thread: 2009-06-17 : Secrets
On 2009-06-22, Vincent wrote:
"Impact a game" isn't what I'm after. Players can have secrets, and share secrets selectively, and it impacts the game; no doubt.
Imagine this. A fantasy game of the sprawling sort where there are rival kingdoms and trade cities and so on, and the PCs have a home base in an inn and kings' spymasters and ancient wizards and foreign ladies come and enlist them to go on adventures and stuff. You know what I mean.
Imagine that the players get together behind the GM's back and say "hey you know the NPC Chamberlain, our contact with the king? Let's all, no matter what the GM says about him, let's all react to him as though he smells bad. We can't insult him to his face, we need him, but let's be subtle and see what the GM does with it."
So they do.
Does this make it true, but secret from the GM, that the chamberlain smells bad?
In play, one player says "while the chamberlain's talking to us my guy edges toward the window, and opens the shutters. Want me to make a stealth roll?" And the GM says, "uh, no, that's fine. You do, nobody notices." And another player says "my guy notices! Thanks for that."
So now everyone knows and assents that one character opened the shutters unobtrusively and another character noticed and was happy. Does that make it true that the chamberlain character smells bad?