I have an idea for a game I’m running, where the party is currently (unbeknownst to them) being hunted by a particular demon’s hounds. I’m borrowing from Hounds of the Morrigan, but initially the hounds will be disguised as people. But I want to introduce it in a way that would reflect the characters catching a glimpse, but if they do a double-take, it seems like nothing was there.
An example could be
GM: “You look around the marketplace, you see stalls selling various wares and tools, the odd imported spice or fruit send unfamiliar scents through the air. Behind the well you notice a small man in a black cloak watching you intently. There are people listening to a preacher near the Temple of Fire. What do you do?”
Player: “What’s the man in the cloak doing?”
GM: “What man in a cloak?”
Player: “You said there was a man by the well”
GM: “There’s nobody by the well…”
My concern is that this would look like I messed up as GM, and would be (deliberately) confusing for the players. The first time. But when the second or third figure is caught ‘out of the corner of the eye’, the players might cotton on?
Am I expecting too much, or could this work?
Great concept. It might help to be more direct with the players. Like, “There is no one by the well. You could have sworn there was a moment ago but when you look again there is no one there.” Might help to make it clear that it was your intent and that you’re not just confusing them.
Yea good idea, that way the player knows there might well have been something there, but I can make it clear that the character just thought there was. Thanks dude!
I like Damian Jankowski’s suggestion. But if yoy wanted to go really subtle, go with your original idea. Once that’s happened three or four times your players should (hopefully) catch on.
I think it would all work on a couple of GM moves
Reveal an unwelcome truth
Show signs of an approaching threat
Nothing says you cannot remove them later…I like the disappearing danger.
I like your initial approach in theory. In practice, I don’t think it’ll play out like you suspect.
The next line from your player is probably: “You mean there never was anyone by the well? Or they aren’t there now?”
And how do you answer that? Claim you never said anything about it, which leads to confusion & claims that you’re lying and draws even more attention to it? Or admit that, yeah, they thought they saw him but he’s sure not here now.
Either way, the jigs up almost immediately. The first time you pull it, your players will either call you out on lying/being inconsistent or they’ll get it right away… “Oh, shit, we’re being followed.”
They need to trust the GM to be consistent. I like the idea of the npc, but reccommend a different approach.
Perhaps let them know narratively:
As you scan the bustling market, you catch a glimpse of someone in a clearing next to a well who seems to be watching you.
A group of pedestrians cross, and you briefly lose sight of this observer. As the pressing traffic parts once more, there is no one there. Matter of fact, there is nowhere near they could have moved to. Perhaps you were mistaken…. what do you do?
You set the scene, give reliable infornation, and THEN toss it to the players.
By pushing past the question of whether they will double-take, you can set the mystery, and then play to find out what happens.
What if they Discern Realities?
You are running into Chekhov’s Mook, where any mook worth mentioning by the GM, must subsequently be involved in a plot point at a later date.
(See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chekhov%27s_gun )
So, you have to hide the mook among other people:
An example could be:
GM: “You look around the marketplace. You see stalls selling various wares. An old man in a brown hood is selling second-hand tools, a women with dark hair going to grey is selling spices to a young boy in a red coat while a small man in a black hooded cloak stands nearby. There are people listening to a preacher near the Temple of Fire, and there is a tavern across the square. You can probably find any small items that you need in the market and the tavern is open. What do you do?”
Player: “What’s the man in the cloak doing?”
GM: “You don’t see him any more.”
Player: “You said there was a man by the kid”
GM: “Its a crowded market, and there are lots of people moving around, honestly he doesn’t really stand out in your memory all that distinctly as being important.”
I am a strong believer that the GM should never lie to the players. Characters can lie to PCs, but that is a different thing. In the above example the players will probably wright him off. (Which is what you want at first)
But Then:
Player: “We go into the tavern to get a drink”
GM: “You enter a dim low-raftered room with three tables and a bar. There is a fireplace set into the far wall, and behind the bar a bald and bearded man pours beer from a pitcher for a heavyset man with scarred knuckles who pushes a copper across the bar. Two men who look like merchants sit at a table near the fire, A small man in a dark green* hooded cloak sits at a table to your right, and a group of three men with sawdust in their hair share a table in the far corner.”
Player: ” We look for someplace to sit”
GM: “There are two stools empty at the bar, and an empty table to your right”
Player: “What happened to the man who was sitting there?”
GM: “He must have left while you were looking at the guy with the scarred knuckles.”
So, every time they enter a scene, you describe 3-5 people with just one or two points, but one of them is always a small person in a dark cloak, and if they look again, the person in the cloak is always missing. Do it this way, and you remain a reliable narrator, while your players will catch on really quickly.
If you do the person-descriptions every time, but there is only a small man in a dark hooded cloak in half the scenes, then it may take longer.
*I am assuming four or five in the pack, each with a dark shabby cloak of a different color
Yeah, something like what Damian Jankowski suggested. “When you look back the man is gone…You could have sworn…”. Don’t over think it too much.
When they start Discerning Realities you can drop more hints, maybe have them follow footprints that turn into hound tracks? Throw in a werewolf as a red herring. All kinds of fun!
Tim Franzke
Not sure if this was a response to my suggestion, but i’d hope the players would try to observe what happened! If they do trigger a discern realities, i’d ask them to roll it, and we’d move forward.
If it is something innate to the NPC that they can vanish like that, and depending on the question(s) asked, i would construct an appropriate response –
You see a damp spot on the ground where you thought the observer was standing. As you kneel to look closer, you clearly see that someone had tracked water from a spill near the well, and walked just this far, standing long enough to leave behind a damp spot in the dust, and nothing more. The damp is drying in front of your eyes… this was left very recently. You are sure someone was just there. As you stand up and glance around, you feel hidden eyes watching your every move.
Something to confirm someone was there, they didn’t simply wander off, and there is some looming danger.
I guess it all comes down to the question of:
Do you want the players to know that they are being followed right away? or do you want them to have a growing suspicion that builds over one or even several sessions?
Or maybe something like – “you see a dark shadow flash out of view”. Or you could just say “there is now nobody by the well” I would think the players would focus on it once it happened a few times so I would expect them to discern realities sooner or later.
You said it your self, the way you phrased it builds confusion, not suspense or paranoia or tension. Think of ways to do that.
On a 7-9 perilous journey roll have them have a nagging feeling of being watched a few times.
Have them witness what they think is an exchange of secret signs in the marketplace. Is it really secret agents or are they mistaken?
Have them recognize an NPC from somewhere earlier. What are they doing here now? Are they following?
Things like that, along with a few misdirects (the NPC is a Merchant, the men in the marketplace are just getting food, etc.).
Create tension not confusion.
One way to avoid lying to the PCs as a GM could be to have an NPC that the party is interacting with stare past the party for a second and then ask, “Is there somebody following you?” “What, who?” “That guy back th… oh wait, he’s gone!”
They’ll soon set up a trap to catch him anyway, so you wouldn’t have to pull this off more than once or twice.