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FreshlyMinted
2010-10-08, 08:23 PM
So, I'm planning on running a scary halloween adventure with my players from another campaign and to heighten the scary feeling, I've asked all of them if they wanted to play a double agent character in the adventure. Now. I have a few options but am willing to consider other devious plans.

#1- I can pick one and tell the others that I changed my mind (setting them ill at ease because they think that I might be doing a different double agent and I am

#2- I can pick all of them to be double agents for the same side and not know about each other

#3- I can pick none of them and set them ill at ease for similar reasons to #1

druid91
2010-10-08, 08:28 PM
Get someone new, to play for one session only, coach them beforehand so that it works.

And then do the first with the person in your game with the best poker face.

Everyone will think its the new guy.

LordShotGun
2010-10-08, 08:30 PM
Pick none of them but introduce an NPC that is. But since your the DM if they THINK the NPC is a double agent and start treating him like one, make it someone else.

Yes this may be mean but it makes your planning double agent things for players easier by being the one controling said agent. Otherwise the double agent player may do things that you dont expect and may ruin your planned out game.

shadow_archmagi
2010-10-08, 09:55 PM
I used to play a Gmod game called Trouble In Terrorist Town, where 25% of the players are randomly chosen as traitors, who must murder the other terrorists.

Before someone went and coded it into an actual Gmod Game Mode that randomly chose, the server admin would send a private message to whoever was chosen to be the killer.

When it was my turn to choose killers, I didn't. I made everyone innocent and waited.

It was only a matter of time before someone did something a little TOO suspicious, and got gunned down. Of course, once that happened, that would leave a player standing by a corpse with a gun, which could only lead to MORE murders.

They lasted ten minutes.

Thajocoth
2010-10-08, 10:04 PM
Here's what a friend of mine did...

The players got knocked out by some shapeshifting demons...

The players wake up on the surface near where druids gave them the plot hook, and see the shapeshifting demons wearing what the druids were wearing.

The players slaughter the druids.

The players wake up on the surface nearby. They see that a party of shapeshifting demons just slaughtered the druids...

The players now fight their own demon doubles, which they briefly got to control. (They're modified to be enemies that are similar to the players. It was 4e, which has different rules for enemies.)

That sounded awesome... Too bad I wasn't in that game.

-----

You can do a lot of awesome stuff with this sorta thing.

Chambers
2010-10-08, 10:05 PM
Make everyone a double agent, working at cross-purposes.

Next time though, approach the players individually, so the other players don't know/think that there are possible double agents in the group.

Thajocoth
2010-10-08, 10:09 PM
Here's an idea... Make one player not a double agent. Make one a double agent for a secret group. Make another a triple agent. Make the 4th a quadruple agent. Make the fifth a quintuple agent. If there's a 6th, hextuple agent. Don't reuse agencies. Roll randomly for who gets which.

You might want to wear platemail that day. (Not in-character...)

Fuzzie Fuzz
2010-10-08, 11:03 PM
Make everyone a traitor for the same group, without letting any of them know there are other traitors. Thus, they're all on the same team, they just don't know it, and they think that if they reveal themselves, they'll be killed.

Alternatively, hand everyone a notecard at the beginning of the first session that says, "You are not the traitor." Wait while they try to figure out who the real one is.

Basically, either make none of them double agents or all of them.

Mercenary Pen
2010-10-09, 07:43 AM
You might also ask them, as part of their character creation to write you out a paragraph on 'why my character would make a good double-agent'- with a qualifier that this doesn't determine anything on your end...

The Big Dice
2010-10-09, 09:33 AM
Play Paranoia.

Everyone is a member of a secret society, which will give them specific missions to accomplish in the course of the overall group mission. Also, being in a secret society is illegal and punishable by death. Do not let anyone find out about your membership or your mission.

Everyone also has a mutant power. Mutant powers are illegal and punishable by death.

The second one doesn't work too well in most games. But if you change "punishable by death" to something more suitable for your campaign (or keep it as is) then you can get some extremely chaotic situations as people try to acheive their secret goals without compromising the mission the group is on or revealing that they have a secret mission of their own.