3
\$\begingroup\$

I'm putting together an adventure where during one encounter, the entire party is blinded for a few seconds and a doppelganger disguised as one of them(randomly chosen) appears. However, the original character does not disappear - there will now be two of them.

How is a good way for the DM(me) to run this so it's not real easy for the players to figure out which of the two appearances the actual person is?

My party consists of a paladin, ranger, wizard, and barbarian. This is just one of the challenges in a series of possible arena matches they are put up against. I want it to play out less as combat and more of a game of social deduction.

My initial thought is to pull the one character aside and have them type out to me all the action he/she wants their character to do and then relay this in addition to what the doppel does as dialogue. This way the character is unable to help the party metagame the correct doppel.

EDIT: Another thought I just had - Take two cards, put the actual character on one and duplicate on the other, let the player pick one of the two cards and tell them to roleplay that character. So they know whether or not they are the duplicate but the party does not. I as the DM would play as the other character. This way, as long as the player is willing to roleplay a character that isn't theirs the deception should be there. My only concern with this is the player may not like having their character their but not actively playing as them :-/

\$\endgroup\$
8
  • \$\begingroup\$ Welcome to the site! Please take a moment to check out the tour and the help center to get an idea of how things work. In particular, questions here are required to have a single, objectively best answer. With this kind of request for ideas, there is no real way to judge the answers against each other. You might be better off asking this on a forum. \$\endgroup\$
    – Miniman
    Jul 28, 2015 at 13:48
  • \$\begingroup\$ With that said, for this question to be answerable at all (on a forum or here), you need to provide some details about what resources the party will have access to. (Spells, items, relevant class abilities, etc.) \$\endgroup\$
    – Miniman
    Jul 28, 2015 at 13:51
  • 3
    \$\begingroup\$ Related. \$\endgroup\$ Jul 28, 2015 at 14:00
  • \$\begingroup\$ Are you running this game on chat, considering your referencing to "typing out"? \$\endgroup\$
    – Erik
    Jul 28, 2015 at 14:23
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ If they were a good enough roleplayer I'd hand them a note with the aims of the doppelganger and have them rp both - would depend on them being able to not metagame though ;-) \$\endgroup\$
    – Rycochet
    Jul 28, 2015 at 15:59

0

Browse other questions tagged .