Steve Jackson Games Forums - View Single Post - Player Paranoia and Character Surprise: How to GM

Xplo · 03-05-2007, 05:22 PM

Hose your PCs for not being paranoid enough, and they will be more paranoid. Make generous concessions to their alertness and common sense - or just avoid sneaky things like poisoned dinners, sudden betrayals, and hidden traps altogether - and they'll relax.

Capture situations and other sorts of one-track plot devices require a bit of faith on the part of the players that this will be fun and exciting (honest!) and they'll get all their important stuff back at the end.. and that faith needs to be rewarded by the GM. Other posters have commented on turning the capture into an advantage (by putting the prisoners into an otherwise secret or heavily-guarded area where they can foil the enemy plan/take out the enemy leader/learn the big secret/steal the artifact/whatever) and I think that's an excellent idea.

03-05-2007, 05:22 PM	#16
Xplo Join Date: Apr 2006	Re: Player Paranoia and Character Surprise: How to GM Hose your PCs for not being paranoid enough, and they will be more paranoid. Make generous concessions to their alertness and common sense - or just avoid sneaky things like poisoned dinners, sudden betrayals, and hidden traps altogether - and they'll relax. Capture situations and other sorts of one-track plot devices require a bit of faith on the part of the players that this will be fun and exciting (honest!) and they'll get all their important stuff back at the end.. and that faith needs to be rewarded by the GM. Other posters have commented on turning the capture into an advantage (by putting the prisoners into an otherwise secret or heavily-guarded area where they can foil the enemy plan/take out the enemy leader/learn the big secret/steal the artifact/whatever) and I think that's an excellent idea.