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Comments on "You found a cursed ring!" How do I let the player roleplay it without spilling the beans to everyone prematurely?

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"You found a cursed ring!" How do I let the player roleplay it without spilling the beans to everyone prematurely?

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In a game I was running, a player tripped a magical effect that would alter his behavior (failed save against compulsion magic). I took the player aside to explain, out of game, what had happened -- this would allow the player to roleplay and, I hoped, would not be as obvious to the other players (whose characters had not detected the effect yet). I wanted my player to play normally but apply the compulsion to the character's actions, in other words.

Of course, there's an obvious problem: the other players had the meta-information of this interruption in play and our private conversation, so they were suspicious of the player (and character) immediately, and had trouble suspending disbelief and playing as if they didn't know something was up.

How could I have handled that better? Should I have had a conversation with the group about what was happening, with the expectation that they'd all roleplay it? That removes some of the surprise and leads to questions of "when would my character reasonably figure out something's up?". Should I have anticipated the problem and prepared a note in advance to pass to the player if needed? (Should I then have prepared other decoy notes, so that my passing a note wouldn't by itself provoke suspicion?)

How, in short, can I help the group reduce the effects of meta-game knowledge so we can focus on the story at hand?

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On the off chance it could apply, what sort of game? (4 comments)
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Use distractions and subterfuge.

Prepare a note for each player in advance and pass them out all at once. But all notes contain irrelevant stuff save for one. Examples:

Bilbo: The ring you found in the caves is cursed. You find yourself strangely fascinated by it. You decide it is better to keep this precious item hidden for now - don't tell the others about it.

Gandalf: You observe a fascinating cloud formation in the sky. It looks like an oliphant.

Thorin: Somewhere down in the caves you must have stepped in something unmentionable. It is stuck under your boot and is starting to smell.

Now everyone will be distracted with the message they got. And even if they suspect something, they can't know which one(s) of them that got an important message.

Similarly, to prevent players from getting "meta information" of you doing hidden dice rolls (to see if someone steps into a trap etc), you could do some dummy hidden dice rolls now and then and pretend to check something.

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Good idea! (2 comments)
Good idea!
Monica Cellio‭ wrote over 2 years ago

I like the "stack of notes, one real" approach. I do already do dummy die rolls at times; otherwise it's too obvious when I need to do one but the players don't know why. :-)

LAFK‭ wrote 9 months ago

I'd even go as far as give a "probable excuse" there SOMETIMES. Like, looking at a rock, you found a ring! Why only sometimes, because otherwise players would start EXPECTING them and wouldn't be put on the spot anymore if one pointedly asked "Bilbo, and what were YOU staring at"?