Player Characters as Traitors in Role Playing Games

I have been surprised during RPG sessions a couple of times by a (to me) strange comment. The surprising element in those comments was the implicit assumption that the Player Characters (PCs) are in that and all cases on the same side. This notion was surprising to me, because early on when I was a player and then also a Game Master (GM), I had been used to the idea that some of the PCs may not be quite so much "team players" as manipulators, or even outright traitors to the rest of the PC group. Sometimes it could be that the personal goals of the PCs were somewhat at odds with each other, in other cases a PC could be a deadly enemy to the others. I call all these kinds of PCs Traitors here.

What follows, are three types of Traitors that can be used in RPGs. There could be others, but these are the ones I wrote down years ago when I was still playing RPGs (as a GM). 

But first, you may wonder why would there be any kind of Traitors in your game? The answer is simple: they make the story that much better, more interesting. If you just have a bunch of "white hats" (to use a Western film term) or Lawful Good D&D paladins fighting against the "black hat" baddies or monsters in your campaign, your campaign is probably going to be naïve and boring. Spice up your story with conflicting interests, and you can have captivating drama, even if the basic story is pretty simple and boring.

1. The Traitor by Opportunity

This kind of Traitor is a PC who sees an opportunity for personal gain or advancing his own agenda, or alternatively, is forced into treachery by someone else, such as a powerful NPC or whatever entity. For example, a PC who finds some "loot" in a more or less classical dungeon crawl adventure, but doesn't tell the other adventurers (who may be sworn to divide all loot equally, or implicitly assume such a pact) about it. Or it could be a case of an Investigator being blackmailed into leaking information about the group's investigation to a mysterious third party, or even the cabal being investigated.

2. Traitor as a Manipulator

This kind of Traitor is a PC who is clever and devious enough to be able to use the other PCs to advance his own agenda without the others knowing about it. He might simply be omitting information for personal gain (such as not telling his fellow adventurers that there is a bounty to be collected, so he can collect it alone), without anything more nefarious. But it could also be total disregard for the well-being or life of his group, putting them intentionally in danger simply for his own benefit. This kind of Traitor, even the more nefarious kind, is simply using the others, but he is not directly opposed to their goals, and is not quite their actual enemy. More like a self-interested a$$hole with something to gain from the work of others. An employer.

3. True Traitor

A True Traitor is a PC who in reality is an enemy of the other PCs, or the group he has infiltrated. He is a secret agent, pretending to be friend while scheming against his "friends". He is probably using only indirect ways of harming the others, trying to maintain plausible deniability if caught doing something suspicious. Only in certain situations is he likely to directly attack any of the others, for example if all of the others have been captured or killed, and only one remains to be dealt with, and there is a high probability of success, or because he is forced into attacking by the situation or by his superiors. This kind of Traitor may sabotage the plans and equipment of the group, mislead them, "accidentally" cause alarms during stealth operations, and so on. He may try to manipulate the others into suspecting each other, or to otherwise behave in a selfish manner, in order to thwart the group's plans. 

The main problem with a Traitor like this among other PCs is that if caught too early or at a wrong time in the campaign, there may be difficulty in replacing the PC once the group has dealt with him. It might even be possible among inexperienced players that the other players (and by extension, their characters) will not trust the new PC; confusing the player with the PC, thinking the player is the traitor. But people who have a good understanding of RPGs will not have this problem. Of course the PCs may have good reason for being suspicious of strangers once they realize their group has already once been infiltrated by their enemies.

Using Traitors

If you as the GM are running a campaign with only one Traitor in the PC group, and you keep sending notes back and forth with that PC's player, and only that one player, the other players will quickly (correctly) suspect that PC. So, you should make sure to have private talks with all the players, give all of them some notes once in a while. 

You should, from the start, acclimate your players to a culture of playing where the character sheets are private, and there is some amount of private information in the game that at times becomes public when the PC reveals something to the other PCs. For example, you can have a handout with printed dialogue ready, so that when one PC eavesdrops the guards of the temple the PCs are stealthily raiding, only that player sees the dialogue. Then you take the handout back, but the PC may tell the others what he heard, in which case the handout can become public (depending on other things, like the level of intelligence/memory/communication skills of the PC).

Good, Old Features in Dark Messiah of Might and Magic

Dark Messiah of Might and Magic was released on 24 October 2006 on PC, according to Wikipedia. I bought it on Steam recently and just played it through. It certainly looks old now, but it has some features some new games unfortunately do not.

The most important of these is that the player is allowed to freely use the basic functions Save Game (As) and Quick Save, as well Load Game and Quick Load. It is mind-boggling, why all games do not have these features.

The second most important feature the game has, is the option to use cheats or "developer's console" as the game calls it. This includes the excellent idea of Buddha mode, which only prevents the player character's death from normal damage (unlike god mode, which presumably makes him invulnerable to damage). This feature should be used in all games. Because of other (bad) features of the game, I used Buddha mode for almost the whole of the second half of the game.

The game also has a pretty nice experience system, in the form of skill points the player is awarded at various points, and can then use to increase skills. The cost to increase a skill, such as Strength, increases the higher it goes (typically up to level 3), and these skills are hierarchically connected so that one has to increase some skills to the maximum level in order to be able to gain new skills connected to them. This is otherwise a nice system, but the player is never warned that the game is short enough and the skill points / experience so rarely awarded that the player can never attain even close to all the skills. 

Alas, I cannot say the game is good. It's good enough to be played through once, but it is completely linear, like most games, I suppose. The only real options the player has, is how to use the aforementioned skill points. The paths is set so hard that there is hardly any difference even between the alternative endings. But at least there's some enjoyment, mostly made possible by the use of the features listed above, which is more than I can say about some more recent games.

Clues and Red Herrings in Call of Cthulhu (and Other Role Playing Games)

Not all clues should point to the right direction.

There have been red herrings in printed Call of Cthulhu (CoC) scenarios, but usually in scenarios all clues in handouts or otherwise point to the right direction to advance the investigation in question. This makes it fairly straightforward for the Investigators to follow them in order to solve the mystery or whatever case they are working on.

What in my opinion should be used more, are actually developed red herrings: not just clues pointing to fruitless, wrong directions, but sub-plots that require the Investigators to follow lines of inquiry that do not advance the main investigation. These lines of inquiry should probably be relatively short, and used only in big scenarios or full campaigns, obviously not in short stories that need to be concise. 

But as part of large story, especially a big campaign (consisting of several connected scenarios), these wrong paths can be used to allow the players to experience and the story's creator and Keeper (GM, game master) to develop parts of the game world otherwise neglected or unimportant. Such stories can be used to introduce new characters to the Investigators. These could be characters from other scenarios, or they could be historical figures. They can also be player characters (PCs) already created by the players, or they can be otherwise interesting characters that can be turned into new Investigators (PCs) if new PCs are needed.

Sometimes a sub-plot that is essentially a red herring from the point of view of the main story/investigation can still be an interesting investigation in its own right. For example, in an investigation into a suspicious cult's activity can lead to an investigation on a murder (or several murders) in the area. Although the Investigators manage to solve the murder, they find no connection to the cult. They may even become convinced (correctly) that there is no connection. This may seem like a failure, but then again they did solve the murder.

One very good type of red herring for an investigation into paranormal phenomena is obviously an alleged paranormal phenomenon that is actually completely natural. The magazine Skeptical Inquirer and the many writings of the famous investigator Joe Nickell provide many good examples of such investigations that can be used in RPGs. Using such stories would probably also educate young players who might otherwise not know about real investigations into paranormal claims.

It would be possible to publish red herrings separately so that Keepers can include them in their campaigns as they see fit.

It is also possible for the Keeper to combine two or even three scenarios, so that the players do not know it. It takes some work, but may be rewarding. The Investigators can begin their investigation normally, perhaps being hired by an NPC. As they gather more and more clues, they will probably be confused a bit, but eventually they should realize they are dealing with two separate mysteries (or whatever).

Alien: Isolation sucks

There are some good things in the game, but I won't bother mentioning them, because the flaws are too big.

The worst part of the game is the lack of proper save/load game features. It forces the player to keep repeating several minutes of annoying sneaking, and I hate repeating things in games. Level design is also poor, with an almost completely linear path you just have to follow. Stealth games should allow the player to come up with different ways of getting through levels, and all games should have actual decisions for the player to make. You can find neither in this game.

I almost never quit playing a game until I've seen it through, but this time I think I'll have to. And I'm just 5 hrs into the game, probably not even half way through. I just can't stand having to do the same things (walking down the same corridor, checking the same computer, all the while avoiding the alien that I can do nothing about, etc.) over and over again. 

So, I cannot recommend the game. In fact, I'd like to get my money back.