then I made it happen in game. Over all it is regarded as my best campaign ever
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 6, 2012 11:12:26 GMT -8
Can you tell each of the players privately that their character's knows that one of the party members is a spy or mole, but they don't know which one? I did something similar in an Exalted Dragon Blooded game, I told each player that I wanted a mole in the party and it was between that player and one other and because I knew "they could handle it." OF course there was no mole but everyone was looking out for one. I also made sure each character had some secret that they knew they or someone they loved could be killed for, if it wasn't obvious in the past then I made it happen in game. Over all it is regarded as my best campaign ever that was one of the best games you ever ran, having the whole conspiracy thing added a whole other level to the role playing in the game honestly if you are lookin for advice on this subject hyvemynd talk to azuretalon at length, he is really good with the mind fuck curve ball whammy
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HyveMynd
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Currently Playing: Monsterhearts 2
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Post by HyveMynd on Jan 9, 2012 23:28:08 GMT -8
So I finished my EP one-shot. I haven't really had a chance to talk to my players about the meta-game tricks I used to try and create distrust among them yet, so I don't know how successful they were, but I'll relate what I did.
1. The night before the game I sent them all a group message on Facebook (which is what we use to coordinate our game session schedule and share information) telling them that I'd chosen their PCs and would be sending them individual messages shortly. After sending their character information via individual private messages, I sent another message to everyone that said "I forgot to mention that you are the mole of the group." When one of my players asked if I'd meant to send that to everyone, I pretended that it had been accidental and asked everyone to please ignore it.
2. I gave each of my players a stack of little notes that had instructions on them. Things like "separate yourself from the group for no reason", "ask for a Perception test to see if another PC is lying", and "withhold useful information from the other PCs", as well as a few that were blank or had the player act in a helpful manner. The idea was that the player would do the listed action and then hand in the card for a small mechanical bonus. The other players would see the card being handed in and start wondering what the player had just done something beneficial, harmful, or nothing at all.
3. Everyone had a secret objective and a secret identity. The objectives all lead to the same location and the same NPC (so that the party would stay together despite distrusting one another) but for different reasons that were totally at odds with the other characters. One PC was tracking the NPC down obtain valuable information, another to exact revenge by killing them, and the third to rescue them from possible danger.
As I said, I'm not sure how well any of these tricks worked yet, but I'll post something up again after I've talked to my players.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 10, 2012 5:02:06 GMT -8
Wow... you really went all out! I can't wait to see how the player debrief goes! --Pukka Tukka
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azuretalon
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Post by azuretalon on Jan 10, 2012 13:55:40 GMT -8
That is a thing of beauty! especially the accidental facebook message.
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Post by ironnikki on Jan 11, 2012 7:33:12 GMT -8
Very cool ideas, hyvemynd! I may end up stealing some of those at some point in time if I run an espionage-style game.
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HyveMynd
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Dirty hippie, PbtA, Fate, & Cortex Prime <3er
Posts: 2,273
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Currently Playing: Monsterhearts 2
Currently Running: The Sprawl
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Post by HyveMynd on Feb 14, 2012 18:36:06 GMT -8
I finally got a chance to talk with my players and find out how well my paranoia tricks worked. I figured I'd share it with the group so that other people can learn from it as well.
1. The "accidental" message about there being a mole in the party. I don't really know how well this worked. One guy smelled it for what it was immediately, but only because I stupidly told him at work that I had some great meta-game ideas for the session. He was kind enough to not ruin the surprise for everyone else, and kept his suspicions to himself.
Conclusion: If you have a great idea along these lines, keep that shit to yourself. Don't brag about your great idea before you put it into motion.
2. The "suspicious action" cards that gave a mechanical bonus for doing something strange. People said they liked these, but also said they wished that a) everyone had gotten different actions in their decks and b) that the actions had related to the secret mission they were given (see #3 below). One guy said that he caught on to the fact that all the decks were the same pretty quickly, and was able to determine what cards people were playing fairly easily.
Conclusion: If you use secret action cards to create distrust, give all the players different actions. My sense of balance and a lack of prep time caused me to hand out three identical decks, which lessened the effect somewhat. Also, giving players decks with actions that relate somehow to their secret goal is a good idea.
3. Secret identities and goals. This one was a mixed bag. Two of my players are notorious for having their characters clam up when asked probing questions and I should have taken this into account. I had hoped that previous games and discussions had taught them to create a cover story when asked something their character didn't want to answer, but I guess not. Early in the session after the characters agreed to work together, one player started asking questions (in character) to see what kind of skills and resources the others were bringing to the group. He got variations of "I can"t tell you." which frustrated both him and me.
It's worth noting here that in Eclipse Phase everything and everyone is plugged into the Mesh (a high-speed cloud-based Internet). It's a combination of Face Book, Twitter, blog, on-line banking, and every other form of social media all rolled into one and accessible to everyone around you. Making it incredibly easy for people to find out about each other with a simple thought. Hiding information is not an option anymore (unless you keep it off the Mesh), so instead people either put up false information (via multiple personas) or put up so much information that it takes a long time to sift through it. Information spamming.
So the frustrated player says to me "I want to check their Mesh IDs and pull up all the information about these two that I can." I turned to the others and asked them what he found. One guy caught on and gave some basic information about his character and history he made up on the spot. The other guy said "He finds nothing." I had to pause the game then and explain how suspicious that was given the setting and how many red flags that would set off. The player in question said that he didn't know what to say in order to keep his secret, and that I hadn't given him a back story for him to use. I replied that I had hoped people would just make something up on the spot to deflect questions. I saw that this wasn't going to happen and so just kind of hand waved the even away in order to keep the story moving. We were only playing a one-shot after all.
Conclusion: Know your players. Some of them think better on their feet than others, or are apprehensive about making stuff up on the fly because "it'll ruin your (the GM's) story". Certain players need you to give them a cover story, or need to be explicitly told to make one up. Looking back I should have known that particular player is not good at having his characters lie or be deceitful. We've run into the "I can't tell you" issue before with him.
That being said, everyone liked the secret identities and secret missions. They did say that it was difficult to get over the distrust they all had for each other and actually work together in the adventure, especially since none of them really had any information to go on. As one player put it, "When you're trying to solve a mystery you go to people who have information, not other people who are just as clueless as you." So, if other GMs do something similar, make sure all the PCs each have some useful nugget of information about the target that they can share with the rest of the group. I thought that the fact that all three characters were looking for the same NPC would be enough to make them to work together. I was wrong.
Lastly, I don't recommend doing this in a game that the players are unfamiliar with. We were all still learning the Eclipse Phase system, and I think some of the paranoia got lost beneath rule and setting explanations. One player said that the scenario itself generated enough paranoia without the meta-game stuff layered on top. So while the reactions were generally positive, there are areas for improvement.
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Post by fray on Feb 14, 2012 22:33:28 GMT -8
Good info. Good feedback. It is good to hear what you did and how effective your efforts were.
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