We're almost done with Blackwall Keep and I've been preparing my notes for the Free City and the adventures therein.
I decided to give myself a few weeks breathing room with the whole doppelganger thing, and I approached one of my players out of game and asked him if he'd be willing to play along with the abduction plot (he plays the rogue of the group). He decided that he wasn't the right one to "collude" with me. Dagnabbit. I was really looking forward to that, but I'm glad I gave myself some time to work with.
I've thought about approaching a second player (the barbarian) but I'm not that excited since one player already knows about the idea. Well he knows that he was supposed to be replaced be a (singular) doppelganger at some point in the near future. He doesn't know about the gang, or about the fact that it's supposed to happen in the city. The adventure suggests just skipping the whole thing and replacing the tied-up players with a few araneas. I'm not sure that the araneas set me on fire creatively.
Have any of the rest of you come across this kind of reaction? What did you do instead? Any clever suggestions out there?
Have any of the rest of you come across this kind of reaction? What did you do instead? Any clever suggestions out there?
As a general rule, forcing the issue is a bad idea. Also, since one of the players knows that it's coming, the "reveal" loses some of its impact.
Some suggestions:
1) Use the abduction/replacement as a red herring. Drop hints that one of the party members is an imposter, even though they're not. Use occasional note passing to make the rest of the party suspiscious ("What is the highest spell you have prepared?", "Where are you carrying your Potion of Haste?"), if this won't disrupt play. When they get to the Hall of Deception, have one of the dopplegangers pretend to be unable to get free, while the others "attack" him.
2) Replace one of the NPC's (Eligos, perhaps; or a cohort). Part of the adventure involves rescuing the NPC and helping them regain their life.
3) Just run the doppelgangers as sneakier, with several charmed/dominated minions (make Telakin's wizard form an Enchanter/Mindbender) to confuse things.
As a general rule, forcing the issue is a bad idea. Also, since one of the players knows that it's coming, the "reveal" loses some of its impact.
Yeah, not too excited about forcing.
Some suggestions:1) Use the abduction/replacement as a red herring. Drop hints that one of the party members is an imposter, even though they're not. Use occasional note passing to make the rest of the party suspiscious ("What is the highest spell you have prepared?", "Where are you carrying your Potion of Haste?"), if this won't disrupt play. When they get to the Hall of Deception, have one of the dopplegangers pretend to be unable to get free, while the others "attack" him.
How to instigate even the thought of this kind of thing? I mean the players have no reason to start suspecting (and some of them don't even know what a doppelganger is and can do). Once the party is suspicious, it's easy to encourage that, but how to get the ball rolling? Pass a note that says "you think that Joe is acting really strangely today"?
2) Replace one of the NPC's (Eligos, perhaps; or a cohort). Part of the adventure involves rescuing the NPC and helping them regain their life.
This has possibilities. No cohorts to work with, and I'd rather keep Eligos as is, but there are still some good possibilities here.
3) Just run the doppelgangers as sneakier, with several charmed/dominated minions (make Telakin's wizard form an Enchanter/Mindbender) to confuse things.
This is the kind of thing that I was thinking of initially. Instead of araneas, use monster [x] from Monster Manual Fiend Codex Encyclopedia MMXIV. Or something like that.
Thanks for the thoughts DP!
Eltanin--if you run the encounter where the doppleganger imposter attacks Tarquin, that ought to be enough to get your players thinking about dopplegangers and aware of what they can do. You should then be able to come up with some ideas to mess with their minds. You could add to the feeling when the PCs show up some place (like Eligos' manor) and find that someone who looks exactly like them has been there. Or have a doppelganger pretend to be a party member, get himself let into that member's room at the inn and steal some item left there while the party is out in town somewhere.
Also, you could have all the doppelgangers in the room where the kidnapped party member is supposed to be imprisoned bust out of their bonds at once and attack their counterparts in a confused melee. Within a round, no one can tell who is real and who is fake, so that a party member trying to aid his ally has a 50% chance of aiding that person's doppelganger impersonator instead.
Oh, yes. There's all kinds of fun you can have with doppelgangers without pulling off the replacement PC trick.
Oh, yes. There's all kinds of fun you can have with doppelgangers without pulling off the replacement PC trick.
Ah yes. More good thoughts. I've been feeling very slow with my ideas about this, so I thought I'd sow some seeds in the fertile Paizo ground and see what grew. I'm not nearly sneaky enough, that's my problem.
I like the idea of having the doppels still in that room to impersonate the party. It's just such a rich scene, that I didn't want to give it up in favor of araneas.
Clearly they can still be in there even if it's not a prisoner holding cell. Maybe the party busts in and sees all the doppelgangers in true form but dressed as the party is dressed pouring over a table with plans (or something). Before the PC's eyes, the doppelgangers take the shape of their counterparts and havoc ensues.
Good ideas Peruhain. I'll see what I can do with 'em.
I was desperately hoping that the player I petitioned to participate in the body snatching would go along...alas, twas not to be. In the long run, I recommend asking just the one player, and leaving it at that. The araneas can be fun--although they are total weenies in combat, if you ask me. You might want to have them in humanoid form as captives, but the players are likely wise to the doppelgangers' strategies by now.
With no fewer than three other incidents in the adventure of doppelganger mischief, I'd say one less won't be that big of a deal.
I'm not certain on which thread I read it, but one cunning DM on these boards approached ALL of his players, and they all agreed, each one thinking he was the doppleganger fooling the rest of the party. I don't remember how it worked out, except the DM seemed pleased with the final results.
I'm not certain on which thread I read it, but one cunning DM on these boards approached ALL of his players, and they all agreed, each one thinking he was the doppleganger fooling the rest of the party. I don't remember how it worked out, except the DM seemed pleased with the final results.
Ha ha ha! That must have been a classic moment of revelation! I can just imagine the shocked expressions. Kudos to whomever pulled this off.