Sorry for the TLDR... A little background...
When I was young I was a counselor at a camp for the blind in Nederland, Colorado. Some of the kids at that camp were fully unable to see. And yet despite this they would climb 30 feet into the trees and zip line across a river, because not seeing what they were trying to do meant they had no fear of that sensation of height. They went out on paddleboats by themselves and were able to navigate back to shore with the help of sounds. After following behind a sighted kart through a lap or two, some were able to navigate a go kart track! They were a truly inspiring group of kids.
I remember a show where people went to a restaurant where all the lights stayed off and nobody could see anything, but the servers were all blind so had no trouble serving you in that environment. The lack of the visual sense was said to heighten your appreciation for the flavor of the food and the quality of your company without being affected by your vision.
Both of these examples showcased an environment of implicit and remarkable trust, and were populated by very willing, engaging, curious and brave individuals, and memories of that kind of personality have a way of sticking with you...
Now...
In one of the advice threads it was discussed that players had a preference that the other players at their table didn't divulge any information about their character to them, with an interest in learning about their nuances and capabilities and backstory completely in character. We've done this at our table from time to time and I think it makes things interesting not to skip past the 'meet and greet stage' so to speak, if the folks at the table can make it interesting. I'm wondering though if any other tables have tried what we have and taken it one or two steps further...
Granted you'd have to be at a table where everyone really trusted everyone else... but there are two other versions of this that i'm curious to see if any other tables have tried:
1. Instead of keeping your character information hidden from the other pcs so that they're forced to figure out what you've created by interacting with you in character, have you ever ran a game where you concealed your information not just from each other, but from the GM!? So that even the GM has to take the time to feel out what kind of character you've made, interacting with you exclusively as a 'character' instead of as a 'class' or a 'stat sheet' over which they have absolute purview?
2. the reverse! This would take the table where the gm doesnt mind handling all the mechanics by him/herself behind the scenes... Have you ever ran a character where the gm asked you your name and your class but kept every other detail about your character sheet to themselves? You have no idea what your hit points or attribute score or level is... You still get to pick your skills and spells but the stat side of thing remains hidden from you? You have to rely on the gm 'characterising your feelings about how you feel' instead of looking at a hit point value to know if you're in a bad way... You kind of have to spend some time getting to know.... yourself?
Are there any tables here that have that kind of trust? Bravery? Curiosity?
I always want to know everything my player's characters have done/wanted to do. I however will not use this knowledge, and as such they often get asked the same question, by various NPC's.
It's nice to use NPC's to ask questions, so that the other PC's can go: "Really? I did not know this, and have been travelling with you for 6 months." :)
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I've never done either, and I wouldn't much like #2, but #1 does sound like an interesting experiment.
About #2, unless the theme was some sort of amnesiac party adventure, not knowing my character's abilities would be a showstopper.
#1 would require a little bit of coordination to prevent everyone from making the same character. Maybe by advertising the adventure the week before ("requires someone who can fight, someone with arcane experience, and medical backup") whereupon players divvy up who will take main responsibility for each of those tasks, but not divulge anything else.
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I ran (briefly) a forum game on another site where the players got to choose their name and a general outline of the skills & abilities they wanted. Beyond that, nobody knew stats, classes, or even what game system I was using. While it didn't last long due to the workload outweighing spare time, the feedback I got was that everyone enjoyed the experience, and only having a rough idea of how injured/tired they were was far more immersive than "I still have 3 hp left...".
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I thought this thread was about blind players, and now I am disappointed.
The waiters at that restaurant used night-vision goggles, IIRC.
Now it is your turn for disappointment.
I'm trying to decide how you could replace the GM's knowledge of player backstories with use of plot twist cards.
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S1. Instead of keeping your character information hidden from the other pcs so that they're forced to figure out what you've created by interacting with you in character, have you ever ran a game where you concealed your information not just from each other, but from the GM!? So that even the GM has to take the time to feel out what kind of character you've made, interacting with you exclusively as a 'character' instead of as a 'class' or a 'stat sheet' over which they have absolute purview?The GM is the one person who MUST know your character. He's got to know it even better than YOU do. In fact he has to know things about your character that you don't even have a clue about. In a campaign where characters have real stories and real backgrounds, he's the one who's going to know how your past is going to bite you in the ass.
I could show up to an archery range in a blindfold. No sane range master however is going to let me shoot wearing one.
In a classical-style game, yeah. But I think we're wandering into the wild lands of Indie gaming here, where the GM's narrative predominance isn't quite so certain.
I have played in a couple of games (online) where I knew next to nothing about the rules used. I knew my character's back story and a broad outline of his skills and wants - but none of the mechanics. It works out OK if you trust the GM - and the GM knows what s/he is doing.
I also ran a game with a player who generally only played in free form games. She described the character to me and I specced it out. In play she described the characters actions and I made all the rolls on her behalf and gave feed back in the same way as I normally do in an online game.
Again it worked well on-line, with the right players and a cut down version of the 3.0 rule set. I am not sure how well it would work in a heavily tactical combat game with maxed out combat characters.
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I ran one game for a single player...it wasn't in Pathfinder, but GURPS...we'd made basic agreements ahead of time...he was interested in playing a complete amnesiac with no clue about who or what he was. He woke in a filthy alley, cold and lying on broken glass...and we went from there. His character was actually a very high point sorcerer in something of a World of Darkness world...remembering his spells came slowly. It was a blast.