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DMing Dirty Tricks

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
zombiegleemax
Apr 11, 2005 21:58:35 I'd like to share some of my DMing dirty tricks. Most of those are tips on how to deal with social/mental situations in game without telling your players what's happening out of game (and thereby preventing metagaming). Feel free to contribute.

Supremely Intelligent Foes : Let's face it, none of us can plan as thoroughly as a INT 40 1,000,000,000 year old lich. How then can you make him as devious as he should be? Simple. Assume the lich planned for almost every contingency. When the PC acts, you then retroactively make plans to defeat their plan. The trick here is not to hose your PC, but to enhance the menace the lich present and portray it more accurately. The same can be applied for prophets, oracles and such.

Memory-wiping (Tampering) Your PC: In an ideal world, just saying your character doesn't remember it anymore would prevent the player from recalling what happened before the bad guy memory-wiped him. Real world answer? Don't play the scene. If the party encounters a mage who's gonna mess with their memory, don't play the encounter. At all. Of course, that means you'll have to plan these circumstances in advance. When (if) the players ever regain their memory, tell them what happened during the scene or, if your group can really role-play well, play it now.

Intimidation Tired of having your PCs laugh in the face of the local militia? Tired of seeing them unconcerned when the 600 pounds bully is lifting them in the air? If the answer's yes, this is for you.

When an NPC try to intimidate your PC and win his (secret) roll, describe him as powerful. Make him seems a very real threat to your players. Remind them that they're gonna need their strength later, that this is a useless fight, but one that they won't escape unscathed. If the DM's describing something as very challenging and the fight itself as stupid and unimportant, most PC will think twice before fighting.

Mental Suggestion Let's say the thief is speaking with an evil psion in disguise. The psion send the thief the impulse to leave him alone. Telling the PC he has to back off is effectively telling him this guy's trouble. Don't. Simply say (in an annoyed and bored way): Look, you've asked him questions for half an hour. Could we move on to the rest of the story? Long story short, you talked with the guy and he knew nothing, ok? That way, the player will cease his questioning without suspecting the psion is more than he seems.
#2
zombiegleemax
May 21, 2005 13:14:24 A very good idea for how to make all those hard moments work well. Kudos.
#3
the_one_true_shea_dup
Jun 14, 2005 12:36:27 How about another one -

Random Rolling Whenever the mood strikes you, roll dice. Why? cause you don't want the players to know what you are rolling for. Every time you get ready to say something to the players roll a d20 first. Try and think of what that roll might or might apply to (this gives you that real believable "contemplating modifiers" look to your face), and then start talking.

This piece could be really long. There are so many ways to keep players off guard. Tthe best DM trick though? Play with people that don't need to be deceived to metaplay well. I have seen players completely disregard a psion in character while griping for days that, "I know he's psychic but Scartooth doesn't!"
#4
zombiegleemax
Jun 15, 2005 15:16:16 I think I go too far out of my way to not metagame sometimes. A wizard with a permanent spell that reverses arrows upon their shooters turned up in an encounter. I'd fought him with a previous character so I knew he was trouble, but this archery focused ranger didn't and ended up rolling a confirmed crit with a heavily enhanced bow. End result: 5 HP from dead at level 13. But I didn't metagame! Yay!

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 zombiegleemax Apr 11, 2005 21:58:35	I'd like to share some of my DMing dirty tricks. Most of those are tips on how to deal with social/mental situations in game without telling your players what's happening out of game (and thereby preventing metagaming). Feel free to contribute. Supremely Intelligent Foes : Let's face it, none of us can plan as thoroughly as a INT 40 1,000,000,000 year old lich. How then can you make him as devious as he should be? Simple. Assume the lich planned for almost every contingency. When the PC acts, you then retroactively make plans to defeat their plan. The trick here is not to hose your PC, but to enhance the menace the lich present and portray it more accurately. The same can be applied for prophets, oracles and such. Memory-wiping (Tampering) Your PC: In an ideal world, just saying your character doesn't remember it anymore would prevent the player from recalling what happened before the bad guy memory-wiped him. Real world answer? Don't play the scene. If the party encounters a mage who's gonna mess with their memory, don't play the encounter. At all. Of course, that means you'll have to plan these circumstances in advance. When (if) the players ever regain their memory, tell them what happened during the scene or, if your group can really role-play well, play it now. Intimidation Tired of having your PCs laugh in the face of the local militia? Tired of seeing them unconcerned when the 600 pounds bully is lifting them in the air? If the answer's yes, this is for you. When an NPC try to intimidate your PC and win his (secret) roll, describe him as powerful. Make him seems a very real threat to your players. Remind them that they're gonna need their strength later, that this is a useless fight, but one that they won't escape unscathed. If the DM's describing something as very challenging and the fight itself as stupid and unimportant, most PC will think twice before fighting. Mental Suggestion Let's say the thief is speaking with an evil psion in disguise. The psion send the thief the impulse to leave him alone. Telling the PC he has to back off is effectively telling him this guy's trouble. Don't. Simply say (in an annoyed and bored way): Look, you've asked him questions for half an hour. Could we move on to the rest of the story? Long story short, you talked with the guy and he knew nothing, ok? That way, the player will cease his questioning without suspecting the psion is more than he seems.
#2 zombiegleemax May 21, 2005 13:14:24	A very good idea for how to make all those hard moments work well. Kudos.
#3 the_one_true_shea_dup Jun 14, 2005 12:36:27	How about another one - Random Rolling Whenever the mood strikes you, roll dice. Why? cause you don't want the players to know what you are rolling for. Every time you get ready to say something to the players roll a d20 first. Try and think of what that roll might or might apply to (this gives you that real believable "contemplating modifiers" look to your face), and then start talking. This piece could be really long. There are so many ways to keep players off guard. Tthe best DM trick though? Play with people that don't need to be deceived to metaplay well. I have seen players completely disregard a psion in character while griping for days that, "I know he's psychic but Scartooth doesn't!"
#4 zombiegleemax Jun 15, 2005 15:16:16	I think I go too far out of my way to not metagame sometimes. A wizard with a permanent spell that reverses arrows upon their shooters turned up in an encounter. I'd fought him with a previous character so I knew he was trouble, but this archery focused ranger didn't and ended up rolling a confirmed crit with a heavily enhanced bow. End result: 5 HP from dead at level 13. But I didn't metagame! Yay!