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Old 09-17-2014, 07:43 AM   #10
Anaraxes
 
Join Date: Sep 2007
Default Re: Secret communication with the master

Quote:
Originally Posted by SiLent View Post
Passing notes will just get the other players thinking "wtf is this guy being so secretive about"
So will pulling out your phone in the middle of the game to text the GM, or having your phone go off when the GM texts you. (It would be just plain rude to send non-game-related texts while you're sitting at the table.) Technological note-passing isn't any different from physical note-passing. You'll still need to use the same chaffing techniques, sending occasional notes to all players with contents meaningful or not, as well as having all players send the GM notes occasionally. Otherwise the traffic analysis makes it too obvious that something secret is going on, whether that's bits of paper changing hands or beeps and boops and people looking at their phone.

Secret messages work on virtual tabletops because the players aren't co-located, and so can't tell whether or not there's any extra traffic. They're closer in face-to-face play where you're still using the software, because at least everyone already has their computer out all the time and you're using the same interface to pass the secret data along with public game-related data. The extra typing is still likely to be a problem, though.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Apollonian
You could also trust the other players to keep OOC and IC knowledge separate, and just say, e.g., "Marco sneaks away for a quick confer with his Secret Masters via subspace radio.
There's a useful intermediate state of firewalling where the players can manage not to react to the occurrence of some unknown event, yet still don't have to know exactly what that event was. You can still enjoy the mystery and lack of complete knowledge. Even though you know OOC something's up, you don't have to know OOC exactly what that something is. Also makes firewalling that much easier.
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