Room of Mirrors debacle

[WhimsicalMayhem]

So, for all Hallows Eve I was requested to build a interesting spooky adventure for a group of my friends. The theme was horror amusement park and I agreed, because I am a glutton for punishment. So far the planning has gone smoothly, but I hit snag in a design for an encounter.

There is a fun-house that the PCs will go through and one of the rooms is a room of mirrors that will also be inhabited by a plethora of doppelgangers. I'm hoping that the combination of the mirrors reflections (working ala mirror image) and the Dopples will cause a good amount of confusion, but I'm a little stumped on how to actually put it into motion. The PCs will be be fighting nine doppelgangers (three of each player, each player being about 9-10th level) but I want to really put in the illusion that these ARE the PCs. When the wizard casts a spell at the doppelganger fighter, I want to get it across that it looks like hes attacking the fighter to everyone else at the table. How do I enact this confusion, meta-wise? So, you know, the PCs don't look at the miniatures and say 'Well that ones is obviously the wizard, lets not attack him.'

Does that make sense?

[Chess Pwn]

the only way is if you communicate with everyone in secret.
have player A tell you want he wants to do in secret, and then secretly tell each person what they see happen.

[Aloha Gamer]

Great encounter but problematic in execution. Chess Pwn has a good advice with note passing, in my game the players and I use texting it's fast and you have a record right there. Also I would not use any map or minis to really add to the uncertainty. You should also be prepared for the party to go wild and start smashing mirrors all Conan style. Would love to hear how it turns out.

[CBDunkerson]

I don't suppose you have duplicate minis for the party members? Or multiple similar minis you can swap in for this encounter? If all else fails you can do something like 'heads up pennies for the wizard & his dopplegangers', 'tails up pennies for the fighter & her dopplegangers', et cetera with dimes, nickles, and so forth as needed.

You would also likely need to separate the party at some point... otherwise they know who is 'real' based on having been with them the whole time. A random teleportation trap upon entering the fun house could do it. You could even have some of the players 'regroup' with team mates who are actually the dopplegangers just playing along... heck, let the fighter's player direct the fighter doppleganger so that even SHE doesn't know it is a fake until they eventually run in to the real fighter.

[Anguish]

Aloha Gamer wrote:

Also I would not use any map or minis to really add to the uncertainty.

This.

[CaniestDog]

Use the same rules from the mirror image spell. So if you want to attack your own duplicate there is no issue, but if you attack the duplicate of a friend then there is a random chance of hitting your friend instead of the doppelganger.

[CaniestDog]

Chess Pwn wrote:

the only way is if you communicate with everyone in secret.

have player A tell you want he wants to do in secret, and then secretly tell each person what they see happen.

A slight change to the execution of this suggestion which might make it a little easier to run.

Prepare a list of doppelganger actions on cards in advance of the game and pass them out to the Players.
Each round have them make a will save and on a failure they are so confused they cannot act, but the player must turn over one card and perform the listed action, effectively have the player control his Doppler...