tricks to use when you know something OOC?

[randomhero00]

Note this is more along the lines of "theoretical optimization," probably not tricks you'd want to actually use in a game. Are there any funny tricks when you know something bad is going to happen OOC (out of character?) I just know there's got to be some funny stories from what people have tried to pull :)

For instance, a party member goes off alone and gets dominated by something evil, comes back to party and gives a realistic reason for following them...but you know its a deathtrap. What to do... what to do... Not sure if sense motive would work in that case or not, since in character you'd have no reason to be suspicious.

[Kelb_Panthera]

That sorta thing is why a DM should restrict OOC knowledge and make certain rolls out of sight. To use your example, I'd politely ask the other players to leave the room (snack-break anyone?) run the scene with the soon-to-be-dominated player (P1), and if/when he's dominated, I secretly roll sense motives for each of the other PC's upon his return to the group. If one of them passes I pass him a note that says P1 is acting funny, and let P2 decide what to do with the info.

[Malificus]

That sorta thing is why a DM should restrict OOC knowledge and make certain rolls out of sight. To use your example, I'd politely ask the other players to leave the room (snack-break anyone?) run the scene with the soon-to-be-dominated player, and if/when he's dominated, I secretly roll sense motives for each of the other PC's upon his return to the group. If one of them passes I pass him a note that says X is acting funny, and let him decide what to do with the info.

Though a group who's mature enough can handle OOC info. Since spotting ambushes and sense motives are open rolls for our group, the DM trusts us to play along if our character doesn't know. But if we were to demand more spot checks or act suspicious when he tells us we didn't see anything, he would stop telling us to make checks when we need to.

[randomhero00]

Though a group who's mature enough can handle OOC info. Since spotting ambushes and sense motives are open rolls for our group, the DM trusts us to play along if our character doesn't know. But if we were to demand more spot checks or act suspicious when he tells us we didn't see anything, he would stop telling us to make checks when we need to.

Yeah, I/we don't have any actual problems in game. The situation I described happened similarly, and I'm like "@#@#! Yeah, my character follows..."

[taltamir]

Yeah, I/we don't have any actual problems in game. The situation I described happened similarly, and I'm like "@#@#! Yeah, my character follows..."

I have done that too; quite often...
"@#@#! I know this is the wrong thing to do OOC, but my character has no way of knowing this... so I do it"

[Delta]

Actually something similar happened to me on one of my last gaming sessions, the group was moving deep through enemy territory when we heard that a nearby castle was held by an exiled noblewoman with close ties to my characters family. Now, I as a player knew of course that said noblewoman had come to hate my characters father in recent years (hell, I even got points for choosing her as an enemy during character creation...) but at that point, my character had no reason to believe the noblewoman would be anything but glad to see and help her.

I can tell you, it was personally one of the most unnerving, but at the same time a really great gaming experience to lead the group into certain disaster (none of the other players knew anything about this), and what made it even greater is that, in the end, the GM gave the situation another twist that even I didn't expect.

So even if you may find it hard to avoid using OOC knowledge to keep your character from doing something incredibly stupid, often it's really worth it. It's just a game, after all, and it's not about winning, but about having fun playing it, so often the disasters happening to your characters can be some the best moments.