thread: 2014-02-15 : Lies in RPGs
On 2014-02-16, Josh W wrote:
The trick is probably turning "this is bad design" into "these are the inherent flaws that must be overcome".
So if you include lying in the game, you need to minimise the footprint of the game in terms of longer term deception, you need to consider the barriers this puts between players and it's effectiveness at sustaining or building those barriers, some stuff about "ethics in the absence of informed consent", similar to when people are doing pranks or double blind experiments, and about the break in interpersonal feedback created by false impressions of intentions.
For example, games with lying in them generally have a blank moment at the end where people are like "what the hell was that?" and have to reinterpret what just happened. Game rules with lying that slowly bring the lied to player on board, or even inverse the power/information dynamics at the last stage, will probably be more satisfying than those that just leave that space blank and hollow.
So a sunshine boulevard type game that explicitly gives narration control to the lied-to player at the end about "the fate of the serial killer" will probably assist in that reinterpretation, and help with creating closure similar to "the master always dies at the end" in MLWM.
This makes jdl go "Only the "whole game lie""
Something like Liar's Dice or Diplomacy doesn't have that issue, I don't think.
