Deception: The encounter is not what it appears to be. A common form of deception is one
type of encounter masquerading as another. For example, the player characters
are traveling along a road and meet an old peddler who evades their questions
and tries to sell them her goods. The encounter appears to be an interaction
until bad guys spring out of the woods and attack. Surprise!
An encounter that includes a disguised or delayed danger falls into this
category. The peddler from the previous example might lie to the PCs, complicating
future matters if the PCs fall for the ruse. The peddler might be a villain or
monster. Perhaps the impostor is biding her time until she can attack the party,
or perhaps she simply wants to get close to the party so she can learn
something about them.
Another form of deception is the misdirection or red herring; the player
characters discover an apparent clue that leads to a false conclusion or throws them
off the scent. For example, in Poe’s classic story, The Murders at Rue Morgue, a witness reports that the criminal spoke German. In fact, the criminal,
being an ape, didn’t speak at all. The hero of the story eventually detected the
red herring by noting that every witness thought the criminal was speaking a
different language, but players in a heroic fantasy game might be completely
fooled.
Deceptions don’t often work unless the DM uses a variety of encounters. For
example, if a campaign doesn’t use many interaction encounters, the sample
deceptions described here are probably not going to work because the player
characters tend to be suspicious. Parties accustomed to fighting everything they meet
would probably attack the peddler at the outset and expose the deception or make
it irrelevant.
Deceptions also tend to fail when they are overused. Players who are
constantly on the lookout for deceptions not only detect them more readily, but their
distrust makes it harder to pick up legitimate clues and hints during the game.
Frustration sets in quickly if the players conclude that every NPC is a liar and
every clue is a red herring.
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