Conversations taking place offscreen

[AntiTrust]

In games and movies often times there will be a cutscene or a jump away to a conversation the antagonist is having with an associate that the protagonists don't see, but that the audience does. I'm not a film student, but I'd venture a guess that this is because it gives a way for characterization to get built as well as establish certain elements of the plot.

My question is has anyone tried to do this in an rpg game or do you find most players too tempted by the additional information that its not possible because they'll surely act on it?

[Spore]

The trick is to not give away vital input on how to take Dungeon Lord Nefarius down. Have them execute an innocent unimportant NPC with wife and children. My DM goes as far as to let us play other adventurers (because a member was out of town but we wanted to play so desperately) just to bust in the arch enemies' fortress of doom and steal one of the two magical artifacts of world domination.

While providing more details on our mainquest, the side adventure gave nothing noteworthy for our main group. We - as players - now know that the sorcereress queen needs two orbs to complete her plans. One is in the hands of our side group the other one in the hands of the main party. If she kills off my defenseless one nighter paladin I as player will be pissed and this will ensure her the burning revenge of a Halfling cavalier!

We also get some character background details in inner monologues and dream sequences which all players witness and were most content really only makes sense for the player of that character.

[hymer]

It's also to raise the tension, showing what the good guys are up against, and how their plan can't possibly work, and the like.

I had a GM who did that a few times. I thought it was silly. I tried to play a character in a group, not fill in the blanks in the GM's story. I didn't want that knowledge. I didn't even get to guess, and I couldn't use that knowledge, because it would be metagaming. If he hadn't told me, I might have been able to guess or find out on my own, and get that advantage by being clever. I had to play my character less than the best I could, all because he wanted to tell us about some NPCs, and couldn't be arsed to come up with a way to tell the PCs as well as the players.

But I'm sure a lot of people see it differently.

[NichG]

I've had a GM do this, and then actually create an in-game power you could get that would let you 'see the cutscenes' in-character.

Its interesting. The biggest issue is, I think its easy to forget to do. Now you not only have to track the consequences of what the villain is doing on-screen, but you also have to keep track of a greater degree of detail of what's going on off-screen.

Maybe it'd help make for a more consistent game in general, being forced to basically make that list of 'what is the villain doing right now'?

[Ranting Fool]

As a DM I've never really done this, yes the PC's have gotten hold of items that give vision of the past ect but then the PC's know about it In Character and I tend to only give either non-important fluff or just glimpses so the party has something to go off and look for.

That said this morning I did decide to write up a little bit of fiction for my players to read before the next session. But it is just going to be a "Day in the life a cohort" detailing what some of their minions get up to when they are waiting around to be ordered by the PC's (Just to flesh them out a bit) :smallbiggrin:

[jedipotter]

I have done this in PbP games. Each player will get tons of ''side'' stuff so they can role play, but not bog down the whole group. It works great.

[nedz]

It is hard to get right, so you should be cautious and not overuse it. You can't really do the straight shot sequence, but there are a number of techniques.


The overheard conversation (reward a Listen check or some divination)
The turncoat (an NPC who spills the beans, or at least how they see things. Unreliable turncoats, False turncoats and Turncoats with agendas are nice twists)
Intercepted communications (Letters, Riders, Pigeons, ...)
Diplomacy of other 'players' (not the skill, not the gamers)
Party infiltration


Amongst others.